# Do QR codes work for small businesses?

> QR codes failed the first time because nobody had an app to read them. Every phone camera reads them now, so the question is no longer whether they work — it's whether yours is big enough, and says the right thing.

Published 3 November 2026 by Harry Northam, Founder, Promotello.
Source: https://www.promotello.com/blog/do-qr-codes-work-small-business

## Key takeaways

- QR codes failed in 2012 because they needed a separate app. Phone cameras read them natively now, so the old objection no longer applies.
- A code on its own gets ignored. Say what the person gets by scanning it, in words, right next to the code.
- Print it big enough: roughly one centimetre of code for every ten centimetres between the code and the reader.
- Send people to the thing you promised, not to your homepage.
- Test it through the glass, in daylight, on a cheap phone, before you print fifty.

QR codes had a first life, around 2011, and it did not go well. They turned up on bus shelters and cereal boxes, and almost nobody scanned them, because scanning meant finding and installing a separate app first. The code was asking for a download before it would tell you what it was for.

That objection is gone. **Every current iPhone and Android phone reads a QR code from the camera app** — point, tap the link that appears, done. Nothing to install, nothing to sign up for. That one change is why codes that failed a decade ago work now.

So the question is no longer whether QR codes work. It is whether yours is in the right place, big enough, and saying something worth scanning.

## What makes a code get scanned

### Say what they get

This is the whole thing. A code on its own is a black square with no promise attached, and people do not scan squares out of curiosity.

Compare:

- **"Scan here"** — ignored.
- **"Scan for a free coffee on your tenth visit"** — scanned.
- **"Scan to join our loyalty card. No app, no sign-up."** — scanned, and it answers the objection before it is raised.

Put the words in a size people can read from where they are standing, and put them directly above or below the code, not on the other side of the poster.

### Make it big enough

The rule of thumb printers use is roughly **one part code to ten parts distance**: however far away the reader will be, the code wants to be about a tenth of that across.

| Where it goes                       | Scanned from | Code width |
| ----------------------------------- | ------------ | ---------- |
| Table card or receipt               | 30cm         | 3cm        |
| By the till                         | 50cm         | 5cm        |
| A3 poster on a wall                 | 1.5m         | 15cm       |
| Shop window, read from the pavement | 2m           | 20cm       |

Err larger. A code that is slightly too big looks confident; one that is slightly too small simply fails, and the person does not try twice.

### Put it where someone is standing still

Scanning takes both hands and about four seconds of attention. That rules out most places.

Good spots:

- **By the till**, at the moment someone is waiting for a card machine anyway.
- **On the table**, if people sit down.
- **In the window at eye level**, where someone reading your opening hours is already standing.
- **On the receipt or the bag**, read later at home.

Bad spots: above head height, behind the counter, on a moving vehicle, on a screen that times out, or anywhere someone is walking past rather than standing.

### Test it before you print fifty

Print one and try it properly:

- **Through the window glass**, if that is where it is going, with the sun on it. Glare kills more codes than bad printing.
- **On a cheap old phone**, not just your own.
- **In your actual lighting**, which in most shops is dimmer than you think.
- **From the real distance**, standing where a customer would stand.

If it hesitates for more than a second or two, make it bigger.

## Send them to what you promised

The most common mistake is a code that goes to a homepage. Someone scanned because you offered a free coffee on their tenth visit; dropping them on a general website makes them hunt, and they will not.

Send the scan straight to the thing: the loyalty card sign-up, the specific offer, the booking page. One tap from the promise to the thing itself.

It is also worth sending scans through a link you control rather than printing a raw destination, so the code keeps working if the page behind it ever moves — and so you can count the scans.

## How do you know if it is working?

A QR code gives you something a paper flyer never could: a number. If your code goes through a link that counts scans, you can see exactly how many people used it, and when.

Watch three things:

1. **Scans per week.** Flat near zero usually means placement or wording, not the offer.
1. **What happens after the scan.** If people scan and then leave without joining or claiming, the page behind the code is the problem, not the poster.
1. **Where the scans come from.** Window versus till versus receipt will not be equal, and the winner is often not the one you expected.

If you have a window poster and a till card and one gets ten times the other, print more of the one that works and stop printing the other.

## The mistakes worth avoiding

- **A bare code with no words.** The code is the mechanism; the words are the reason.
- **Too small.** The commonest cause of a code that "does not work".
- **Linking to a homepage.** Make the scan land on the promise.
- **A code printed on a dark or busy photo.** Codes want quiet contrast — dark on light, with clear space around them.
- **Never testing it.** Print one, scan it from where a customer stands, then print the rest.
- **Leaving it up after the offer ends.** A dead code teaches people not to bother with your next one.

QR codes are not magic, and they are not a marketing strategy on their own. They are a way of removing the steps between "that sounds good" and actually doing it — which is also what [off-peak offers](/blog/how-to-fill-quiet-hours) and [loyalty cards](/blog/digital-vs-paper-loyalty-cards) are trying to do. The code is the shortest path between a poster and a phone, and that is worth getting right.

## Questions and answers

### Do people actually scan QR codes?

They scan codes that offer something specific and obvious. A code labelled "Scan for a free coffee on your tenth visit" gets used; a bare black square in a corner does not. The code is not the offer, the words next to it are.

### Do customers need an app to scan a QR code?

No. Every current iPhone and Android phone reads QR codes straight from the camera app. Point the camera, a link appears, tap it. This is the single biggest change since QR codes first failed, and it is why they are worth another look.

### How big should a QR code be on a poster?

A common printing rule of thumb is that the code should be about a tenth as wide as the distance it will be scanned from. A code read from two metres away, such as one in a window, wants to be around 20cm across. A code on a table card read from 30cm can be 3cm.

### Where should a QR code in a shop go?

Where someone is already standing still and has a free hand: by the till while they wait, on the table, on the receipt, or at eye level in the window. A code above head height or behind the counter will not get scanned, however good the offer.