In short: To use a price scanner in retail, start with the phone camera and buy a scanner when the queue tells you to: USB for a PC, Bluetooth for a phone and stocktakes, 2D if you need QR codes or tough labels. And test a scale label with your app before you buy the scale.
In this guide
A few years ago a barcode scanner was the first thing you bought with cashier software. Now a phone camera reads barcodes, so the real question is whether you need a scanner at all, and if you do, which kind. The answer depends on how many customers you serve and how your cashier stands, not just on price. This guide walks through every option, then through shelf labels and weighed goods, the two places shops usually trip up.
What a scanner actually does
A barcode is a number written in bars. The scanner knows nothing about the item's name or price. All it does is turn the bars into a number and pass it to the device. Your cashier app looks that number up in your items, puts the name and price on the invoice, and takes one off stock.
Most scanners behave like a keyboard: they type the number very fast and press Enter on their own. That is why a standard scanner works with any app that accepts typing in its search box, usually with no special drivers. A useful consequence: if the scanner types the number correctly into a plain text file, any problem lies in the app's setup, not in the scanner.
Your options
There are five common options, each with its own place.
| Option | Suits | Watch out for |
|---|---|---|
| Phone or iPad camera | Small and mid-size shops, stocktakes, starting with no extra hardware | A little slower with a long queue, and weak light or glossy packaging can slow it down |
| Wired USB scanner | A fixed counter with a PC | The cable limits reach, so pick one long enough to get to heavy items |
| Wireless Bluetooth scanner | Selling from a phone or tablet, and stocktakes between shelves | Needs charging and has a limited range from the device |
| 2D scanner | Reading QR codes, barcodes on phone screens, or wrinkled labels | Usually costs more than a standard linear scanner |
| Fixed counter scanner | A busy supermarket, where the cashier passes items in front of it hands-free | Needs a permanent spot on the counter |
When the phone camera is enough
If customers buy two or three items each and the number per hour is reasonable, the camera does the job. Continuous scanning reads items one after another without tapping between them, and the phone is both cashier and scanner. For stocktakes the camera is handy too, because you walk the aisles with nothing but your phone.
Our advice to any new shop is to start with the camera. After two weeks of selling you will know whether a queue builds up at the counter or the camera keeps pace. You then decide based on your own shop, not on a salesperson's advice.
How to use a price scanner
- Connect the scanner
Plug a USB scanner into the PC, or into a phone with an OTG adapter. Pair a Bluetooth scanner from the device's Bluetooth settings in keyboard (HID) mode, as its manual explains. - Test it in a text box
Open any field you can type in and scan an item. If the full number appears and the line breaks, the scanner is ready. - Open the selling screen and scan
Aim the light at the middle of the bars from close up and wait for the beep. Do not scan the same item twice unless you mean two of it. - Check the name and price
Glance at the screen after every scan: is it the right item at the right price? That second catches stale prices. - Fix unknown codes
If the app says the barcode is not registered, add the item under that number once, or link the number to an existing item if it is a new pack size. - Test your own labels
Scan a shelf label, a scale label and an internal barcode you printed, before a busy day rather than during one.
When you need a scanner
- Baskets hold ten items or more, as in supermarkets and big groceries.
- You get a queue at peak times and every second at the counter counts.
- The cashier sells from a PC and does not want to hold up a phone to every item.
- Your items are heavy or bulky, like sacks of rice or cases of water, so it is easier to bring the scanner to them than to lift them.
- The counter is dimly lit, or packaging is glossy and throws glare at the camera.
- You run large stocktakes of thousands of items, where a scanner speeds things up and saves your wrist.
Linear or 2D
A linear scanner (laser or CCD) reads the ordinary barcodes printed on products, which covers most groceries. It cannot read QR codes, and usually cannot read a barcode shown on a phone screen.
A 2D scanner works with a small camera, so it reads standard barcodes and QR codes alike, from screens, from almost any angle, and copes better with crumpled or faded labels. If you expect to scan vouchers or codes on customers' phones, or your labels live in damp fridges, a 2D scanner is worth the extra cost.
Bluetooth scanners with a phone: two things to know
First, when a Bluetooth scanner connects to an iPhone or iPad, the device treats it as an external keyboard, so the on-screen keyboard may disappear. That is normal behaviour, not a fault, and it comes back when you disconnect the scanner.
Second, some wireless scanners store scans in memory when they are out of range and send them when they reconnect. That helps in a large warehouse count, but try it first so quantities do not get entered twice. And charge the scanner every night, like your phone.
Items without barcodes, and shelf labels
Not everything arrives with a barcode: local sweets, spices you pack in the shop, accessories, loose goods. For these you create an internal barcode and print it on a label. What matters is that your number never looks like a real product's: the GS1 standard reserves numbers starting with 20 to 29 for use inside a shop, best known from scale labels. Ghalleh gives an item with no barcode an internal number starting with 990 and prints it as Code 128, built so it can never clash with a factory barcode.
Labels print on a roll of sticky labels, and many thermal printers take a label roll in place of receipt paper. Shelf price labels carry the item name and price, and the one rule that matters is this: when you change a price in the app, change the label the same day. A gap between the shelf price and the till price is the fastest way to lose a customer's trust. If you make a product that other shops will sell, read the guide to getting barcodes for your products in Jordan.
Weight barcodes
At the butcher's counter, the vegetable section or the cheese counter, staff weigh the item and the scale prints a label with a barcode. That barcode usually starts with 2 and carries the item code plus the weight or the price, with a check digit at the end. The scanner reads it like any barcode, but the cashier app has to know how to unpack it: which digits are the item code and which are the weight or price.
The catch is that the format differs from one scale to another and is set in the scale's settings. So before buying a label-printing scale, bring a real label from it, or get its exact format from the seller, and test that your cashier app sells it correctly. If weighed goods are a big part of your sales, make that test a condition of buying, whatever app you use.
In Ghalleh you turn on scale labels in settings and set your scale's format: the prefix, the length of the item code, and whether the variable part is a weight or a price. From then on the scanner reads the label and puts the item on the invoice with its weight or price.
Barcodes in Ghalleh
Ghalleh reads barcodes with the phone or tablet camera using continuous scanning, item after item without touching the screen. When the counter gets busy, connect a Bluetooth or USB scanner to the phone, tablet or Windows PC, and it adds the item to the sale from any screen without clicking the search box, and works for receiving stock and stocktakes too. On Sunmi and iMin terminals Ghalleh reads with the built-in scanner. Every scan puts the item and its price on the invoice and takes it off stock, and the sale shows on your phone even when you are out of the shop.
For supermarkets, Ghalleh carries about 388 ready packaged items with their company logos and barcodes, and you can import your items from an Excel or CSV file of up to 20,000 rows: Ghalleh matches the columns itself and shows the rows for review before saving. Ghalleh is available now on Google Play, with the Windows version on the download page, so start with the camera during the 14-day free trial with no card, then decide whether you need a scanner.
Common questions
Do I need a barcode scanner if I have a phone?
Not at first. A phone camera is enough for small and mid-size shops and for stocktakes. A scanner helps once the counter gets busy, baskets get bigger, or the cashier sells from a PC.
What is the difference between a linear and a 2D barcode scanner?
A linear scanner reads only the ordinary barcodes on products. A 2D scanner reads those plus QR codes and barcodes on phone screens, from more angles, and copes better with damaged labels, but usually costs more.
How do I make barcodes for items that do not have one?
Use an internal number that cannot pass for a real product barcode, and print it on thermal labels. In Ghalleh you pick the item on the barcode labels screen, and Ghalleh gives it an internal number starting with 990 and prints the label on the shop's printer.
How do you use a price scanner in a retail shop?
Connect the scanner to the device, open the selling screen, scan the item from close up, then check that the name and price on screen are right. If the code is not registered, add the item under that number once.