Setting up your shop · 2 of 3 · 2 min read
Barcodes and labels
Scanning, your own numbering scheme, and printing shelf-edge labels.
Most products arrive with a barcode already printed on them. Some do not, and those you number yourself.
Scanning an existing barcode
Any keyboard-wedge (HID) scanner works — that is nearly all of them. It behaves like a very fast typist, so there is nothing to install.
To attach a barcode to a product, put the cursor in the barcode field and scan the item. Do not type it: transcribing thirteen digits by eye is how a product ends up unscannable.
Some readers pause for a fraction of a second after the first character. A system that gives up too early loses that first digit and the scan fails or matches the wrong product. The till waits deliberately longer than feels necessary for exactly this reason — so if you have a reader that misbehaved elsewhere, it is worth trying here.
Your own numbering
For loose goods, things you pack yourself, or products with no printed code, you assign numbers. Set up a scheme once and every new product follows it:
- A prefix that marks it as yours, so your codes never collide with a manufacturer's
- A product number
- A check digit, calculated for you
Being consistent matters more than the specific scheme. Anything you can explain to a new member of staff in one sentence is a good scheme.
Weight-embedded barcodes
If you sell by weight, the scale prints a label whose barcode carries the product and the weight or price. Scanning it at the till fills in both — nobody keys in a number, so nobody keys in the wrong number. See Weighing scales.
Printing labels
Shelf-edge and product labels print from the label screen. Choose the products, the layout, and how many of each.
Two things to check on the first run:
- Print one sheet before printing four hundred. Label stock alignment is fiddly and every printer is slightly different.
- Scan the label you printed. A barcode that looks right and does not scan is usually printed too small or too faint — increase the size or the darkness rather than the resolution.
Something here wrong or missing? Tell us — we would rather fix it than have you work around it.