Barcodes have not always been available to retailers. In the past, retailers used to manage inventory manually. However, with advanced barcode scanning softwares around now, barcoding is the standard option in retail. It has proven to make the operation of retail businesses around the world more effective.
Here is how barcode technology plays an essential role in the retail business:
Simplified Goods Tracking
Poor or lack of tracking goods was a big problem that was solved by barcoding. With data collected manually, it was difficult to track items along the entire chain. With barcoding, every item has a specific code to track it till the last stage. Therefore, it is easy to monitor where every barcoded item is in the retail chain. It is also easy to know who is responsible for the item at that stage. Therefore, the technology has helped to eliminate massive losses due to loss of items. It has also helped to apportion responsibility to various people in the retail chain.
In-store Barcode Advertising
Retailers can leverage barcodes for in-store advertising to reach out to customers in a more interactive, interesting, and unique way. With the use of smartphones, just by downloading and installing a barcoding reading app that can read barcodes people can discover a lot more information about the product being advertised. For example, QR codes can be used inside the store to promote newly launched product lines or to increase visibility on social media by linking the code to social media profiles.
Better Business Strategies with Refined Data
Another way that barcoding technology has changed the retail industry is by providing accurate data for informed decision making. Unlike the manual data collection methods, barcodes provide more refined data. One of the crucial elements of a successful retail business person is a better and informed decision. Your decision must be informed and driven by data from the business. That’s what barcoding is providing. You can have real-time data about your business whenever you want. All you need is to access the software and extract the information. For example, you can tell which item is in stock, and the stock is required while on the go.
Faster Stock Audit
Businesses with high inventory can do regular stock count faster with a barcode scanner online. They can save time by avoiding manual stock count. It is very important to do a stock audit to find any difference in-stock quantity due to loss, damage or theft. Online barcode scanners with advanced features provide faster stock count section by section, shelf by shelf or location by location. Data obtained by barcode scan gets fed in the software system and it is automatically compared with data in software to give an accurate report of stock audit. The current barcoding also accumulates various figures, including prices of the items, making it possible to process large orders within a short time.
Improved Customer Experience with Barcode Shopping
The barcode or the QR codes can be used to make the shopping experience for customers easy yet more interesting. The barcode or the QR codes can be used on the products or beside the product in the store to lead customers to more information regarding the product as it is common for people to have questions whenever they purchase something. Besides, virtual shopping stores can also be created with the barcodes as Decathlon did. It used this idea of deploying QR codes on price tags when they introduced an app that helped customers skip waiting in long queues with its ‘Scan and Go’ feature. The app helped customers to scan QR codes on price tags and make payments directly from the app. This kind of customer experience leads to customer loyalty which in turn aids in growing a business.
Retailers are flocking to barcodes and QR codes as they are not very heavy on the pocket to implement even for smaller retail stores. These are highly versatile and can be applied in various use-cases as we’ve already seen above but not limited to those. The fact that there is already a considerable share of larger retailers that have successfully started the use of barcode campaigns, it has become more crucial for the rest of the retail market to keep up with the barcoding technology.