Wasp Barcode Technologies: The Barcode Solution People

What Are the Benefits Of Barcodes?

For more than 40 years barcodes have saved people of the world countless hours in line at their local grocery store, but today barcodes can be found outside of the cereal isle and on the warehouse floor when paired with inventory management software. No matter what your business’ size, needs or limitations may be, implementing a barcode based inventory system can add some much needed accuracy, efficiency and accountability to your operation. By improving upon these aspects of your business, customers will continue to seek out your business and purchase your products. According to The 2016 Wasp Barcode Small Business Report, 43% of small business owners believe improving the existing customer experience and retaining customers is the best strategy to improve revenue growth. It is no secret that inventory is one of the most important and hard to monitor aspects of any business. From high-end computer parts for your tech company to golf balls and putters for your miniature golf course, inventory is something all business owners must track and purchase. Barcode labels can be as unique as your business while also being simple enough to utilise that anybody can master the technology in a few minutes. There are various different label printers to choose from depending on the size of your inventory and the amount of barcodes you require. There are two main types of barcode printers: desktop and industrial. While desktop printers are perfect for businesses with small inventories, industrial printers use larger rolls of paper, therefore can print out a larger number of barcodes with fewer refills. While there are various types of printers to fit the various needs of your business, there are also various types of ink that can be used on a barcode. Whether you require durability, flexibility or even heat resistance, the synthetic material you choose can deliver several different kinds of benefits to your barcode. Obviously the more extreme the demands of your barcodes are, the higher the cost will be, so choosing the correct label can cut unnecessary spending. Once you have your barcodes printed and they have been applied to your products, your ability to track your merchandise and communicate with those you are supplying becomes incredibly simple. The addition of a single barcode can allow you to know exactly where in the world your products may be and when they have arrived to their specific destination. Entering items into your inventory management system is as easy as a simple scan of the barcode. Smartphones, mobile computers and handheld scanners are all capable of granting employees access to your entire inventory database through a single scan. These portable devices are incredibly popular as 67% of warehouses use mobile devices to manage inventory. Because smartphones are becoming increasingly common, nearly two thirds of Americans owned smartphones in 2015, scanning barcodes with apps is a simple way to save money on scanners. Customers can use similar barcode-reading apps to access more information on your product including price comparisons and reviews from fellow consumers. Adding barcodes to your arsenal of business-oriented technologies can increase accuracy and efficiency in your deliveries and add accountability for those responsible for delivering your cargo. With the rising popularity of online shopping, shipping products directly to your consumer’s doorstep is becoming a common practice. Of the millions of online orders retail giant Target fills every year, just 15% are marked for store pick up. Tracking inventory is no simple task and the more your inventory increases the more necessary an inventory management system becomes.

Related Article: What Is A Barcode Scanner?

Time spent manually tracking your inventory and constantly checking to see if shipments made it to their respective destinations in a timely manner can be greatly reduced by tracking your inventory digitally. While other companies stick traditional pen and paper systems to complete crucial tasks behind the scenes, barcodes can provide you with a timesaving edge over the completion. Tracking inventory digitally will save you from spending your time browsing through the countless spreadsheets of inventory tracking information that pile up throughout the year. With less time spent on these crucial tedious tasks, you have more time to spend delivering superior customer service and completing more pressing matters to help grow your business. The dozens of small human errors that are made when tracking inventory throughout a calendar year can add up at the end of the year and cause countless problems in your warehouse. By simply removing this human error from the equation, your business can begin to run at peak efficiency. A barcode system would allow your business to know exactly how much inventory has been shipped, returned or lost. With all of this information at your fingertips, you can avoid profit killers like unnecessary re-orders and stock outages. An added benefit of barcodes is the tracking abilities of the inventory tracking software. With more accurate information in your arsenal you will know exactly how many products were sent and exactly how many were received. With this information you can hold employees liable for any missing products and employee theft can become a thing of the past. Barcode technology has been steadily developing since its conception more than 40 years ago and this technology is rapidly being blended into the business world. From basic inventory tracking to tracing employee productivity through performance indicators, barcodes can be used for whatever you may need. Whatever you may be using barcodes for, by choosing to adopt this versatile and simple technology you will provide your company with an obvious edge over the competition.