Hey Rodinhoods,
I am planning to build a grocery e-com/marketplace and facing issues to add humongous products to my site and later on facilitate retail store owners to add products. What i found is bar codes; a unique number by which i can organize items and retail store owners can add/choose what they have to sell & consumers can place orders by scanning barcodes by scanning barcodes on products.
My doubts:
1. Barcode is the right thing to do this? (pls suggest any methods)
2. From where I can get initial set of barcode database of grosery items sold in India.
Darshan Bhambiru
You may not be able to do it any other way without getting crazy, except barcoding the various products, you intend to sell out.
What you would require is a Cash Register, POS (Point of Sale) software, Barcode Scanner / Reader, Barcode Printer for Labelling products, Self adhesive labels of varying sizes, [Shopping for the Right POS System] to manage create and track and make inventory count for your own set of codes for the articles that you use to Bar Code, you would need to set your own and there would be little or no use if you seek a ready made database from some other concern which would not be unique to your won products and sales, and may be a case of Pilferage or Bad returns from another place to start with there would be other ramifications as well in that case since you are just USING another’s Database for YOUR products, and issuing a receipt or Memo / Bill for the same likewise too.
Also you might need to look out for a Merchant account or tie up with your bank (check with them) for the same to have the Card Swipe Machine (Credit Debit cards) also made available for integrating with your POS
A Barcode is an optical machine-readable representation of data relating to the object to which it is attached.
Could be hand held, flat bed or also the HANDS Free models apart from the smartphone being one of the devices to do this as well nowadays. EAN-13 SYMBOLOGY – Barcode Island
Multiple options for purchases now available like Snapdeal.com, Handheld Barcode Reader – Arcus Automation Private Limited, BARCODE SCANNER FROM MOTOROLA etc
SOME examples of HPOS with other services they provide.
You can also look at QRCodes with a lot more details to use as well integrated if you want to keep it simpler and this can be achieved with your smartphone locally as well, since once made it can be reused or you can make a new one again as per changes or requirement later.
Now that you got the feel of it, maybe you can narrow it down to your nearest place or location within your budget too, Cheers!!!
Ashish Pratap Singh
Hey Darshan,
Thanks for the detailed reply, but I think my concern was misunderstood.
Let me clear this first.
I want to use bar codes already printed on packets by the manufacturers for uniformity so that if any shop owner(listed on our market place) just scans barcode of any product from his store using our app, the item will be added to his page and same way if you have finished your Jam and want to reorder it you just need to scan its barcode from your used packet and it will be added to your cart and then you can select your preferred delivery date. This barcode scanning method is for ease so that every time you need not to search products. And retail store owners can add their products with ease.
Nilesh Jain
I dont think there is any such list available. Everyone has their own ways of generating the barcodes.
From what i understand, you are going to add all products along with their barcodes. What if the store owner wants to add an item which is not on your list. If he can still upload such an item what about setting other paramters like brand, weight, flavour etc.
At times , I have also found that certain companies use the same barcodes for range/variety of products.
For example : Consider a product that comes in 10 flavours. A company might assign the same code to the entire range. How will a user or store owner differentiate the flavours.
Similarly after some time, the barcode remains the same but the price of a product changes. How will you ensure that you are billing the right price.
I have faced all such issues will implementing a barcode solution for one of my clients.
We have used Code39 for barcode generation.
Darshan Bhambiru
It’s all in the Details, the more, the Better the Outcomes!!
Now, that you mention Your APP, and Others Barcodes, this Picture looks different !!!
You simply cannot have any database randomly added to the sites list and hope it works if you do not have any tie-ups for the logistics or other monetary mechanisms in place likewise Right ?
You would also need to check with YOUR database maintained for the purpose so you can authenticate, it is one of your participating members products and can proceed, if not it would give out a pre configured message like “Not found TRY Again” or suggest similar products with the keywords entered or some other mechanism in place to counter and lose the order that ways.
Imagine someone is already scanning a barcode on the app right now, but that is nowhere to be found, Why ? – YOU do not have a Database for it to authenticate or compare against, that becomes the first step to start with what you are trying to make available as a service to make it ease of use for all involved.
You would still need the product codes from your participating members to be shared in your Sites as a database which would need to be a CRON job daily to keep it updated daily later, or done manually likewise, even for that you would need a ERP, CRM or SAAS based software of some kind to store and update the saved Barcodes scanned in your app as a database to compare with, since some products barcodes could be fairly outdated or expired and might have been replaced with new ones to be offered as a suggestion too likewise or that could also be used as a UpSelling mechanism on your App, you can think of other ways this could be used too likewise, this simply invites customization as per your requirements connect with some of the mentioned s/w in my earlier posts and check with them or others too likewise
Try this out : Retail Shop Management System [Username and Password – admin] Let me know if you would like to get something like this developed.
Other options to search Connect with Veer Mishra Co-Founder & COO are also viewable on Other Portals you can Check With Co founder Ankit Dudhwewala
Needs to be Synced and kept updated realtime or with regular timed daily with any changes, for it to be effective. What goes into the efforts of maintaining things on the backend makes it look easier for use on the front always 🙂
Good Luck!!