Barcodes

How Barcodes Help Inventory Tracking

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Inventory Tracking with Barcodes

In the retail industry, using a barcode can help you manage your inventory more accurately. By tracking your inventory by the barcode, you can easy manage orders, receive shipments, and see what is selling within your point of sale system.

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Barcodes are especially helpful when there are multiple products that may have the same UPC code. For example, within the liquor retail industry, for your beer you have your standard brews and your holiday brews. Both products may share the UPC code. If you use a SKU number and a barcode, you can easily manage the items as standalones and the inventory of those items.

Some may not have implemented barcodes within their stores yet because they feel it is difficult and not cost effective. That is false. Implementing barcodes is very easy and cost effective. If you have the right point of sale system, they will have a ticket designer in the back office where you can easily print tickets when you have item price changes, promotion changes, or simply adding in new items. The ticket designer should be able to work with a ticket printer of your choosing. Ticket printers are typically a zebra printer or a regular printer with Avery labels.

If you’re still not convinced to implement barcodes yet, here is the number one reason (besides inventory) to implement: A seamless checkout process for the customer.

Making Package Store Inventory Easy

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Make Inventory Control Easier In Your Store

Managing your package store inventory can be a daunting task when you are selling product in multiple different ways. mPower Beverage makes managing this inventory easier. In mPower under the item, you can manage your inventory in multiple ways by using the SKU number. This allows you to manage your cases, packs, and singles not only under 1 item, but keep those with the same UPC code, separate.

What is the difference between UPC code and SKU number? Why is it important?

The UPC code on an item is typically 12 digits. These codes are used for tracking inventory that is sold within stores. The UPC code identifies the manufacturer and specified product so that it may be sold easily. Unfortunately, the UPC code does not allow liquor store owners to manage their inventory under a single UPC. Seasonal beers and vintage wines may share the UPC code with other items which can cause chaos while trying to track inventory. Chaos can be avoided by using the SKU number alongside the UPC.

The SKU number is a unique identifier for an item and is used to manage product. The items in mPower are tracked by the UPC code and the SKU number. The SKU is specifically assigned to a product for internal operations. Clients can assign their own SKU or allow the system to automatically assign a number.

Within mPower Beverage your product will be managed by both UPC and SKU. The UPC is used to scan product for a seamless checkout process and easy inventory count. The SKU will help you manage your seasonal and vintages separately from other product. The SKU will also help you manage your cases, packs, and singles seamlessly under 1 item.

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When making inventory changes (think inventory counts) you will upload the SKU and quantity. When checking out customers, the cashiers will scan the barcode and if there is more than 1 item sharing the UPC code, it will ask the cashier to select the correct item. For example, if they purchase Sam Adams Seasonal 6-pack, it will ask the cashier to select “Sam Adams” or “Sam Adams Seasonal.”

By utilizing both the UPC code and SKU number you can manage your inventory more accurately and provide customers a seamless checkout process.