| GS1 DataBar is better known by its old name – RSS (Reduced Space Symbols) – and has a lot to offer retailers. The main benefit is that it can carry more information in less space. John Curnow, NCR’s retail industry director for the UK and Ireland, explains that: “GS1 DataBar Symbols can identify small
items as they can be over 50 per cent smaller than the current EAN/UPC barcode.”
Curnow goes on to say that GS1 DataBar will enable Global Trade Item Number (GTIN) identification for hard-to-mark products like fresh foods, and can carry GS1 Application Identifiers such as serial numbers, batch/lot numbers and expiry dates. He adds: “This creates the opportunity for solutions supporting product authentication and traceability, product quality and effectiveness, and variable measure product identification.”
Tim Brown, solutions manager at GS1 UK, says that, “The important thing about 2010 is that it is a target date. It is not a single date when suddenly everything will change.” How are British retailers responding to this new barcode? Brown observes that GS1 UK has been testing retailer readiness, globally, for the past two years. “In the UK specifically, we are in constant communication with the top 20 retailers to assess their readiness, and we have a programme in place for contacting, communicating and providing information for the tens of thousands of other retailers that are out there as well.”
So far, Tesco and Nestle have said they are backing the UK adoption of the standard. And Brown says that the former is trailing the system. “We bought some tomatoes with GS1 DataBars on them to use in training sessions from a local central London branch and also on another occasion at a Salford Quays branch in Manchester.”
Cause for concern
One issue for retailers, who are thinking of using DataBar, is concern about their existing equipment and its compatibility with it. Brown’s figures show that most barcode scanner chips in the past five years are GS1-capable (though they may need the GS1 functionality switching on) and scanners shipped in the past eight years are upgradeable to GS1 with a firmware upgrade. If a retailer wants to test the GS1 compatibility of their barcode scanner, GS1 UK will send them a test card. Barcode scanner manufacturers are keen to reassure retailers that they are ready for GS1 DataBar.
Paul Hewitt, technical manager at Datalogic Scanning, says: “We have been working to ensure that the new GS1 DataBar code will have no negative impact on productivity at the front end.” He goes on to say that: “Currently, around only 60 per cent of installed retail scanners are capable of reading GS1 DataBar. However, I can confidently say all of our current product range is compliant with the new code.”
Henri Barten, application engineer at Honeywell, says that: “Products with a flash-based application software can normally be upgraded with a new firmware version that does support GS1 DataBar. The current Honeywell product line does support it, and older products in the current product line can be upgraded.”
Are retailers showing any signs of switching on the GS1 functionality in their barcode scanners? Grant Wickes, vice president of marketing at Wasp Barcode Technologies, comments: “We did not see much uptake in demand for RSS and we do not expect much more demand now with its ‘new and improved’ name DataBar.”
The checkout is an area where a hold-up, such as entering codes, reduces efficiency. Curnow explains how DataBar can help with smaller items, such as fruit. “Currently individual apples usually carry small labels that include a four digit number to identify them. Checkout systems have been developed that prompt staff to key enter this number in order to identify the apple.” This, of course, takes time, especially if the customer has bought several different types of fruit.
Curnow explains that some retailers are now carrying out trials using labels that carry a stacked version of GS1 DataBar, so that the individual apples (or other similar fruit or even vegetables) can be scanned. As keying in the barcode takes longer than simply scanning it, this saves time and helps keep the checkout as efficient as possible. However, all these changes can be expensive, especially if a
retailer decides to support DataBar across their business. Wickes comments: “It is expensive for retailers to update their infrastructure to fully support it. This would require updates to hardware such as barcode printers to print these barcodes, updates to barcode software to create the barcode labels, and new scanners to read the new form, as well as potential backend software modification at the supply chain level.”
Despite the possibility of extra costs, it is not just retailing giants such as Tesco who are interested in DataBar. Olives Et Al is planning to install it. The business, as its name suggests, sells olives, nuts and seeds to delicatessens, department stores and also has 14,000 mail order clients. Giles Henschel, managing director, explains that, “the struggle to create and maintain clean data regarding products and locations is ever present and especially so for a relatively small company.”
“As such the GS1 standard will greatly assist with this and allow us to be more innovative and creative in the systems we use across the business,” he adds. “Although it will be a major project affecting every department within the company the eventual reward of joining things up in a data-led way so that everyone from customers to suppliers to internal and external staff are all able to exchange clean, consistent and accurate information is well worth working for.”
The next few years will be an interesting time for GS1 DataBar. It offers many benefits to retailers who are willing to implement the system. And if growing companies like Olives Et Al can make a business case for it, then there could be a lot of life left in the humble barcode.
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