May it be the stacked bookshelf, kitchen cabinet, or bathroom counter, wherever you will go, you can find the barcodes. They have become so pervasive, that they often go invisible. Because of their extensive usage, people can even scan these barcodes by themselves at grocery stores. They were invented almost more than 70+ years ago and now are turned into one of the most prominent and essential means for businesses to have a proper inventory check and control. Integration of this technology in business operations has proved to be a great success factor.
Barcodes and QR codes possess huge advantages and thus they are so widespread. Almost every business can integrate this technology to make the processes quick and improve data accuracy. While you are thinking of barcode scanning software development, you must keep all its benefits and advantages in mind and should also have in-depth market research. With the growing demand for barcode scanning apps, the need for a mobile app development company has also increased.
This article will help you to learn how to develop barcode scanning app, global statistics, features and functionalities, and the approximate cost to build barcode scanning app.
Table of Contents
What are Barcodes?
A barcode can be explained as a rectangular or a square image that is machine-readable and consists of black lines and white spaces that display numbers and characters. These barcodes are read with an optical barcode scanner and are used worldwide for quick identification of goods. To ease the purchase process and supply chain and inventory management, these codes are being used.
What are QR Codes?
QR Code or Quick Responsive Code is a two-way readable barcode type i.e., top to bottom and left to right. There is a square-shaped grid with a series of pixels that stores information. This data comprises contact numbers, website URLs, or any other info of up to 4000 characteristics. These codes can also be used for linking directly to an application. Accessing Wi-Fi via storing the encryption details, receiving, or sending payments, authentication of online accounts, and many other aspects.
Why Does a Barcode Scanning App Have Become Essential in Today’s Time?
Now when we are clear with what are QR codes and what are barcodes, we quickly move to our next session explaining the benefits of having a barcode scanning app for your business. Let’s check:
1. No Delay in Deliveries
The primary benefit of adopting the culture of barcode scanning in most businesses is that it helps in eliminating the delays that happened in deliveries. The main reason for such delays is that maximum of the time businesses book order of a product that is not there in stock and thus it becomes a long process to deliver products that are out of stock.
If businesses use the barcode scanning apps, then such issues are reduced and eliminated at some point as there is complete information related to the products and about the unavailability of the products too. Thus, businesses restrict themselves from booking order for products that are not in stock and reduces unnecessary delivery delays.
2. Reduce Issues like Overstocking & Stock-Outs
Overstocking and stock-outs are two major conditions in a business that hampers business efficiency. Thus, to prevent such issues from hindering business growth, businesses use barcode scanning apps. The advantage is that there is complete information on warehouse stock and thus demand and quantity to re-order can easily be projected for better inventory management.
3. Cost-Effective
While businesses look for barcode scanning app development, then the most significant reason behind is to reduce the operational cost. Earlier there were required different barcode scanners for every individual employee for scanning products and generating bills. But with a barcode scanning app, it all becomes so easy and cost-effective as the employees can download the barcode scanning application on their smartphones and can generate bills. Thus, it reduces operational costs and helps businesses earn better returns.
4. Improve User-Experience & Customer Service
This one is an indirect advantage of having a barcode scanning app as businesses can surely improve the shopping experience of their customers. When there is an application, the potential customers can also download the app and can check the available products and their prices online. Thus, in one place they can explore all the things presently available at the store. It helps to save their time and effort and gives them a rich user experience. With the check-out option, they can even make payments and check out without standing for hours in long billing queues.
5. Accurate Forecasting
In traditional businesses, still there is a lot of dependency on excel sheets to calculate the inventory. Many times there cannot be displayed accurate inventory numbers because of human error. Thus, to make this tedious task a simpler one, businesses use a barcode scanning app. With this application, the usage, existing level, and future demand can be forecasted and that is too near accurate.
The Popularity of Barcodes & QR Codes
Barcodes have become a common and worldwide accepted symbol for any purchasable product. Other than the eCommerce industry, these codes are also used during hospital stays of patients. To get complete information about the patients and their medical history and ongoing treatment, these barcodes are worn on the wrists.
Let’s check some global stats to understand the popularity of these barcodes:
As per the data, approximately 75.8 million people worldwide have scanned a QR code in the year 2021. And according to the survey report, it is stated that around 59% of the total respondents believe that in the coming future, the use of barcodes and QR codes will become an inevitable part of human lives. When it comes to scanning codes based on region, it is found that the US tops the chart with 42.2%, and next to it is India with 16.1% scans in the first quarter of 2022 out of a total of 6,825,842 scans from global users. Also, around 7 out of 10 US-based restaurants are using QR code and mobile payments for business operations.
How to Develop Barcode Scanning App?
Now you are aware of the numerous benefits of barcode scanning app development, let’s check the steps to understand how to develop barcode scanning app in this section. While going for app development, it is necessary to know about it in detail. Check the following:
Step 1: Hire a Barcode Scanning App Development Company
The first step in the process of how to develop a barcode scanning app is to hire a barcode scanning app development company as there are several perks of assigning your project to a reputed and well-experienced agency. As they have a complete team of developers, analysts, testers, etc., the results are expected to be highly efficient.
Step 2: Sharing Ideas with the Professionals
The next step is sharing your idea and vision with the professionals or application development experts. If there is any specific aim behind the barcode scanning app development, then you can discuss it with the experts and get a customized one. To hire expert developers, you can contact a custom software development company for your project.
Step 3: Choosing the Tech Stack
Once the vision is shared, the next important thing is to select the best tech stack for the solution. Various technologies can be used in the barcode scanning app development. Following is the most reliable and efficient tech stack for app development:
For Android
For Android app development, Firebase ML Kit is used most prominently as it can read approximately all sorts of standard barcode formats. There is an automatic barcode recognition system and thus it eliminates the need for manual barcode specification.
For iOS and Android
For iOS app development, Scandit SDK is the most preferred choice for iOS app developers. It helps to create an app that can give tough competition to the existing barcode scanning apps in terms of performance and speed. The best part of using SDK is that there can be developed an application for both iOS and Android platforms. Even barcodes can be scanned in dim light too with the use of this app development kit.
For Cross-Platform
For developing cross-platform applications, the tech stack used is Cognex Mobile Barcode SDK as it is available for Windows, iOS, Linus, Android, and more. This SDK can be used in scanning various types of barcodes from diverse sectors such as eCommerce, manufacturing, healthcare, etc.
Step 4: Select Functionalities and Features
The next significant step is to decide on the integration of features and functionalities. The core of any application is its features as they decide how responsive, scalable, and user-friendly the application would be. Let’s check the list of features that needs to be there when you think of how to develop barcode scanning software:
Custom Barcode Scanning
By integrating this feature, several standard barcode formats can be scanned. The formats like MSI Plessey, EAN, MaxiCode, UPC, PDF417, EAN, and GSI DataBar can be scanned without any issue.
Offline Logging
Other than online scanning, this feature allows barcode scanning in the absence of Internet connectivity. This helps business operations to run seamlessly and smoothly.
Data Storage Facility
This feature helps users in storing product information easily via a barcode scanning application. Also, you can save the info at the desired location as it asks for the location before saving the data.
Cross-Platform Support
If you want an extended customer base, then it is one of the most essential features to be integrated into the barcode scanning app. It enables the app to support multiple platforms and devices for better scalability and user experience.
Quick Scanning Results
The most important aspect of any good barcode scanning app is to be precise and fast. When the users scan any barcode, the results should be shown quickly so that the business operations are not on halt. Therefore, this feature helps in performing smooth business operations.
Manual Data Entry
With this feature, users can even enter the data manually if they want to. To make any changes or to feed some details by hand, they can smoothly perform that work.
Bulk Scanning
This feature enables the barcode scanning app to scan multiple barcodes in one go as there are numerous scenarios such as inventory counting, shipping labels, and many more. It helps to streamline the workflow and speed up the scanning process. It also helps in scanning the barcodes from different angles seamlessly.
Other than the above-mentioned features, several other features can make the barcode scanning application more versatile and responsive, such as the real-time authentication and validation of the barcode scans, quick data collection with GPS, images, and forms, and barcode generation, barcode scanning management, and user-permission management.
Step 5: Testing of the App
This is the final step in the process of developing a barcode scanning application. The app needs to pass the testing phase where all the errors and bugs are detected which are left at different stages of the app development process. If in any case this step is missed, there are high chances of app failure while it is launched in the market. There is automated testing that saves time and provides the most accurate results. This step might increase the overall cost to develop barcode scanning software but can save you from huge losses in the future.
Cost of Developing a Barcode Scanning App
While you are planning to develop a barcode scanning app, it is extremely essential to know the approximate cost to develop barcode scanning app. Several factors can fluctuate this cost, such as:
Cost of Project Management
For effective completion of your project, there is a need for a good project manager for streamlining the workflow and all the various app development tasks. Thus, this affects the cost of barcode scanning app development with a great margin.
Cost of Design & Development
The cost of hiring developers and designers is covered under this category. It also comprises UX/UI costs.
Cost of App Testing
There are both manuals as well as automated methods for app testing. Thus, the cost to build barcode scanning software depends much on the type of testing you conduct while developing the solution.
Cost of Application Complexity Level
The complexity level of the application is one of the key factors in fluctuating the cost to develop barcode scanning app. When the features integrated are too complex and the app is highly functional, then its complexity level increases and so does the cost of development because of integrating an advanced tech stack and hiring professionals.
Cost of Maintenance
The last factor that needs consideration while calculating the barcode scanning app development cost is the maintenance services as well as the upgradation services. As for these two works, there incurred more costs in the future and thus this part is also included in the cost of development only.
Other than the above-mentioned factors, there are several other aspects too that play a vital role while calculating the development cost of barcode software. These aspects comprise the cost of manpower, IT infrastructure cost, integration of features, cost of tools such as APIs, SDKs, etc., and administrative costs. By combining all these factors, the average cost to build a barcode scanning app ranges between $15,000-$30,000.
Summing Up
To sum up, with no denying, it can be said that a mobile application has become the soul of a business in this digitalized era. To stay competitive, grow, and have an extended customer base, it is essential to develop a mobile application for your business. Same in the case of barcode scanning apps, the demand is at its peak and there are businesses across the world that are looking forward to building scanning apps for effectively managing their day-to-day operations.
If you are also looking forward to finding an experienced and reputable mobile app development company for your barcode scanning software development project, you can contact SemiDot Infotech as it is a well-established and recognized custom software development company that builds solutions to meet your expectations. There are learned and professional developers who build scalable apps for your business.
