Barcoding Issue
Discussion
Hello everyone, just after some advice and opinions please.
I own a website selling martial arts clothing.
A lot of the companies that I deal with dont barcode their products, as they are not generally sold in retail shops. To cut a long story short, I need to get the products that I sell barcoded. What is the easiest and most cost effective way to do this?
I own a website selling martial arts clothing.
A lot of the companies that I deal with dont barcode their products, as they are not generally sold in retail shops. To cut a long story short, I need to get the products that I sell barcoded. What is the easiest and most cost effective way to do this?
If you are looking to barcode items for retailers, GS1 UK are the barcoding standard provider. You'll need to join them and then you are able to generate unique barcode numbers. You can find loads of barcode creation software to use once you have the number to generate the image of the barcode.
Barcoding is a real minefield.
Yes - GS1UK - but are you selling to other retailers for their retail sales - or is it another purpose.
How many people are you selling to - you may be able to short cut matters if its only a couple of people who need barcodes and they can do something internal.
Yes - GS1UK - but are you selling to other retailers for their retail sales - or is it another purpose.
How many people are you selling to - you may be able to short cut matters if its only a couple of people who need barcodes and they can do something internal.
If barcoding your own products then you need to buy a range of codes which are then assigned to your company.
If you're going to be using the codes for internal use only then there is a range of codes set aside which I believe you can use. Have a http://www.gs1.org/barcodes/support/prefix_list. The ones which are 'restricted distribution' should be OK for this purpose.
One thing to bear in mind is that the last digit is a checksum and the preceding numbers must be right. Most barcode generating programs should work that out for you though.
I'm not an expert mind so it'd be prudent to get confirmation of this if it's important to you. I'd suggest this is the direction you look in though.
If you're going to be using the codes for internal use only then there is a range of codes set aside which I believe you can use. Have a http://www.gs1.org/barcodes/support/prefix_list. The ones which are 'restricted distribution' should be OK for this purpose.
One thing to bear in mind is that the last digit is a checksum and the preceding numbers must be right. Most barcode generating programs should work that out for you though.
I'm not an expert mind so it'd be prudent to get confirmation of this if it's important to you. I'd suggest this is the direction you look in though.
Barcoding is actually a little bit simpler than most folks realise.
As has been mentioned you will need to join GS1UK.
As you will be selling SKU's (single known units, i.e. individual fixed weight/price lines), you will be provided with a unique identifier prefix number dependant on the number of lines you intend to sell.
As you will most probably be selling less than 999 lines, your prefix will be nine digits long (assuming EAN-13 barcode use - the generally used 13 digit barcode for fixed price retail SKU use). The first two digits will be 50 (UK identifier) with the seven remaining digits identifying your business. The next three numbers will be the PLU or sequential item number that you allocate to each line, with the 13th digit a simple check code that calculates the previous 12 digit number is correctly formatted.
Plenty of info on the GS1UK website or PM me - I've done a lot of barcoding work in my time.
As has been mentioned you will need to join GS1UK.
As you will be selling SKU's (single known units, i.e. individual fixed weight/price lines), you will be provided with a unique identifier prefix number dependant on the number of lines you intend to sell.
As you will most probably be selling less than 999 lines, your prefix will be nine digits long (assuming EAN-13 barcode use - the generally used 13 digit barcode for fixed price retail SKU use). The first two digits will be 50 (UK identifier) with the seven remaining digits identifying your business. The next three numbers will be the PLU or sequential item number that you allocate to each line, with the 13th digit a simple check code that calculates the previous 12 digit number is correctly formatted.
Plenty of info on the GS1UK website or PM me - I've done a lot of barcoding work in my time.
8MRFQ340 said:
Thankyou for all the useful info.
I need the barcodes as I am buying in un-barcoded clothing brands, and them putting them for sale. I need barcodes for that. (To cut a long story short!)
Can someone give me a guide to the costs involved as well please?
I still dont see your need for barcoding? unless you are selling to shops? I need the barcodes as I am buying in un-barcoded clothing brands, and them putting them for sale. I need barcodes for that. (To cut a long story short!)
Can someone give me a guide to the costs involved as well please?
We just barcode as required here, if a retailler asks for a product barcoded we'll set it up on GS1 and do it, otherwise our goods go out unbarcoded.
GS1 is a year on year membership, I cant remember the costs off the top of my head but its not much. Their help line is very good too.
Technically you could just get away with barcode software, we did this for a while and just printed the barcodes on the office laser printer. This seemed to work ok, we had no idea if our barcodes worked properly but we didn't have any complaints!
Then when we started to do a few more, we bought a barcode label printer and a scanner, I think this cost us around £500.
8MRFQ340 said:
Thankyou for all the useful info.
I need the barcodes as I am buying in un-barcoded clothing brands, and them putting them for sale. I need barcodes for that. (To cut a long story short!)
Can someone give me a guide to the costs involved as well please?
So just to confirm, you have a shop with an epos system. Some of the products you sell aren't supplied with barcodes and thus won't scan through your system. You therefore want to assign them a barcode so you can scan/track them? Is that right?I need the barcodes as I am buying in un-barcoded clothing brands, and them putting them for sale. I need barcodes for that. (To cut a long story short!)
Can someone give me a guide to the costs involved as well please?
If so then what I mentioned about using reserved numbers would suit your needs and shouldn't cost you anything more then printing off the barcodes.
ok, to clarify, I am buying in products that are not barcoded. They are then being sold on Amazon, who require barcodes to list products.
So, will what you mention work? I have had a good look over the GS1 website, but there is a lot of jargon that baffles me to be honest.
Again, thankyou to everyone that is helping.
So, will what you mention work? I have had a good look over the GS1 website, but there is a lot of jargon that baffles me to be honest.
Again, thankyou to everyone that is helping.
8MRFQ340 said:
ok, to clarify, I am buying in products that are not barcoded. They are then being sold on Amazon, who require barcodes to list products.
So, will what you mention work? I have had a good look over the GS1 website, but there is a lot of jargon that baffles me to be honest.
Again, thankyou to everyone that is helping.
OK, I'll bite So, will what you mention work? I have had a good look over the GS1 website, but there is a lot of jargon that baffles me to be honest.
Again, thankyou to everyone that is helping.
What the OP is referring to is the requirement by Amazon that, for all inventory that you list on Amazon.co.uk (whether or not you use their fulfilment services), you require: ( linkAmazon said:
EAN, UPC, or ISBN code
Obviously, clothing will not attract an ISBN code (only books and publications). So the OP needs an EAN or UPC code. OP: note that, if you're not using Amzon's fulfilment, you don't need to print or attach actual bar code labels; you just need to be able to generate a valid code number.If you're only in need of a few barcodes then it may be cheaper to just buy a barcode from a provider - the first one I came across on a quick search (and I have nothing to do with them) is Barcodes Ltd.
If you don't like that, the information others have given on this thread is very good. Just be aware that, if you're at all handy with Excel (or another similar spreadsheet) then you won't need to actually buy any software, you just need to understand how the coding works (including the checksum, which is an error-checking number which has a mathematical relationship to the rest of the numbers in the code, so that the barcode reader knows it got a "full scan") and write a quick formula to generate valid codes. Or you could just download somebody else's pre-created function to slot into Excel - this one for instance
Has any of this helped so far? Let us know if you're still having trouble making sense of it all!
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