Here are the two most common reasons we hear for not buying a barcode verifier:
- Barcode verifiers are too expensive.
- It isn’t necessary to buy a barcode verifier because we’ve never had a problem.
Barcodes verifiers are indeed expensive. You could buy 10 scanners for the price of one of the cheapest verifiers, and after all, the point is to see if the barcode scans, right?
Hold that thought.
A trustworthy ISO-compliant 1D/2D verifier costs about $6500. While it’s impossible to get good data, what is the average cost of a chargeback from a big box store for a shipment of seasonal clothing, because the barcodes don’t work? Recently, one of our distributors sold several trustworthy, ISO-compliant verifiers to a company who was charged $40,000 for this very reason. Suddenly the expensive verifiers were an essential and comparatively cheap risk management tool. Is $40,000 an average chargeback? We don’t know. This was the cost of a single event. Other chargebacks, even much less expensive ones, would easily justify the cost of a verifier.
The Cost of Risk
The direct cost of bad barcodes is not the total cost. Bad barcodes disrupt supply chains, and cause significant distractions, expenses, and delays. Recurring barcode problems threaten the vendor relationship. Retailers have choices. Your excellent product doesn’t matter if your competitors’ barcodes are more reliable.
What is Power?
So, you’ve never had a barcode problem? Congratulations. But history does not predict the future. You know you’ve never had a problem, but you don’t know how close you have come. What you don’t know can hurt you. Without a verifier, you are blind. A verifier gives you knowledge and as we all know, knowledge is power. And what is power? Power is protection.
About that though you are holding…
OK, you bought a scanner (not a verifier) and impressed the boss. Your customer scans your barcodes with a different scanner. Yours works, but the customer’s doesn’t? Who is right?
Several years ago we helped a client in a similar situation. Their barcodes were failing with their most important customer. Our verification tests gave their barcodes passing grades. That information revealed a problem with the client customer’s scanners. Not only was a potentially devastating chargeback prevented, the client’s customer was grateful to learn about a problem with their scanners. What could have threatened the vendor-client relationship made it stronger.
You buy a verifier to predict whether the barcode will work on all types of scanners. Not just the one you have. Knowledge is power. Power is protection.
OK so maybe you don’t have to buy a verifier after all.
You could use a barcode testing service, like us.
We provide the knowledge.
You get the power.
