Barcode label printing software for retail shops

The label problem in a retail shop

Barcode label printing software makes a barcode for each item, lays out the label and sends it to a label printer or an A4 sticker sheet. Without it, shops write prices with a marker, or keep a separate label program where the items and prices have to be typed again.

That second copy is where things go wrong. A fancy shop raises the price of a hundred items, the old stickers stay, and the customer argues at the counter. A garment shop gets a new lot in five sizes and nobody has time to label them. A jewellery shop needs small tags with weights and HUID that a normal sticker cannot hold.

What Cartix Prime prints

A label designer with real fields

Place any of these on the label: item name, selling price, MRP (which can be struck through), "You save", the local-language name, item code, barcode number, category, brand, unit, shop name, your own text, and item details such as size and colour. Malayalam and Hindi names wrap correctly on the label.

For jewellery tags there are fields for purity, gross, net and stone weight, HUID, making charge and design code.

Ready templates

• Barcode 50x25 mm
• Barcode 38x25 mm, two across
• Price tag 50x30 mm
• Shelf tag 75x50 mm
• A4 sheet of 65
• Jewellery tag 90x13 mm

Start from a template and change it, or design your own on a roll size of 50x25, 38x25, two-across 38x25, 50x30, 50x38, 75x50, 100x50 or 90x13 mm. For A4 sticker sheets of 65, 40, 24 or 12 labels, you can start from any position, so a part-used sheet is not wasted.

Barcode types

Cartix Prime prints EAN-13, UPC-A or EAN-8 when the number is a valid retail code, and Code 128 for anything else. Items with no barcode get an in-store EAN-13 made for them, checked to be unused in your shop. Each size or colour variant can have its own barcode. Labels carry barcodes only, not QR codes, and batch and expiry are not label fields.

Three ways to print

Direct TSPL printing sends the label in the printer's own language, which usually gives sharper barcodes on small 38x25 labels than printing as a picture through a driver.

How it works at the counter and the stockroom

1. Pick a template, or open the label designer and set your fields.
2. Choose how to print: driver, direct USB (TSPL) or Print Bridge.
3. Print in bulk from where the work already is:
   • from a purchase entry, with the quantities that came in;
   • from Selling prices, right after a price change;
   • from the items list, for any items you select;
   • from a stock audit, for shelves you have just counted.
4. Use "copies = stock" to print one label for each piece in stock.
5. Stick the labels and scan them at the counter like any other barcode.

For loose items packed by weight, Cartix Prime also prints weighed-pack labels with the name, weight, price, rate, packing date and a scale barcode starting with 21. That is covered on the weighing scale billing page.

Who uses label printing

• Supermarkets and kirana stores that pack their own rice, pulses and spices and want them scanned at the counter.
• Garment, footwear and fancy shops with sizes and colours, each needing its own barcode.
• Jewellery shops printing 90x13 mm tags with purity, weights, HUID and making charge.
• Any shop that changes prices often and wants shelf tags and price tags to match the bill.

New to barcodes? The guide on barcodes for a retail shop explains maker's barcodes, in-store codes and what to buy. Scanning at the counter is on the barcode billing page.

Which plan has label printing

Barcode label printing and the label designer are on Silver and above. Silver is ₹4,999 a year for one computer and one phone, or ₹1,099 phone only, before 18% GST. Gold and Platinum include it too. Every new shop gets 7 days of Silver free, no card needed, which is enough to print a test roll on your own printer. See the pricing page for every plan.