Imagine that you have ordered a mobile phone that you have been long waiting for! You placed the order, the order was confirmed, but suddenly a few minutes later you get a message that the mobile is out of stock. You will definitely feel disappointed and irritated. But, how did this happened? That’s the perfect example of improper inventory management! And the only solution to it is a barcode scanning app.
Barcode scanning app is a perfect solution for the manufacturing and supply chain industry that deals with the products and the customers. Stock-out condition is the worst scenario for them as it not only hampers their brand image but also brings loss to them. However, with a barcode scanning app, you can probably eliminate such situations for your business. But, what is a barcode scanning app and how does it work? If you too have questions like those in your mind, then you are in the right place!
From benefits, to cost, in today’s article, we will be covering everything about barcode scanning app development for better inventory management. So, without wasting much of your time, let’s get started!
How do Barcode Scanner Apps Work?
To know the working of barcode scanner apps, let us first discuss its basic definition. A barcode scanner app is a simple tool that reads the barcode of certain products located at the back of them. That particular barcode contains much of the information about the product, its location in the warehouse, its quantity, and the dealer.
As soon as you install the barcode scanner app on your smartphone, you will see that it has a camera to capture the code. The camera of the mobile app will capture different types of codes viz. Codabar, Code39, Ean, I2of5, Upc, and so on. After that, you will get all the information that is stored in the barcode directly on your mobile. You can even send the details to any of your enterprise software solutions or warehouse management software if you want!
We can also understand the working of barcode scanning apps in this way!
Suppose, you have 50 items and you have to store all the details in your system. Now, instead of typing the details of each item in your system, you can simply scan their codes, if you invest in a barcode scanning app. Similarly, adding new items, keeping a record of the quantity, and eliminating stock-out conditions, everything can be achieved by a barcode scanning app.
Do you still need reasons to invest in a barcode scanning app development? Don’t worry, we will give you some of them. Read on to know more!
Why is there a Need for a Barcode Scanning App?
Now that you have an idea of the working of barcode scanning apps, let us quickly discuss some of its advantages in manufacturing and supply chain businesses.
1. Eliminate Delivery Delays
The first and foremost benefit of a barcode scanning app is it eliminates delivery delays. It is often seen that the main reason for the delay in product delivery is because the businesses confirm the order of the products that are not in stock.
However, this situation can be easily eliminated with the use of barcode scanning apps. Since you will have all the information about your products, you will not confirm the ones that are not in stock. And that’s how the deliveries will be on time.
2. Prevent Stock-outs and Overstocking
Another great benefit of investing in barcode scanning app development is it eliminates the stock-out and overstocking conditions. Since you will have all the information about your warehouse stocks., you will have an idea of when to re-order the products and when not. That way, you will also save a lot of money and time.
3. Offers Accurate Forecasting
Most of the businesses today still rely on excel sheets and traditional systems that may not effectively reflect their warehouse operations and inventory level. In such a situation, it becomes a tedious task to know the forecast of the products.
However, with a barcode scanning app, you can anytime know the current level and usage of certain products, and can easily decide the next forecasts of those products. A scanner app offers you the details of which products are utilized fastly, and which not, so you can reorder them appropriately.
4. Enhances Customer Experience
Fewer people know this but with a dedicated barcode scanning app, you can also enhance your customer’s shopping experience. How? Well, the customers can download your barcode scanning apps and can seamlessly explore all your products by scanning their codes.
Similarly, they can even add all the items, and can checkout using the same scanning apps, thus eliminating the long check-outs. All that not only markets your brand but also enhances the user experience.
5. Reduces Costs
Last but not least, barcode scanning apps even help you reduce your operational cost. As you know that previously, you would have to buy a different barcode scanner for each employee so that they could scan the codes and can generate bills. However all that required a lot of investment, and maintenance.
However, with a barcode scanning app, you can seamlessly eliminate all those steps. Similar to your customer, your employees can download the barcode scanning app into their smartphones and can generate bills directly using the app.
Besides all the above-mentioned benefits, there are many more like inventory management, real-time information, etc. that makes barcode scanning app development a profitable project.
How to Create your Own Barcode scanning App with Matellio?
Now that you are convinced enough to develop a barcode scanning app, let us quickly guide you through the development process. Working with an experienced software engineering firm always has its own perks. You get a successful and in-trend app at the best competitive prices and with reliable after-support.
Here’s how you can also develop your barcode scanning app with an experienced firm like Matellio!
1. Fill Out the Contact Form
The first step that you will need to start your project is to reach our experts. You will have to simply fill out the contact form, and our team will quickly reach you to discuss your barcode scanning app development idea.
2. Share your Ideas with our Experts
The next step in your app development project will be to discuss the app ideas with an app development expert. We, at Matellio, have hundreds of techies that are certified and have professional years-long experience in developing various types of apps.
If you have certain ideas then you can discuss those with our team over a meeting, or else our experts can suggest the best concepts to make your barcode scanning app a hit in the market.
3. Sign NDA
A reliable software engineering company always keeps the customer’s interest ahead of the company’s benefits. That’s why, we, at Matellio sign an NDA (Non-Disclosure Agreement) to ensure you that nothing goes off from our company. All your critical information is always safe with us!
4. Analyze the Perfect Tech Stack
Once you have analyzed the main idea of your app development, it is now time to choose the best tech-stack for your project. Now, generally, there are many technology trends that can help you in barcode scanning app development, but you should opt for only reliable and proven trends. So, to help you, here are the top three APIs for barcode scanning app:
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Firebase ML kit Barcode Scanning API for Android
With this amazing app API, you can develop a barcode scanning app that can read almost all the standard barcode formats. You even don’t need an active connection as the barcode is read on the device. Firebase ML kit even has automatic barcode recognition, hence you would not need to specify the formats of different barcodes manually.
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Scandid Barcode Scanner SDK for iOS, and Android
Another robust API for barcode scanning app development is Scandid Barcode Scanner SDK. It allows you to build a barcode scanning app with the speed and performance of a market-ready barcode scanner. A big advantage of this SDK is that it can be used to develop apps for both Android and iOS. Plus, you can even scan the codes in a bad light using this development kit.
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Cognex Mobile Barcode SDK for cross-platform
Last but not least, we have the Cognex Mobile Barcode SDK. Similar to the above one, Cornex is also a cross-platform SDK, which means, it supports both Android and iOS. You can use this SDK for scanning different types of barcodes of a multitude of industries like healthcare, manufacturing, and so on. The SDK reads the various barcode formats including EAN, GS1 DataBar, MaxiCode, MSI Plessey, PDF417, UPC, and others.
You can always consult with our experts before choosing any of the above-mentioned SDKs and APIs.
5. Choose Relevant Features
Features always play a crucial part in digital solutions whether it be a web app development or mobile app development. So, as a leader in offering digital transformation strategies, we have listed out some of the exceptional yet essential features that you must consider while developing a barcode scanning app.
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Custom Barcode Scanning
You can scan various standard barcode formats without any issues using this feature. Formats like EAN, GS1 DataBar, MaxiCode, MSI Plessey, PDF417, UPC can all be scanned seamlessly using this feature.
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Data Storage Facility
You can seamlessly store your product’s information directly with a barcode scanning app using this feature. The app even asks you the location where you want to store the data.
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Cross-Platform Support
This feature is exceptionally needed if you want to reach a higher number of people. Your barcode scanning app should support multiple devices and OS platforms like Android, iOS, Windows, and so on.
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Offline Logging
Besides online scanning, if sometimes you don’t have good connectivity then you can use this feature to continue your business operations smoothly.
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Bulk Scanning
The barcode scanning app must be capable to scan the products through any angle seamlessly, and with accuracy.
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Manual Data Entry
Using this robust feature, you can enter the details of certain products manually, as needed.
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Fast Scan Results
Lastly, the barcode scanning app must be capable of scanning the codes fastly and precisely, for better services and smooth business operations.
6. Hire Professional and Cost-Effective Developers
The next step to barcode scanning app development is to hire professional and reliable developers. Now here you have two options, either go for freelancers or opt for certified developers from an experienced software engineering firm. While both of them have certain benefits, it is always a wise decision to hire developers from an experienced firm. Why?
That’s because, an experienced and reliable firm will always provide you the best-in-class and certified developers, which may not be the case with freelancers. Plus, as they will be experienced, so all their developers and Project Managers will have an idea of the problems that might come during the development process. They will even offer you some out-of-the-box ideas which again is not so expected from freelancers.
Hence, it is best to hire professional developers from a cost-effective and experienced software engineering firm like Matellio.
Additional Read: Top 5 Benefits of Outsourcing Mobile App Development
7. Test Your Barcode Scanning App
The last step in developing a perfect barcode scanning app is to test your app thoroughly. Testing is always considered the most critical step in app development as it detects all the bush and errors that were left behind during the development process. However, despite that, many marketers often skip this step and as a result, their app fails miserably in the market.
So, if you want to eliminate such circumstances, opting for testing is the only way. Additionally, these days automated testing is in a trend that can automatically detect even the minutest of the errors in your application. So, you could ask your software developer whether they provide the facility of automated testing or not? A reliable firm always ensures that testing remains in its development process to deploy an error-free and smooth app.
Cost of Barcode Scanning App Development
So, we are the most awaited section of our article – the overall cost of developing a robust barcode scanning app. Now, like other mobile apps, the cost of barcode scanning app development also depends on many crucial factors. To name a few, we have:
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Project Management Cost
To smoothly and efficiently finish your project, you will be needing a Project Manager that streamlines all the development tasks. So this category covers the cost of Project Management.
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Design and Development cost
The cost of designers and developers is generally covered under this category. Also, UI/UX part is also covered under the same heading.
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Testing Cost
Whatever testing method you choose, whether manual or automated, the cost varies accordingly.
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The Complexity of the App
The features, tech stack, and complexity of the app further add to the overall cost of developing a barcode scanning app.
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Maintenance Cost
Lastly, to provide up-gradation and maintenance services, other resources would be required, and that cost is covered under this category.
Besides that, there are many other factors that contribute to barcode scanning app development. You can click the button below to get an accurate idea of the costing.
Why Choose Matellio?
Apart from providing an experienced team, we, at Matellio, also help our clients in transforming their business operations to a more profitable approach and helps them step into the digital world. Whether you are a startup, or a Fortune 500 company, our certified and reliable programmers and testers ensure cost-effective and successful web and app development.
Here are a few factors that make Matellio a unique and beneficial software engineering firm for your development project.
1. Decades of Experience
We make digital transformation easy with our skilled and experienced workforce. Our developers and testers have years of experience in developing quality applications.
2. Certified Professionals
We believe in delivering quality with great customer experience. That’s why we are always the first choice of leading brands when it comes to digital solutions.
3. 100% Security
We ensure to deliver a completely secure, and reliable application be it web, mobile, or even desktop apps and software solutions.
4. Flexible Hiring Modules
Our hiring models are so flexible and are perfect to cater to the different needs of our clients. You can choose what best suits you.
5. High-Quality UI/UX
We promise to deliver the best UI/UX services to help you impress your customers with custom applications that deliver a great experience across all devices.
6. Best Competitive Prices
All our past clients have witnessed a 50% reduction in development costs than our competitors. That shows our pocket-friendly approach.
Wrapping Up!
To conclude, we can say that mobile apps have become a necessity rather than a luxury in today’s competitive era, as evident from the facts mentioned above, almost everyone today spends more tie on their smartphones than on anything else. Hence, in such a mobile era, only those businesses will flourish that are investing in mobile app development solutions. Barcode scanning app development is also one such digital solution that is equally beneficial for all the industries.
So, what are you waiting for? Reach us today, and get a free expert consultation on your development project.
Till then, Happy Reading!
