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Why Should You Have A Barcode On Your Product?

Every time we buy something from a market, we come across a barcode label but rarely do we give any attention to it. Yet this Barcode plays a crucial role in the effective and efficient working of the retail supply chain from small businesses to large multinational organisations.

Before the emergence of barcodes, overseeing retail shops was a test. This difficult and error-prone way of stock control has paved the way for present-day barcodes and supply chain management.

Barcodes make doing business and billing products a lot more efficient and error-prone for companies. They provide a unique identification for linking information on goods, from individual items to substantial stocks of thousands or even millions of items. They play an important role and offer advantages when compared to manually putting information into the system.

Let’s understand the importance of barcode scanning and why manufacturers should have a barcode on the products but before that, we should understand what exactly a barcode is.

What is a barcode?

Barcodes
are an automotive identification technology structured to contain a specific kind of product data and information. It is represented in strings of characters, designating all types of information encrypted in barcode symbols in which each symbol follows an algorithm for balancing the encoding and storing of these characters.

If you observe a barcode, you will notice that it is made up of black vertical lines of varying thickness, interspersed with white spaces used for 100% accurate and speedy data entry.
The barcode number is interpreted by the scanner using a laser beam that gathers up the reflections of the bar, the scanner then translates the reflected light to details on the device or to be processed in the documents. Barcodes also enable devices to record the time of sale, precisely what is being sold in the shop, the price of the product, along with all the related details as required by the shop within a second or just a ‘beep’ of the scanner.

Barcodes are used to encode information such as product numbers, serial numbers, and batch numbers. They play a very important role in supply chains, allowing parties such as distributors, suppliers, transport companies and hospitals to instantly recognize goods as they pass across the value chain.

Types of Barcodes that exists in the market:

With diverse combinations possible, the types of barcodes in use today are vast. We have 1, 2 and 3D barcodes. Each one of these barcodes is designed with its different areas of application. The first-ever barcode to be developed was 1D (one-dimensional) or linear barcode is often seen on household products and credit/debit cards. These bars represent numbers or characters, and usually do not store much information, whereas with the advent of technology and innovation came 2D barcodes, which look like squares and rectangles with many individual dots acting as ‘optical markers’ instead of bars. These barcodes can hold more information than any 1D barcode. They remain readable even when they are printed at a small size or are stamped on a product.

Owing to the huge amount of information they can hold, they are used by firms to provide information to its users, and are relevant in a wide range of industries like manufacturing and warehousing to logistics and healthcare. On the other hand, 3D barcodes are engraved on the package and the scanner identifies the new characters in the string in the lower regions of the code from which the data can be transferred.

The most commonly used barcodes in modern times are the UPC (Universal Product Code) a 12-digit barcode number and EAN (European Article Number) 13-digit barcode numbers. Together, they are known as GTIN (Global Trade Item Numbers). These barcodes are instantly noticeable and have made their presence felt across all of the retail sector. These barcodes were created for grocery stores to provide quick receipt printing and inventory tracking.

With all these different types, barcodes eliminate the chances of any manual human error and provide accurate product information into the database. Barcodes made doing business extremely efficient and seamless for manufacturers.The technology behind barcodes is constantly evolving and soon it will change the future of supply chain management across the globe.

Get a barcode
today from the only authorized barcode agency GS1 India and enhance your efficiency and profitability in supply chain management.

To buy GS1 barcode online, click on this link below: (https://www.gs1india.org/content/get-a-barcode)

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