The retail industry drove the widespread adoption of the barcode scanner in its initial days. Today, the application of barcode scanner is evident far beyond the retail industry with usage in healthcare, schools, governmental organizations, the entertainment industry, and professional sports. Barcode scanners were previously used to facilitate asset management and improve productivity. Nowadays, they are an essential tool for gathering business intelligence. Innovations in the barcode scanners are facilitating the growth in the barcode scanner market.

Top Trends in the Barcode Scanner Market

#1 – Battery-Free Barcode Scanner

Suppliers are focusing their efforts on creating a wireless battery-free barcode scanner to achieve sustainability goals and increase the ease of use to its operator. A pioneer in this field, Honeywell introduced the world’s first battery-free barcode scanner that uses supercapacitor to reduce the charging time and downtime for barcode scanners.

#2 – Self-Checkout Barcode Scanners

Retail stores are always faced with the problem of a long line of customers waiting in queue to make the purchase. Only a limited number of cashiers are available who individually scan the barcode of every product. Such industries are relying on self-checkout barcode scanners to reduce the number of employees, waiting time, and automate the operational process.

#3 – Image-Based Barcode Scanner

Image-based barcode scanners are rapidly replacing the traditional laser barcode scanners. A wide range of industries including consumer goods, F&B, logistics, and pharma are using image-based barcode scanner due to its superior read rate performance, omnidirectional code reading, image archiving ability, and ability to read multiple codes.

#4 – Invisible Barcodes

The traditional black and white stripes are about to be replaced by invisible codes that can be scanned using an image-based barcode scanner. This technology allows manufacturers to place invisible barcodes without disturbing the packaging design and also provide additional product information. For instance, Walmart has already adopted this technology in their private label brands. It has the power to fundamentally change the checkout process by allowing to scan multiple items at the same time.

#5- Barcode Technology in the Healthcare Sector

The healthcare sector is using barcode technology to track patient information and inventory of medical products. The manual approach to such problem leads to increased time to organize data which is prone to a high rate of human errors. The need for better tracking solutions in the healthcare industry has led to the growth of the barcode scanner market.

Read more about the top trends in the barcode scanner market along with technological advancements, key suppliers of barcode scanners, sourcing strategies, and supply market landscape in SpendEdge’s upcoming report on the global barcode scanner management market.

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