Introduction
Many cafe & restaurant owners search for a barcode menu while they are actually looking to generate a QR code (Quick Response code) for their menu. In this article, we will briefly explain barcodes, QR codes, and the different ways to use them.
What a Barcode is and what are its different use cases and limitations?
The barcode is used to encode data by having multiple lines with different widths and spaces between them. You can follow a universal encoding, such as UPC (Universal Product Code), or just use it exclusively for internal purposes such as inventory or tracking. In case you plan to sell your products in retail or other industries that require standardized barcodes, you might need to buy unique identifiers to your products from global standardization organizations such as GS1.
When you are checking out in a supermarket or using the barcode scanner to check the price of an item, the POS (Point of Sale) system retrieves the price of the item from the database by searching for the unique identifier of the item printed on the barcode.
A big limitation of barcodes is that they are generally hard to scan by normal people as it requires either a physical barcode scanner or a special app installed on the person's phone.
What a QR Code is and what are its advantages and different use cases?
Similar to the barcode, a QR code is used to encode data. Some advantages of QR codes over barcodes are:
- While a typical barcode holds about 20-25 characters, a QR code can store more than 4000 characters.
- A QR code can be generated to be read accurately even if it is partially damaged or dirty.
- A QR code can easily be read by smartphones.
Because of their properties, QR codes are commonly used by cafes and restaurants to display their menu. In addition, a QR code sticker can be attached to items with lots of price volatility so that consumers can easily check their prices with their mobile phones.
Conclusion
In this article, we provided a brief introduction about barcodes and QR codes, and some of their use cases. If you are a cafe or restaurant owner who wants to use a QR code to display the menu, we highly recommend reading this blog article about best practices to use a QR code for your cafe or restaurant. Otherwise, if you want to have a QR code to help your customers view the price of individual physical items, please feel free to reach out as we can help you in having a dynamic price list with a separate dynamic page for each product.