Walmart Marketplace will not let you set up an item without a product ID, and it looks closely at the ID you give it. Sellers who arrive from eBay, Etsy or their own Shopify store are often surprised by how …
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Resources for barcodes, UPC/EAN codes, Amazon, and more.
Google Shopping and Merchant Center: Why Valid GTINs Get Your Products Seen
You’ve set up Google Merchant Center, connected your store, and your products are finally eligible to show in Google Shopping — then the warnings start: “Limited performance due to missing identifiers,” or worse, items disapproved for an invalid GTIN. Many …
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Do You Need a UPC to Sell on eBay? Product Identifiers, “Does Not Apply” and When a UPC Helps
List a new item on eBay and you’ll quickly meet the “Item specifics” section with a UPC field, a Brand field, and an MPN field — and a tempting option called “Does not apply.” Sellers moving over from Etsy or …
Can You Reuse or Transfer a UPC Code? Discontinued Products, Rebrands and Selling Your Business
Products come and go. A flavor gets discontinued, a line is rebranded, a small brand is sold to a bigger one. And each time, the same question comes up about the barcodes: can you reuse a UPC code for a …
Already Printed Your Packaging Without a Barcode? How to Add UPC Barcode Stickers That Scan
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 …
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 — …
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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 …
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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 »