Barcode.com Posts Solid Growth
At the end the first quarter of 2011, I took a look at our stats to see where we were relative to a year ago. For our first year ending March 2011, our monthly visitor traffic soared by roughly 400%. While we served 200,000 visitors the first year, we’ve already served over 90,000 in our first quarter of 2011.
Barcode.com or The Bar Code News, got underway at the beginning of 2010, with just a few articles. Today, the site has grown to hundreds and hundreds of articles, case studies, technical documents and all kinds of content relative to the bar code, QR Code and RFID industry. We have written about QR codes quite a bit – the growth in this niche is explosive – and also we’ve covered the mobile barcode apps that are soaring in popularity, but have only begun to penetrate the marketplace. Other features on the website include a database of companies in the bar code industry, free bar code generator apps - including a brand new program that lets users print sheets of bar codes, either repetitive or sequentially numbered, in common Avery label formats. More features are planned as well.
In hindsight, the first year has been exciting, frustrating, gratifying, illuminating, and raised as many questions as was answered. “Why are you, the visitor, at this site, and how can we provide what you are looking for?” is my number one question – and you can always email me directly at “ca [at] barcode.com” to tell me. Many of you have shared your needs or ideas with us, and we are grateful for your input.
Some of our more popular stories involve the use of QR codes in advertising. The story about “Target using QR Codes” in their holiday catalog was perhaps our most widely read article. That piece, and many others, was written by Katrina Costedio, our editor and head surfer. Katrina is sometimes referred to as “that Barcode Babe” by readers I have had contact with.
Our newsletters, which go out every other week, are also extremely well read and I am grateful to have Erin Thayer on our staff who very diligently prepares them. Erin also writes columns regularly, including a number of case studies.
The BarCode News does not run without technical and programming support, and we are lucky to have some very talented staff to keep us out of trouble and moving forward. Thanks to Peter and Arvind.
Additionally, we are also indebted to a number of other writers who have contributed material in the last year – you can find them on the Contributing Authors page.
Our other site – www.pointofsale.com - which serves as ThePointofSale News has also experienced excellent growth and while quite small – about 60,000 visitors last year, serves a very narrow and focused niche. That growth has also been significant and in the first quarter of 2011, we had over 30,000 visitors. Retail store technology is undergoing a fundamental shift right now. We’re not just talking about mobile point of sale terminals, or cashiers armed with iPhone/barcode readers/order pads/credit card readers. Everything that exists at the point of sale is being re-examined and re-invented by users inside and outside of the traditional point of sale industry.
2011 has seen a number of exciting events in the barcode and pointofsale industries. Barcodes continue to penetrate business processes throughout every society and in every country. Not just QR codes and 2D bar codes, but traditional bar code technology as well is increasing in use.
Current studies suggest that only one in four adults in the US have a smartphone. As I view it - this means that the use of QR codes and mobile bar code apps is only just getting going. How exciting!!
Thank you all for your suggestions - please keep them coming! Let us know what you need and what you are interested in. We'll do our best to provide it.