You’ve started a small business – congratulations! Some of your products must be priced by weight and you can’t decide between all the trade approved options out there, including price computing scales. Which type of scale is best for your small business? There’re seven key factors to keep in mind while shopping. Let’s discuss.
What’s a Trade-Approved Scale?
First and foremost, when you sell products by weight, you are legally required to use a trade-approved weighing scale to determine prices. Trade-approval is an extra certification that signifies your readings are accurate enough to be used for commercial purposes. If you’re discovered to have been using a scale that isn’t trade-approved to set prices, you could be heavily fined. For a small business, fines can be a monumental setback for operations.
Some industries, like the botanicals industry, simply employ trade approved scales not to price by weight but to ensure that everything is accurately and correctly tracked – recording the value in a trustworthy manner.
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Different regions have a different association that grants trade approval. In the United States, scales are granted approval from the National Type Evaluation Program (NTEP) while Canada grants Measurement Canada approval. Europe gets European Commission (EC) approval, while in South Africa it’s from the National Regulator for Compulsory Specification (NCRS). Finally, Australia is approved by the National Measurement Institute, or NMI.
What’s a Price Computing Scale?
It’s important to understand that a price computing scale is a type of trade-approved scale. However, unlike regular legal-for-trade scales that have been certified as accurate enough for commercial use, price computing scales have been designed specifically for retail applications. They display not only weight, but unit price and total price for a customer to pay. They also typically offer extra features, such as an extensive memory, that may help make certain processes easier. Our Swift Price Computing Retail Scale is one-of-a-kind in our product lineup.
Which is Best for Your Small Business?
Not all small businesses are built the same, so of course, there’s no one right answer. However, there are a few aspects to take into consideration when you’re shopping for your new business scale.
1. Necessary Capacity
We offer eight different pillar and non-pillar models of the Swift Price Computing Retail Scale. Their capacities range from 1.5kg / 3kg to 15kg / 30kg, ideal for most average sized products. Should your products fall on the lighter side, you may wish to utilize our Highland Approved Portable Precision Balance, which would grant you finer precision in exchange for less capacity. The Highland is ideal for high-quality precision work in the jewelry industry. Likewise, if the products you sell are typically heavier than 30kg, a higher capacity floor scale such as our GFK-M or our PTaM Platform Scales are an excellent choice.
2. Your Environment
The Swift features a stainless-steel pan for easy cleaning as well as drip channels to divert any spills away from the scale’s internal components. It’s fantastic for those that don’t need much protection from water or dust.
For those whose business involves the risk of frequent spills or other messiness that will necessitate thorough cleanings (such as catering or a restaurant), we recommend our Gladiator Approved Bench or Floor Scales, which are IP68 rated. The Gladiator is fully water and dust-proof, perfect for any damp, dirty, wet or humid environment you may find yourself in.
3. Business Operations and Efficiency
For very small businesses with only a few products, a trade approved scale without price computing abilities offers efficiency stemming from their simpler operation. This is because determining pricing manually won’t be as time-consuming. Businesses on the medium to large side of small will find themselves more efficient with our Swift.
Swift boasts an extensive memory system – 161 Product Lookups, or PLUs. PLUs allow you to store the unit prices per 100g or per kilogram of up to 161 products. This makes it exceedingly quick and efficient to determine the proper pricing for a customer. Simply type in the reference number for the product, weigh it, and the Swift will instantly calculate the price your customer will pay.
Swift may take a bit more initial effort on your part to input all the product information, but if you have a higher number of products, it’s well worth the time now to reduce the time spent calculating prices manually later. When you need to change your prices or add a new product to your selection, once the details are in your Swift, there’s no learning curve involved. You don’t have to remember that the price changed – your Swift does it for you.
4. Multifunctionality
Some scales like our Cruiser CKT-M Approved Checkweighing Scales are multifunctional. This is excellent for businesses that have some products priced by weight while others aren’t – a two for one deal, if you will.
For example, if you sell individual fruits and vegetables by weight but sell boxes of produce for one set price. The checkweighing application can be used to help guarantee that each carton of fruit is approximately the same weight as another. For example, cartons of blueberries.
In addition, the CKT-M offers parts-counting, check counting, accumulation and percentage weighing. You can perform a variety of weighing tasks in addition to pricing by weight. Our Swift can only perform price computing function in addition to regular weighing.
5. Customer Experience
All our trade-approved scales are undeniably effective behind-the-scenes as well as front-and-center. However, if your business is customer-facing, you can’t beat Swift in terms of overall customer experience.
With three displays on both the front and rear of the scale, the weight of the product, unit price and price to pay are clearly visible to both you and your customer. This inspires a level of trust you may not otherwise get should these results be withheld. It allows for immediate feedback and communication – if there’s an issue or a discrepancy, it can be noticed and rectified before the transaction is complete.
Furthermore, people don’t like waiting in line. There are other errands to run, people to see, jobs to get back to. It’s stressful trying to manually calculate prices when there’s ten impatient people staring at you. Swift reduces this stress by helping smoothy facilitate each transaction, allowing you to focus on building a rapport with your clientele.
6. Data and Reporting
Our trade-approved scales, including Swift, require an additional accessory such as our ATP 2 Thermal Printer or our to effectively provide you with data reporting. Otherwise, any records will need to be recorded manually.
Our ATP 2 Thermal Printers allow you to print weighing results on paper, which you can tear off and provide to your customer as a receipt or keep for your own records and inventory tracking. Printed records straight from your weighing scale reduce the risk of errors from copying the results incorrectly, whether handwritten or typed. Swift has the additional benefit of including not only the weight in the printout but the unit price and total price via the RS-232 interface – like the image below.
The Adam DU is advanced software that can connect as many as eight scales at once. It performs detailed data analysis that you can use to make informed business decisions. Track sales quickly and easily.
7. Cost and Budget
If you’re just starting out or you maintain a less-is-more business structure, our Swift may seem like a bit too much in scope and expense. When you’re only juggling a few priced-by-weight products and you’re not required to speed through transactions, a legal-for-trade compact, bench or floor scale is an affordable and convenient solution.
However, if you’re planning to grow or you already have an extensive list of products that are priced by weight, the higher initial investment for the Swift is worth it. It’ll pay for itself in saved time, improved efficiency and reduced errors in the long run.
With proven precision and accuracy, near instantaneous stabilization times and long battery lives, you can’t go wrong with any of our legal-for-trade or price computing scales for your small business. If you’re still unsure which one’s right for you, contact us and we’ll be happy to help.