QR code inventory system

Barcodes identify a product. A UPC on a tin of paint says what the tin is, and every identical tin carries the same code, which is exactly what a shop till needs.

QR codes can hold far more, and crucially they can identify this particular box, shelf or bay rather than a product type. They also scan from any angle with an ordinary phone camera, need no dedicated scanner gun, and stay readable when partly scuffed. For storage, where most of what you own has no product code at all, that difference is the whole argument.

The instinct is to put a code on every object. It is a lot of printing and sticking, and most household and workshop items have no flat surface worth labelling.

Labelling locations scales far better. One code per box, shelf, rack or bay, and the app holds the list of what is inside. You print a few dozen labels instead of a few thousand, and finding something becomes a search that ends in a location rather than a hunt that ends in a code.

Scanning tells you what is in the thing you are already standing in front of. It does not tell you which of forty boxes to walk to. That is search, and a QR system without good search behind it just makes you scan boxes one at a time, which is barely faster than opening them.

It also does not maintain itself. If items leave a box and nobody records it, the code confidently reports contents that are not there. Any system, QR or not, is only as good as the habit of updating it, which is why capture speed matters more than label technology.

In Locately the QR code is step two, not step one. You photograph an open box first and AI drafts labels for what it sees, then you print one code for that spot. Scanning shows the contents and their photos; searching by name returns the location path and takes you to the right box in the first place.

Printing QR labels is on the free plan, along with unlimited items and locations. Locately is pre-launch, so this describes what is being built rather than something you can use today.