Barcodes are applied to products as a means of rapid identification. They have been used in retail stores as part of the purchasing process, in warehouses to track inventory, and on invoices to assist with accounting. So what is a barcode and what are its benefits, let's find out with Giaiphapdonggoi.net!
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1. What is a barcode?
A barcode, consisting of bars and spaces, is a machine-readable representation of numbers and characters. These days, stripes like the one pictured below on product packages sold in supermarkets, convenience stores, and other stores are very common. These are barcodes. Barcodes consist of bars and spaces of different widths that can be read by an optical barcode scanner.
What is a barcode?
Barcode information is read by an optical (laser) scanner that is part of a computer system. A handheld scanner or barcode pen is moved over the code, or the code itself is moved manually across a scanner built into the checkout counter or other surface. The computer will then immediately store or process the data in the barcode. Barcodes printed on supermarkets and retail customers in the United States are items under the Universal Product Code, or UPC, which assigns a unique code to each food or grocery product. In the UPC system, the five digits to the left are assigned to a specific manufacturer or manufacturer, and the five digits to the right are used by that manufacturer to identify a specific type or product. This is usually the only information contained in the barcode.
2. Barcode History
The concept of barcodes was developed by Norman Joseph Woodland, who drew a series of lines in the sand to represent Morse and Bernard Silver codes. A patent was granted in 1966 and NCR became the first company to develop a commercial scanner for reading barcode symbols. A pack of Wrigley's gum was the first item ever scanned, at Marsh's supermarket in Troy, Ohio, home of the NCR.
Barcodes are now a common part of regular commercial transactions. Grocery stores use codes to get prices and other data about goods at the consumer's point of purchase. At a typical supermarket checkout, a scanner is used to identify a product through its barcode, and the computer then looks up the item's price and puts that number into the cash register, where it becomes part of the customer's purchase invoice.
3. Barcode components
① Quiet Zone (margin)
The silent area is an empty margin located at either end of the barcode. The minimum margin between barcodes (the distance from the outermost bar of one symbol to the outermost bar of another) is 2.5 mm. If the width of the Quiet Zone is insufficient, the barcode will be difficult to read by the scanner.
② Start character / Stop character
The Start Character and the Stop Character represent the start and end of the data, respectively. The characters vary depending on the barcode type.
③ Check Digit
The Check Number is a digit that checks if the encoded barcode data is correct.
4. Types of Barcodes
There are two types of barcodes, 1D (1D) and 2D (2D).
Types of Barcodes
1D (1D) Barcode: A series of black and white bars that can store information such as a product's type, size, and color. You should be able to find 1D barcodes on top of the generic product codes (UPCs) of product packaging. This helps track packages through package delivery service providers like UPS and FedEx, US Post and Canada Post.
2D Barcode (2D): It will be more complex than 1D barcode. They include more information than text, such as prices, inventory levels, and product images. Currently, there are many barcode scanners that support 2D barcodes. Although not all barcode scanners can read 2D barcodes, Lightspeed Retail POS is compatible with some wireless barcode scanners that support 2D barcodes.
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5. Business benefits of using barcodes
While barcodes were originally developed to speed up the sales and transaction process, they come with other potential benefits for businesses, including:
Business benefits of using barcodes
Improved accuracy: Using barcodes to process product data is much more accurate than having a salesperson enter it manually, which is prone to human error.
Real-time data: Due to the speed at which information is processed, data on inventory levels or sales is available immediately.
Reduced training requirements: Thanks to barcode scanners' ease of use (point and click), employees don't need much training on how to use barcode scanners.
Better inventory management: With improved accuracy and real-time data, retailers benefit from faster cycle counting and cycle estimates.
More accurate inventory rotation
Low implementation costs: Barcode generation is quick and simple, in addition to savings through improved transaction speeds, as well as improved inventory and sales data accuracy, Retailers can predict savings after implementation.
Barcodes make our lives more efficient and shopping much faster. So above, Giaiphapdonggoi.net has provided you with useful information about barcodes to you.
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