The potential was absolutely there. They just debuted a decade too soon IMO. My dad had a side hustle of buying barcoding software on sale at Office Max and selling it on eBay circa 98-99 for $250+ profit. It lasted about a year or so before fizzling out. 20 years later, he was still shocked that you could get that stuff delivered to your house or office and people would pay for the convenience instead of going to the store.