Cracking the Retail Code with Next-Generation Data Capture

| Retail

highlight barcodes on smartphone

While barcode scanning is important to workflows across the retail enterprise, traditional scanning hardware has not evolved with changing industry needs. In a presentation at Shoptalk Europe 2017 in Copenhagen, Denmark, Scandit CEO Samuel Mueller delivered a presentation, “Cracking the Retail Code with Next-Generation Data Capture,” about the emergence of smart devices as easy-to-use, future-proof mobile data capture solutions for retail.

Mueller discussed how barcode scanning streamlines back-of-the-house, in-store, and consumer-facing retail processes. These include shipping and receiving, stock-taking, order picking, and inventory management in the back of the house.

In addition, barcode scanning increases the efficiency of in-store activities such as order entry, clienteling, POS, and click-and-collect. Performance of consumer-facing processes such as self-checkout, loyalty and rewards and mobile shopping is also improved with barcode scanning.

However, traditional scanning hardware and software has remained largely unchanged since the mid-1980s. Drawbacks of using dedicated scanners in retail include a poor user experience, high total cost of ownership (TCO), outdated capabilities and slow performance.

In contrast, smart devices offer an excellent user experience, a TCO three to five times less than that of dedicated scanners, real-time analytics, and flexible deployment. Smart device platforms include smartphones, tablets, wearables, and even robots and drones. And smart devices offer an enterprise-grade scanning experience comparable to traditional scanning devices.

Scandit’s retail vision for mobile data capture is lowering costs while empowering associates and consumers. For example, by scanning a shelf and using object recognition, a smart device user can detect empty shelves, low stock levels, and incorrectly placed or positioned products. In addition, optical character recognition (OCR) is able to detect pricing errors in the same scan.

Scandit has further enhanced the capabilities of mobile data capture with a scanning and augmented reality (AR) feature called MatrixScan, which enables users of any camera-equipped device to locate, track and decode multiple barcodes at once. MatrixScan also adds visual feedback in the user interface to indicate which barcodes have already been scanned.

In addition to allowing users to capture an entire set of barcodes in a single scan sequence, MatrixScan also provides valuable new information via AR display. This includes AR highlighting of barcodes matching specific search criteria, as well as superimposed product information of physical goods. Click here for more information on MatrixScan.

Considering the superior benefits that mobile data capture can deliver, it is not surprising that an increasing number of retailers are adopting Scandit solutions. One notable Scandit retail client is US specialty chain Party City.

“Scandit provides enterprise-grade performance at lower total cost of ownership than bulky, more expensive dedicated scanners,” said David Levitt, CIO of Omnichannel, Party City. “By mobilizing key workflows and deploying in-store mobile devices we’ve significantly improved the productivity and the value of our employees.”

To download our white paper on seamless retailing, click here. To speak with a Scandit Solutions Representative, click here.