The inability to read a barcode is a negative challenge for suppliers, manufacturers, retailers, and consumers.
The flow of the products through the supply chain may be in jeopardy, for instance, when a barcode cannot be scanned. The suppliers, manufacturers, retailers, and customers are all impacted by the inability to read a barcode on a global scale. Failure to scan barcodes always results in an adverse global impact on marketers, producers, retailers, and buyers.
The accuracy of barcodes remains fundamental to the trading process. At best, data has to be stored manually, and at worst, consumers may reject a complete consignment of goods, resulting in lost sales and possible financial penalties.
For retailers, poor-quality barcodes that fail to scan result in poor customer service at the point of sale leading to frustrated customers and staff, prompting a tendency to dislike and avoid the product.
Common problems for poor barcodes qualities are: –
1. Reversed-out images, which imply that white bars against a colored background would not work, are one way to introduce low-quality barcodes.
2. There are quiet zones on both sides of every barcode, and any print within these zones can prevent the scanner from deciphering the barcode symbol.
3. Refrain from printing on folds or in the corner areas.
4. Verify the print quality.
A good quality barcode should scan at 100% regardless of the scanner used. The speed and ease with which scanners can read depend on the quality of the printed symbol, scanner capability, and maintaining the correct contrast between the dark bars and the light background.