New barcode heralds major changes for retail store systems
“A fundamental change is taking place in the world of bar codes, for the first time since bar coding was introduced to retail packaging over 35 years ago. The new type of bar code, GS1 DataBar, has been approved for marking trade items in the retail supply chain” Read the full story
Andrea says: “The new type of bar code opens up all sorts of opportunities for the retailer relating to traceability, product authentication and in particular bar coding on small products, but as we understand it changing to GS1 DataBar is left to the brand owner’s discretion. EAN/UPC will continue to be used indefinitely where it works today. The GS1 Databar was launched in 2006 and next year (2010) standards will be available for bilateral agreement between trading partners for all trade items. The specific focus will be on Fresh Products scanned at POS. As a distributor of hardware, it is essential our suppliers are ready for the gradual change that will take place and deliver us products able to handle new types of bar codes.”
Belgravium launches VRS, a new ‘Voice Recognition System’
“Belgravium’s Voice Recognition System (VRS) has the ability to support increasing numbers of distribution operations within a range of industry sectors. Food Service, Grocery and Cold Storage industries, Retail and General Merchandising through to Healthcare and Pharmaceuticals can all benefit from the proven benefits of voice technology.” Read the full story
Andrea says: “The trend for voice technology is increasing as companies realise the benefits – increases in efficiency and accuracy. Voice technology is beneficial throughout the supply chain operation, not just one particular process in the chain, and many leading players are now moving away from manual and labour intensive systems to voice systems. Although we are not involved in voice technology directly, many of our partners are branching into this area as the demand from the market grows.”
“UK payment industry body, Apacs last week released its fraud figures for 2008, which show the main driver for growth in card fraud is on those transactions without chip and PIN protection.” Read the full story
Andrea says: “Given the level of fraud according to the figures published by APACS, it’s surprising how many smaller retailers still don’t have chip and pin in their shops – and perhaps more surprising is the amount of smaller retailers who have chip and pin, but the system isn’t working for some reason or other, forcing them to revert to customers signing the slip. The two largest growth areas for fraud were on transactions not protected by chip and pin (specifically internet, phone and mail order as well as fraud abroad). For any retailer it has got to be a priority to a) install chip and pin and b) make sure it’s a stable and reliable system.”
Posted by admin 8th May 2009 at 9:03am
