It happens all the time: the boxes are printed, the pallets have arrived — and then a retailer, Amazon, or your new 3PL asks for a UPC barcode on every unit. Or you’ve switched suppliers and the old barcode on …
Blog
Resources for barcodes, UPC/EAN codes, Amazon, and more.
UPC Codes for Shopify Stores: The Barcode Field, When You Need It and How to Add Codes in Bulk
Open any product in your Shopify admin and you will find a Barcode field sitting next to SKU. Shopify lets you leave it empty, and plenty of stores do, until a sales channel refuses to publish a product or a …
Barcodes for Cosmetics and Beauty Products: UPCs and Labels for Jars, Tubes and Bottles
Beauty brands live and die by variety: a lipstick in twelve shades, a serum in two sizes, a lotion in three scents, a holiday set, a travel mini. Every one of those is a product a customer can pick — …
Barcodes for Cosmetics and Beauty Products: UPCs and Labels for Jars, Tubes and Bottles Read More »
Barcode Label Materials: Paper vs. Film, Direct Thermal vs. Thermal Transfer
A barcode label only has one job: scan every time, for as long as the product is on a shelf or in a warehouse. Yet labels fail all the time — they fade in a sunny window, smear in a …
Barcode Label Materials: Paper vs. Film, Direct Thermal vs. Thermal Transfer Read More »
UPC Barcode Files for Packaging Designers: Formats, Size, Color and Quiet Zones
You’ve bought your UPC codes, and now the barcode has to go on the box, bag, or label your designer is building. This is where a surprising number of launches go wrong: a barcode stretched to fit a gap, shrunk …
UPC Barcode Files for Packaging Designers: Formats, Size, Color and Quiet Zones Read More »
How to Read a UPC Barcode: What the 12 Digits, the Bars and the Check Digit Mean
Every product on a store shelf carries the same little rectangle of black bars and twelve digits. Most people never look twice at it — until they’re creating their own product listings, troubleshooting a code that won’t scan, or wondering …
How to Read a UPC Barcode: What the 12 Digits, the Bars and the Check Digit Mean Read More »
How Many UPC Codes Do I Need? Sizes, Colors, Bundles & Multipacks
It’s the first question almost every new brand asks us, and the one that decides how much you spend on barcodes: how many UPC codes do I actually need? Buy too few and you’ll be ordering again before launch; buy …
How Many UPC Codes Do I Need? Sizes, Colors, Bundles & Multipacks Read More »
UPC Barcodes for Clothing & Apparel: Every Size and Color, Hang Tags vs Labels
Clothing is the most barcode-hungry category in retail. A single t-shirt design can turn into two dozen sellable products once you add sizes and colors — and every one of them has to scan as itself at the register, in …
UPC Barcodes for Clothing & Apparel: Every Size and Color, Hang Tags vs Labels Read More »
Do You Need Both a UPC and an EAN? Selling in the US and Europe Explained
You’re gearing up to sell your product in the United States and in Europe — maybe launching on Amazon.com and Amazon.de at the same time. And every guide you read seems to say something different: “Americans use UPCs, Europeans use …
Do You Need Both a UPC and an EAN? Selling in the US and Europe Explained Read More »
Barcodes for Supplements and Vitamins: UPC, FDA Labeling, and Amazon Requirements
Supplements are one of the most profitable — and most paperwork-heavy — categories in e-commerce. Between FDA labeling rules, Amazon’s gated category requirements, and co-manufacturer specs, new supplement founders face a wall of acronyms. And somewhere in that wall sits …
Barcodes for Supplements and Vitamins: UPC, FDA Labeling, and Amazon Requirements Read More »