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Barcodes Revolutionising The Retail Sector

Barcodes have revolutionised the retail landscape. This has brought speed and efficiency to retailers across the globe. Sale / checkouts at retail outlets has become faster & quicker with the use of barcode numbers. Barcodes used at the retail point of sale represent a global trade item number (GTIN) which acts as a key to information in the retailer’s database. 
GS1, a pioneer in the field of standardization,administers the use of several kinds of barcodes including one-dimensional (1D) barcodes which comprises of EAN/UPC, DataBar, GS1-128 and ITF 14; and two-dimensional barcodes (2D) containing DataMatrix and QR code etc. Each one of these barcodes is designed with different areas of application.
One dimensional or linear barcodes are clearly visible on most of the household products. They have bars representing numbers carrying some information. Here are the different barcodes that come under this category:
1) EAN/UPC Barcodes
European(or International) Article Number (EAN)/ Universal Product Codes (UPC) are well-established and most widely used GS1 barcodes. These are instantly noticeable and have made their presence felt across the retail sector. They were basically created for grocery stores to provide quick receipt printing. Its subtypes used by GS1 include- EAN-13, UPC-A, EAN-8, and UPC-E.
2)GS1 DataBar barcodes
True to their name, the DataBar barcodes hold a plethora of information like an item's batch number, expiry date, and several Point of Sale attributes like item weight etc. These are most commonly seen on coupons and fresh food items.Types of GS1 DataBar barcodes are - Omnidirectional, Stacked Omnidirectional, Expanded Stacked, and Expanded.
3)  ITF-14 and GS1-128
These are 1D barcodes that are highly versatile and instrumental in maintaining supply chains globally. These are only applied in general distribution and logistics environments and not used at the retail point-of-sale (POS).The GS1-128 barcode holds more information than ITF-14 and can be used to carry any of the GS1 ID keys, with specifications like serial numbers, expiration dates, etc.
Two Dimensional barcodes is the recent inclusion in the history of barcodes. They appear more geometric in form of squares and rectangles with many individual dots acting as ‘optical markers’ and have an ability to hold more information than the previous 1D barcodes. They remain readable even when printed at a small size or stamped on a product.
Owing to the competence in storing more information, they are used by firms to provide information in a wide range of industries like manufacturing and warehousing to logistics and healthcare.
Most common types of 2D Barcodes are-
1) GS1 DataMatrix
It contains black and white square modules arranged in a rectangular or square pattern. It allows for the recognition of code even with over 60% damage. This is used for lotteries, packaging industry, esp. pharmaceutical, postal tracking, ID cards, etc.
2) GS1 QR (Quick Response) Code
This is capable of handling alpha-numeric keys and a wide variety of codes. Mostly QR codes are used to encode links to the documents/pages on the Internet. These can also be recognized even when the code is damaged. They are mostly used in areas like online payments, consumer advertising, website logins, virtual stores, etc.
Next time, when you visit a market, do check the barcodes attached on the products and leave the store as a knowledgeable and informed customer.  

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Location: India

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