How to get a barcode for your product

You make halva, cosmetics or clothing under your own brand, and a retail chain says "give us a barcode". There are plenty of ready-made generators online, but the numbers they produce do not become yours. The right route has a few steps, and most of them are done once.

Do you need a code and where to get it

First answer one question: does the product leave your warehouse? If it only circulates in internal records, an internal code is enough. For retail chains, a marketplace or export you need a number from the GS1 system. Ask the buyer for their written requirements in advance: some demand a verified GTIN.

If you are an importer and the product already carries the manufacturer's code, you do not need to assign your own: use the manufacturer's number. You need your own number only when you launch a new product under your own brand.

Obtain a company prefix

You get the company prefix from the national GS1 member organisation. Usually you write an application, submit documents confirming the business and pay the membership fee. In return you receive a company prefix and a document confirming it. Ask the organisation itself for the amount and the list of documents, as they change.

The process does not finish in a day: time passes between the application and the issue of the prefix, so apply well before the pack artwork goes to the printer.

The length of the prefix sets how many products you can number. If your range is 10 items now but could be 300 in five years, say so in the application: a shorter prefix leaves room for more numbers.

Give every variant its own number

Each saleable variant, meaning each volume, flavour, colour or size, gets its own number. The company chooses the item number itself, and the check digit is calculated. An imaginary example (prefix 4780000):

• Halva, 250 g — 4780000000014
• Halva, 500 g — 4780000000021
• Halva, 1 kg — 4780000000038
• Chocolate halva, 250 g — 4780000000045

When is a new number needed? When the name or brand, net weight, pack type or composition changes noticeably. A new design in a different colour does not need a new number if the product itself has not changed. Keep the numbers in a table: number, product name, size, date assigned. Do not give the number of a withdrawn product to another product straight away, because old stock may circulate in shops for years.

Draw the code and place it on the pack

Do not draw the code by hand; use a ready generator or print-shop software and take the image in vector form (SVG, EPS). The standard size with quiet zones is about 37×26 mm, and scaling is allowed from 80 to 200 percent. Do not stretch the code or shrink it below 80 percent.

Place the code on the pack like this:

1. On a flat area without creases, away from edges and seams.
2. Usually on the back or the base, in the same place on all your products.
3. Dark (black) bars on a white or light background. Many scanners cannot read red bars.
4. On a curved surface (a bottle, a tube) run the bars parallel to the axis.

If a printing house prints the pack, give it the code file together with the artwork and ask it to allow for the bars spreading slightly in print: as ink spreads, thin gaps can fill in. If you instead stick a label on a finished pack, it is better to print it on a thermal transfer printer.

Once the code is ready, enter the numbers in the 1C item card, send them to partners together with the product data and add them to the marketplace listing. Before the first batch ships, test the real packaging with the warehouse scanner.

Common mistakes

• Copying another product's number or writing "random" 13 digits: a clash results.
• One number for packs of different sizes.
• Printing the code too small or with a low-contrast background.
• Keeping no number table: a year later nobody knows which number belongs to which product.
• Forgetting the membership fee: the right to use the prefix depends on payment, so watch the deadlines.

Conclusion

Getting a barcode for a product comes down to an application, a prefix and a tidy numbering table. During a count the Shtrix team checks codes against your database, and for goods without a code it creates an internal one, prepares labels and applies them.