Essential Guide to Pricing Guns for Your Business
Date Posted:27 March 2024
Pricing guns are essential for retail businesses, offering a simple yet effective method for labelling merchandise with price information. These devices streamline the process of marking inventory and ensure consistency and clarity in pricing for customers and staff.
In an environment where efficiency and accuracy are paramount, pricing guns become increasingly significant. This blog will shed light on the functionality of pricing guns, illustrating how they operate to print price labels and apply them to products with ease.
By understanding the basic mechanics and benefits of pricing guns, retailers can make informed decisions when selecting the right tool for their business needs and maximise their effectiveness in the market.
Single-Line Pricing Gun
A single-line pricing gun is the most common type, equipped with a single row of numbers or characters that can be adjusted to display any desired price. These guns are ideal for businesses that offer products at fixed prices and do not require additional information on their labels.
Single-line pricing guns, such as Meto models 718, 722, 1026, 626, and the Jolly pricing gun, are equipped with a range of features designed to meet the demands of retail labelling. These tools allow the user to quickly set and adjust to the desired price with a single row of digits, making them exceptionally efficient for pricing various products.
A notable feature of Meto single-line pricing guns is their durability; each part of the pricing gun is replaceable, significantly extending the device's lifespan beyond many alternatives.
Two-Line Pricing Guns
As the name suggests, two-line pricing guns are equipped with two rows of digits to simultaneously display price and additional information. These guns are commonly used for price marking, date coding, and batch coding.
The Open C20, a two-line Price Marker and Date Coder, alongside the 2026 Meto RedStar offers versatility. The Open C20 Two-line Price Marker and Date Coder are ideal for businesses that must display product price and date information, facilitating clear communication with consumers regarding product freshness or sale timelines.
The 2026 Meto RedStar series, including the Full Alphabet Price Gun/Date Gun 2026 Meto Redstar Pricemarker/Datecoder 2026A, extends this utility by offering the capability to include alphabetical information. This mainly benefits products requiring batch codes, lot numbers, or short descriptive texts.
Three-Line Pricing Gun
The three-line pricing gun is the most versatile of all pricing guns. With three rows of digits, this tool can display price, date, and additional information such as product descriptions. They are mainly used for price marking, date coding, batch coding, and general coding. This type of gun can also be used for labeling inventory, organising files, and managing warehouse operations.
The best example of the three-line pricing gun is 3329 Meto Advanced Hand Labelling Tool, Three-line as it offers three separate lines for printing on a single label, which can be customised according to individual needs. This allows for more efficient and organised labelling of products, making it a popular choice among businesses.
Selecting the Perfect Pricing Gun for Your Business
When selecting the perfect pricing gun for your business, it's crucial to take a systematic approach. You can read our article ‘5 Reasons You Need a Pricing Gun’, which explains the importance of pricing guns for businesses in more detail. Here are some key factors to consider:
Understanding Your Business Needs
Start by meticulously understanding your business's specific needs. Do you require a simple tool for pricing or a more advanced system for managing inventory? Your daily operations and the volume of items you label daily will dictate the type of pricing gun you need.
Matching Features with Requirements
Once you've identified your needs, match them with the features offered by different pricing guns. If your products require detailed information like batch codes or expiration dates, opt for a model that supports alphanumeric characters. The size of the labels, ease of loading label rolls, and gun durability are other features to consider.
Budget Considerations
Budget is an essential factor in your decision-making process. Analyse not only the initial cost of the pricing gun but also the cost of consumables like labels and ink rollers. An initially more expensive model might be more cost-effective in the long run due to lower operating costs or higher durability.
Best Practices for Pricing Gun Maintenance
To ensure your pricing gun operates efficiently, consider the following best practices:
- Proper handling of ink cartridges and label rolls is crucial for maintaining the performance of your pricing gun.
- Ensure you're using the correct type of ink and labels the manufacturer recommends.
- If labels are not feeding correctly, check for obstructions in the path and ensure the roll is correctly inserted.
- Poor print quality can often be resolved by replacing the ink rolleror cleaning the print head. Only ever use a dry toothbrush to clean the printhead.
- If the gun jams, carefully remove the jammed label and inspect the mechanism for any lodged debris.
For more information, check out our FAQs, where we answer common questions about pricing guns, including maintenance tips.
Conclusion
In summary, pricing guns are versatile and practical devices that offer many benefits to retail businesses. These tools have become a staple in the retail industry, from saving time and increasing accuracy to improving customer experience and maximising profits. Investing in a quality pricing gun and mastering its use can significantly impact the success of your business