How barcode scanning works in easySales: products, warehouse locations, returns and packing

By easySales Team · Updated 12 Jul 2026 · 4 min read

The Scan menu in easySales groups four barcode tools — find a product, tag shelf locations, handle parcels that came back, and pick & pack orders. Here's what each one does and when to use it.

A barcode scanner replaces slow, error-prone catalog work with a single quick scan. easySales groups its scanning tools under one Scan section in the left-hand menu — four tools that each solve a different warehouse problem, from looking up a single product to picking and packing a whole batch of orders.

This guide explains what each tool does, what it matches when you scan, and when to reach for which. Packing has its own in-depth guide; the other three are covered in full here.

The Scan menu — four tools at a glance

Open the Scan section (the barcode icon) in the left menu and you'll see four entries. They look similar but do very different jobs:

easySales left menu with the Scan section expanded showing four tools: Packing, Return to Sender, Scan Products, Scan Locations
The Scan section groups four barcode tools, each for a different job.
Tool What you scan → what it does
Scan Products A product barcode → opens it to check and fix EAN, stock, location
Scan Locations A location, then product EANs → tags shelf locations in bulk
Return to Sender A returned parcel's AWB → records what's coming back
Packing An AWB, then product EANs → picks & packs the order
Four tools, four jobs — they share the barcode, not the workflow.

Scan Products — find and fix a product by barcode

Scan Products is the fastest way to pull up a single product and correct its key fields. Use it at the shelf when you need to check or fix a product without hunting through the catalog.

Open Scan → Scan Products, pick the shop the product belongs to, then scan or type its barcode. easySales matches on SKU, EAN, or any alternative barcode, so almost any identifier on the product works.

easySales Scan Products screen with a search box and a matched product row showing editable EAN, stock and warehouse location
Scan a code, and the product opens with its EAN, stock and location ready to edit.

The matching product appears in a compact row where you can edit the fields that matter most on the floor — EAN, stock, and warehouse location — and save them on the spot. It's a lookup-and-correct tool, not a bulk editor: one product at a time, changed and saved in seconds.

Scan Locations — tag shelf locations in bulk

Scan Locations assigns physical shelf locations to your products by scanning. This is how you tell easySales where each item lives, so they're ready for the packing team.

The flow is two-stage:

  1. Open Scan → Scan Locations and enter the location code first (your shelf or bin identifier, e.g. H4-7).
  2. Pick the shop, then scan the EAN of each product that sits on that shelf. Each scanned product is added to a list under that location.
easySales Scan Locations screen with the shelf location code entered in the scan field
A location scan starts here — enter the shelf code, then pick the shop and scan each product's EAN into it.

When the shelf is done, save the batch — easySales writes that location onto every scanned product at once (up to 20 per location). Matching is by EAN, including any alternative barcodes you've stored on the product, so products with more than one barcode still resolve.

Return to Sender — process parcels that came back

When a courier returns an undelivered parcel, Return to Sender records it cleanly instead of leaving you to reverse the order by hand.

Open Scan → Return to Sender and scan the AWB barcode on the returned parcel. easySales finds the matching order and lists its products, each with a return quantity you can adjust. If you want to verify the physical contents, you can optionally scan each product's barcode to count it down. Click Finish scan when the parcel is accounted for.

easySales Return to Sender screen with the AWB scan field ready to look up a returned order
Scan the returned parcel's AWB to pull up its order and what's coming back.

Packing — scan AWBs to pick & pack

The fourth tool, Packing (Scan AWBs), is the high-volume pick-and-pack workflow: scan the AWB on the shipping label, the order opens, and you scan each product's EAN to check it off before it goes in the box. Because it's the most involved of the four, it has its own dedicated guide.

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Read next
How to scan AWBs and pack orders in easySales
AWB scanning lets your warehouse team verify and pack orders by scanning the barcode on the shipping label. The right order opens instantly, products are checked off as you scan them, and the order is marked packed automatically. This guide covers where to find the scanner, how packing works, and how it ties into processing groups.
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Scanners, EANs & tips

A few things that make scanning smooth across all four tools:

  • What each tool matches on. Scan Locations resolves products by their EAN, including any alternative barcodes on the product. Return to Sender's optional product count matches on EAN or SKU (no alternative barcodes). Scan Products is the most forgiving — it matches on SKU, EAN, and alternative barcodes.
  • Set locations once, reap them at packing. The warehouse locations you tag with Scan Locations show up in the packing screen's warehouse column, so pickers walk the shortest path to each item.

Frequently asked questions

They share the barcode but do different jobs. Scan Products opens a single product so you can check and fix its EAN, stock and location. Scan Locations tags shelf locations onto products in bulk. Return to Sender records the contents of a parcel that came back undelivered. Packing (Scan AWBs) is the pick-and-pack workflow — scan the shipping label, then scan each product into the box.

No. Any standard USB barcode scanner works — it behaves like a keyboard, typing the scanned code into whichever field is active. You can also type codes by hand when you don't have a scanner, so you can try every tool without buying hardware first.

It depends on the tool. Scan Locations matches on the product's EAN, including any alternative barcodes stored on the product. Return to Sender's optional per-product count matches on EAN or SKU (it doesn't look at alternative barcodes). Scan Products is broadest — it matches on SKU, EAN and alternative barcodes, so almost any identifier you scan or type will find the product.

That happens when the EAN you scanned is set on more than one product. Because a barcode is meant to identify one product, easySales won't guess between them — it flags the conflict instead. Find the duplicate EANs in your catalog and make each one unique, and the scan will resolve cleanly.

No. Return to Sender records the return quantity on the order's products — it doesn't move stock or open a formal return by itself. What it does do is fire an event you can hook automation Flows onto, so you can choose to restock, raise a return, or change the order status automatically. Without a Flow, it simply captures what came back for you to act on.

No — the camera in easySales doesn't decode barcodes. In the Packing (Scan AWBs) workflow the camera can capture a photo of the parcel as proof of packing, but it's just a picture, not a scan. AWBs and product barcodes are always entered with a USB barcode scanner or by typing the code by hand. Point a handheld scanner at the field, or type the code — the camera won't read it for you.

You set a product's warehouse location either on the product itself or, in bulk, with Scan Locations — enter a shelf code, then scan every product on that shelf. Once set, the location shows up in the packing screen's warehouse column, so pickers know exactly which aisle and row to walk to for each item.

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