Supplying a marketplace: label and barcode requirements

When you send goods to a marketplace, the receiving warehouse sees thousands of packages a day and runs each one past a scanner. If the code will not read or the label does not meet the rules, the goods are delayed or sent back, and relabelling costs time and money. What follows is not a set of exact rules, because those change, but a routine for getting them and applying them.

First get the current rules

Marketplaces, Uzum for example, usually publish their label and packaging requirements in seller guides and change them from time to time. So do not rely on memory or an old handout. For each marketplace, write a one-page label specification: code type, label size, mandatory fields, label position, requirements for cartons and pallets. Note the date you took the rules, and check the guide again before every shipment. Take exact requirements only from the marketplace's own source. Let one person follow changes to the guide, otherwise everyone works from their own out-of-date copy.

Which code: yours or the marketplace's

Some marketplaces accept the barcode already on the item, others issue their own internal code or demand one. Be ready for both. If you hold your own GS1 code, enter it on the product card. If the marketplace gives you a code, print it on the label. The key rule is that it must be unambiguous which code the scanner reads. If the product has a factory code and a marketplace label goes on top, find out from the guide what to do with the old code, and do not leave two codes side by side. Check GS1 and mandatory-marking requirements with those same sources. If you must change a code, keep both the old and the new one in the table, since stock from an old batch or a return may arrive under the old code.

A table for variants

Every variant, meaning a size, a colour or a pack count, needs its own code. If two sizes are sold under one code, both stock and returns get muddled. Keep a simple table in Excel: your article number, your code, the marketplace code, the variant, pieces per pack. Example: a T-shirt sold in three sizes and two colours makes 3 × 2 = 6 variants, so 6 codes and 6 labels. If the same shirt also sells as a two-piece set, the set gets a code of its own. If you also run a Telegram shop or direct sales, record each channel's code under one internal article number. Then stock across all channels is visible in one place.

Item label and carton label

The item label is for one unit: the code, the name and the required fields. The carton label describes everything inside: article number, piece count, sender, shipment number. Put the label on a flat face of the carton, not on a seam, a crease or an edge, because a folded code will not read. On a clear bag, the code must show clearly through the bag and survive when the bag creases. If the load goes on a pallet, the pallet has a label of its own (for example an SSCC code); take its requirements from the guide as well.

Common mistakes:

• a new label stuck over the old one;
• one code issued to two sizes;
• a code printed too small or too faint;
• a label stuck to a wet or greasy surface;
• the piece count on the carton label does not match the contents.

A test before shipping

1. Print five labels on the same material you will use.
2. Read them with a phone and with a scanner.
3. Check that the code matches the right item on the card.
4. Stick a label on the pack and read it again with film or tape pulled over it.
5. For a new item, send a small batch first.
6. Keep the result beside the specification; the sample becomes the basis for the next shipment.

Testing is cheap and relabelling is expensive. Suppose 300 units come back with a wrong label. If replacing each takes 2 minutes, that is 300 × 2 = 600 minutes, or 10 hours of work, not counting the delay at receiving.

Conclusion

The routine for a marketplace label is simple: get the guide, settle the code, give each variant its own code and test before shipping. The Shtrix team fits the label template to the marketplace's current requirements, prints test labels and checks that they read, and tidies your code table.