Barcodes make your business processes more efficient. Whether you’re looking to track information about goods, store it, or both, barcodes can serve an important role in your daily operations. Barcodes have several advantages over manually entering or looking up information:
Thankfully, printing and using UPC barcodes for your products is simple, but it does require following a few essential steps. We’ll layout for you exactly how to print product barcodes so you can begin using them to positively impact your business.
At this point, you may be asking yourself, “what is a GS1 product number?” GS1 stands for Global Standards One. Before your company can begin using barcodes, you must have assigned numbers that go inside the barcode, which are called GS1 identification keys. To obtain these, you apply for your company prefix from a GS1 member organization. A prefix allows you to create unique identification keys for the items, units, locations, coupons, parties, assets, and more. Currently, over 1.3 million companies worldwide use GS1 company prefixes as the basis for creating unique numbers to identify items within their supply chains.
GS1 barcodes are the standard for the industry and are mandatory for most online retailers. If, for example, you’re wondering, “what kind of barcode do I need to sell on Amazon?” the answer is a GS1 barcode. Going to GS1 and filling out their application for a company prefix is one of the most important steps to barcode your products.
After you receive your GS1 company prefix, you can begin to assign unique identification numbers to each of your trade items, locations, units, assets, or anything After you receive your GS1 company prefix, you can begin to assign unique identification numbers to each of your trade items, locations, units, assets, or anything else that you need to track. One of the most important things to remember is that each variation of a product that you sell will require its unique product number. If, for example, your company makes a pair of pants, but those pants come in 12 different sizes and three different colors, you have 36 different product variations for that product. You can estimate how many barcodes you will need using GS1’s barcode estimator. Once you receive your company prefix, a member organization from GS1 can help you decide how many numbers you can assign based on the length of your prefix.
At this point, you may be thinking, “where do I get a UPC code for my product?” If you are using UPCs to identify products, then each one will have a unique Global Trade Item Number (GTIN). You create a GTIN by combining your prefix number with a product number that you assign, with a “check digit” on the end to ensure that the GTIN is created correctly. You can use your GTIN and UPC barcode anywhere in the world.
The next step in creating your universal product code and label is creating its features, such as placement, size, color, and adhesive. Some of the most common questions that people have regarding this step of the process include:
The final step in using a barcode is ordering them and getting them printed. Among the most common questions and concerns are:
RRoyal Label will work with you to implement your GS1 barcode. We have certified GS1 barcode generating software along with scanning, grading, and reporting devices to ensure your GS1 barcodes comply with global standards. For more information about scheduling an audit of our facility or how we can help you meet your medical labeling needs, please call Marychristine Clifford at 1-617-825-6050 Ext. 105 or send an email to [email protected].
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