Barcode and ASIN scanner

A scanner is one of the things every seller asks for first when they hear about a mobile app. The use cases are obvious: in the warehouse, scan a unit, see your live stock and recent sales. At a trade show, scan a product, see if anyone’s selling it on Amazon and what the buy box looks like. Receiving stock, scan to confirm the ASIN matches the PO.

This page describes what’s coming, why it’s not in the app today, and what to expect when it ships.

What this will let you do

• Scan a barcode — UPC, EAN, ASIN-encoded barcodes — with the device camera.
• Type an ASIN — fall-back when there’s no barcode, or to look up a competitor.
• Jump to the product in Hilal:
  • Your live stock and run-rate.
  • Recent sales metrics.
  • Outstanding FBA shipments containing the SKU.
  • The review feed.
  • Active campaigns targeting the ASIN.
• From a competitor’s ASIN — see if it’s similar to anything in your catalog, with a side-by-side comparison panel.

How it’ll work (preview)

Triggering:

1. Long-press the FAB → Scan, or
2. From the Products tab → top-right scanner icon.

The scanner camera opens with a viewfinder. As soon as a barcode is detected, the app:

• Vibrates briefly to confirm.
• Decodes the barcode → resolves to an ASIN.
• Looks up the ASIN in Hilal’s product cache.
• If you sell it: opens the Product detail page.
• If you don’t sell it: opens a “Competitor ASIN” view with public Amazon data.

Edge cases:

• No barcode in view — the scanner times out at 30s, suggests typing the ASIN manually.
• Damaged barcode — same fallback.
• ASIN not on Amazon — you’ll see a “Not found” message.

Why it’s not in the app today

The barcode scanner uses native modules (camera + ML Kit / Vision) that need careful permission handling. We’re sequencing it after the Notes → Chatbot KB launch so as not to fragment our shipping focus.

Status

• Library choice: expo-camera + expo-barcode-scanner (both already in the dependency stack from earlier work).
• Permissions: camera permission already requested for image-attachment flow; we’ll re-use.
• UI design: in progress.
• Beta: planned alongside the other Coming-soon items in the next major release.

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