With Apple making their standard cameras ready to read QR codes without an app, barcode technology might have just gotten the massive boost it needed. Soo enough, barcodes will be on everything, not just our plane tickets and concert passes. If you run a business, barcodes are more than just a way for producers to organise products.

No matter what industry you’re in, barcode technology has a lot to offer your customers and to improve the way that your business operates. Here are four ways that barcodes are going to change the way you do business.

1. RFIDs Will Become Complementary

As RFID technology makes its way into every aspect of society, it will start to complement barcodes. Traditional barcodes won’t be going anywhere but the ability to get their information in new ways is going to become the standard.

If you’ve taken a London subway or have used a plastic card to scan your way into something, you know the power of RFID. RFID transmits its identity to a receiver. With the help of RFID tags, object tracking follows the same method that barcodes are tracked.

Giving the ability to use either type of tool means that sales professionals and service providers have flexibility. RFID tags will track the quantity of equipment and objects while barcodes will help to organise them.

Working together, productivity increases by leaps and bounds. Without having to make an exact scan on every product, high volume locations will see processing increase massively.

2. QR Codes Will Continue To Expand

While 2D barcodes will continue to be in place, 3D barcodes or QR codes increase in prevalence. QR codes are great for mobile devices because of the options that they offer for promotion and marketing.

When companies include QR codes on their products, their customers engage with them more powerfully. Scanning a QR code that leads to a website or a landing page gives companies the chance to gather information. When they get information about their clients, they can target their promotions better.

While QR code scanning isn’t for every consumer, it can be useful for those who enjoy it. The consumers who enjoy QR codes deserve lots of opportunities to engage.

If you’re a brand who wants to get your customers to engage with QR codes, offer serious deals to QR code users. While this technology has made its way around the world, it hasn’t taken off yet. All it takes is for one company to offer something truly special to their consumers for QR codes to become a powerful force in the world of barcodes.

3. More Personalized Commerce

With the help of barcodes, consumption and commerce can become more personalised. Barcode technology makes it possible to transmit more information to consumers than ever before.

Barcode technology allows companies to create individualised and personalised products and services for certain customers. If two markets need the same product but one prefers a blue and the other prefers a red box, barcodes help companies figure this out quickly.

The kind of integration that can occur at a granular level now allows for automated devices to respond at the warehouse level. Automated warehouses respond by shifting around and objects replaced so that every step of the process is optimised.

Even for direct to consumer sales, companies can create more personalised commerce. If customers are given personalised barcodes, companies match data to each one of their purchases. When you match the two figures together, more information is gathered and sales are increased.

4. Healthcare Will Change

Believe it or not, the field of healthcare stands to gain a lot by the changes coming from barcode technology.

In fields of study, there are thousands of potential compounds linked to every single test subject. Researchers struggle to organise all of their samples and the information that goes with them. With the long thread of information that they’ve gathered about a new compound, it’s easy to get tangled.

However, with the use of barcodes, all of that information is accessible at a moment’s notice. Samples found, organized, and evaluated quickly help researchers work faster.

Companies eliminate redundant testing with the help of barcodes. With information condensed to the size of a barcode, everything that a researcher needs can be condensed and connected. The size of barcodes even makes the container that houses each sample and compound smaller.

Research can speed up with barcodes. If there are 15 researchers across the globe contributing to researching the same subject, barcodes allow them to link all of their information together.

Even patient information can be condensed to the size of a barcode. When this happens, systems save more personalized information. Linking a few threads of information together has never been easier.

Assigning patients unique barcodes allows every patient to be given a unique identification. With just a scan, more information can be gathered about patients than ever before. Every healthcare provider can get access to the same information when all of their data is found in the same place.

5. Barcode Technology Is Coming To Help Us Organise

One of the secrets to running a strong business that can weather changes and continue to grow no matter what is to be well organised. Barcode technology is there to help business owners to organise their sites, their equipment, and even their customer base. With barcodes on your side, you can make it easier to provide service to even the most dispersed customer base.

If you’re looking for reasons to implement barcode technology to help your inventory, check out our guide.