Send personalized emails with unique barcodes or QR codes to each recipient in Adobe Campaign — for example, to distribute discount coupons, event tickets, or membership cards that can be scanned at point of sale.

Use recipient customization fields to store individual codes, then reference them in delivery HTML using the built-in barcode generation URLs.

Preparation

Each recipient receives a personalized email with a unique code displayed as plain text, EAN-128 barcode, or QR code:

Email delivery preview showing personalized barcode

Codes can be scanned by any device, including iPhones using the default Camera app:

iPhone scanning barcode from email

Extend recipient schema

Add a field to store the coupon code:

<srcSchema _cs="Recipients (fco)" entitySchema="xtk:srcSchema"
  extendedSchema="nms:recipient" name="recipient" namespace="fco" xtkschema="xtk:srcSchema">
  <element name="recipient">
    <attribute label="Coupon Code" name="couponCode" type="string"/>
  </element>
</srcSchema>

Walkthrough

In the email delivery designer, use the Include tool to insert barcodes:

Email delivery setup in Adobe Campaign Insert barcode include in delivery HTML

Adobe Campaign generates barcode images on the server using these URL patterns:

  • Barcode
  • QR Code
    • Generic: http://instance.com/barcode/tQRCode/hheight/wwidth/eH/vcouponCodeInBase64/barcode.gif
    • Example: http://10.23.87.90:8080/barcode/tQRCode/h100/w100/eH/vOTE4NDI=/barcode.gif, where OTE4NDI= is the base 64 value of 91842
    • Generated QR code as GIF
    • In JS: 
      <% var qrCodeMemBuf = new MemoryBuffer(); qrCodeMemBuf.fromString(recipient.couponCode); %>
http://10.23.87.90:8080/barcode/tQRCode/h100/w100/eH/v<%= qrCodeMemBuf.toBase64() %>/barcode.gif

Reference: https://docs.campaign.adobe.com/doc/AC/en/DLV_Sending_emails_Inserting_a_barcode_in_an_email.html

Validation & troubleshooting

Test barcode scanning with actual devices before sending. QR codes require the coupon code value to be base64-encoded.

Going further

Generate coupon codes

Coupon codes can come from any source. One approach uses https://www.generatedata.com with fields for email and random numbers.

In a workflow, chain these activities: Data Loading File (or query from staging) → Enrichment (Simple Join 1-1 on @email) → Change dimension → Update data:

Workflow for generating coupon codes

Enrichment activity configuration for coupon code join