Before the invention of Barcode Scanner, the retailers had hard times in tracking their inventory. Keeping a count on each and every item, it's availability and sold out status, really blow their heads off with pressure. Weekly, bi-weekly or monthly depending upon the size of business, the owners had to close down the stores to count the products manually. In 70’s, this mundane task got a break and the beep technology rolled into the giant stores to make the process of inventory easy and nimble. It's like Beep! The product got scanned for bill... Beep! The printed list of available and out of stock products is in… Gradually, with the advent of technology, the codes got enhanced and the beep technology (termed as Barcode Scanner) popped into small scaled retail business as well. Today we have different types and forms of Barcode Scanners, each wrapped with unique specifications helping retailers to speed up the process of inventory and relieving them from the excessive and overburden stock management. Types of Barcode Scanners:
Laser Barcode Scanners are found mostly in retail and grocery stores where these beep sounds come from wireless barcode scanner or Bluetooth barcode scanner device. It can read the barcode in low lighting from the distance of 3.5 feet. This technology has three different configurations: Rastering, moving beam and omnidirectional.
Linear Imager Barcode Scanners are better useful in reading damaged or poorly printed codes or barcodes under plastic film or covering. Even, they are found in affordable prices compared to Laser Barcode Scanners. These scanners can read the codes from near distance up to 2 feet. Ideally for retailers to make the entire inventory process seamless; from selling merchandise to processing the order and from shipping to automating the stock level.
2D Barcode Scanner has a unique feature of capturing the barcode and reading the data at faster speed than any other type of scanner. It has a flexibility to scan and read the data using smartphones and later decode the same to the retailer. These types of Scanners come in various form: Wireless Barcode Scanners(Handheld or say Bluetooth Barcode Scanners), USB barcode Scanners, Pocket-Sized Barcode Scanners and Wired Barcode Scanners. Let's take a look at some important aspects of Barcode Scanners Barcode Scanners are usually used in busy stores where the selling and purchases are made in huge scale. To keep a track of inventory, rack after rack or shelf after shelf is next to impossible and the cost to manage the stock manually can exceed the expenditure. The stores use barcode scanner during point-of sale for a quick checkout and accurate product scan. How does it help retailers to overcome the stock issues and reduce cost? 1. Accuracy We human beings are prone to make mistakes. And, this technology eliminates the human errors and give retailers accurate results of stock updates, daily sales and other reports in nanoseconds. It is swift, reliable and minimizes the costly errors of making calculation and counting mistakes to none. 2. Customer Satisfaction It hastens the checkout process which gives a customer relief from standing in queue resulting in frequent store visit and shop and increase in revenue. 3. Reorder the Stock Stock out causes a loss of valuable customer and sales which can be addressed with barcode scanning technology. Once the product is scanned for bill, the stock gets updated in real-time and in case of low stock, notification is sent to the retailer immediately via communication mediums. This helps retailers to take decisions on time and improve sales. 4. Minimize Labour Cost Barcode Scanners are easy to use and understand. It hardly takes a time to master the skill of reading barcodes using barcode scanners. Furthermore, employees don't have to get acquainted with the entire procedure of pricing and stocking. This reduces the hours of employee training and cost to train them. 5. Inventory Control Using this technology, retailers get real-time updates of stock as in which products are in stock and which are out-of-stock. This reduces the overflow of stock in the warehouse and eliminates unnecessary expense on ordering extra inventory. 6. Quality Control Barcode scanning technology even speaks! It informs the retailer which quality tests are required to check the quality of products and in case if the test fails where to report the cause. 7. Better Decision Making As it is useful in faster data collection, it helps retailer in taking better decisions to boost the sales and improve customer satisfaction. Barcode Scanning technology gives entire information of a customer's purchase and is not limited to billing and inventory only. The next time when the customer walks into the store, the store representative can guide the customer with the purchases and what combination of products will help in saving more money. This sort of deal with the customer can act as a tactful source of store advertisement. You have probably got an idea of types and forms of barcode scanners and how retailers can overcome stock issues and cost control. One more interesting tidbit about barcode scanner is, How retailers can scan better Barcodes? The Helpful Tips! 1. Maintain your distance Not too far, not too close. Make sure you are at a distance from where barcode scanner can read the codes easily and accurately. 2. Rogue Barcodes One barcode for one product, not every time! You may find more than one barcode labelled on single product. Be careful in scanning the right one. 3. Stick to a single barcode type Most of the barcode scanners may not support specific barcode symbology. Try to be adhesive with one type and forget the rest. This not only speeds up the scanning process but will help you to discard rogue barcodes if there are any in different formats. 4. Choose the right barcode label You may come across with different barcode symbology labelled on the packs, be sure that they are real barcodes and not duplicate. Though, real barcodes are expensive but they are certified which can help you to reduce the cost in future. 5. Long distance scanning Not all types of scanners are focused to scan from a distance. If you read barcodes from a distance of more than 2 feet than this may lead to poor barcode reading and you may be misguided with product content too. 6. Light Conditions Some barcode scanners need proper light to read the barcodes effectively. So, be careful when you plugin the barcode scanner device. Some scanners may not be conducive to certain lighting conditions and the read won't be that accurate. In Closing: This was a quick tour for retailers to know everything about Barcode Scanners. Today, many inventory management systems supports barcode scanning technology. Orderhive, the smartest inventory management software works flawlessly with barcode technology. Retailers can use barcode scanner while scanning received inventory, searching products and processing orders.
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