Click Image to Make a Bar Code
If you ever wonder why I don’t post daily it is because what should be simple is often incredibly complicated and all the research takes a lot of my time. I then publish the results so others don’t have to reinvent the wheel.
If you sell products -
this post is important to you.
Amazon has recently started requiring UPC codes for products listed for sale. Genuine Seller wrote a beneficial post about Dealing with Amazon UPC Requirements that anyone who lists unique individual products should read.
UPDATE March 18, 2012: There are only a handful of legitimate UPC barcode providers that have been authorized and verified by George Laurer (inventor of the UPC Barcode).
There is only one company that is legitimate, has the lowest prices and has immediate digital delivery of barcodes – Nationwide Barcode.
If what you are selling already has a UPC code and you have either a bar code reader or the exact product name you can try to use a UPC database to look up UPC Codes. You can also try the Keyword.com bar code search.
Why we recommend everyone BOYCOTT AMAZON
They are intentionally risking their employees lives
and created an app to steal buyers from small businesses!
The codes DO make it easier for shoppers to compare prices which can be both good and bad; good because it makes it easy to compare prices and bad because it make is easy to make price the focus when it is NOT what either buyers or sellers should most care about.
This focus on buying cheap is what is destroying our economy and making us all poor! But that is a topic for an entirely different post so see what we can do to change all that is explained in my post Supporting Small Businesses.
This post is about how to buy UPC Codes without overspending or creating issues by buying from the wrong source.
If you have products manufactured that are not unique you are eventually going to need to buy a UPC code for each item if you want to sell at Amazon, on Shopping Comparison sites or in stores.
The very best explanation of the UPC issue is provided by Innovation Hall of Fame Member George Laurer. Read his information BEFORE you Buy UPC Numbers and what to do if you only need to purchase one UPC number (or a few).
I recommend you use his list of legitimate UPC resellers if you don’t want to register your own.
If you regularly have products manufactured or wish to control the registry of your UPC you should use the official USC registrar GS1US.org. Using them is the only way to have the UPC number registered directly to you.
All sites besides GS1US.org are resellers and the numbers they sell you are registered to them.
The Official GS1US site makes this claim:
“There’s only one U.P.C. barcode that’s accepted by retailers everywhere. And it’s only available from GS1 US.” ~ That is not entirely true ~
Even their own site mentions Solution Partners and articles like this one on buying UPC codes in the Washington Post acknowledge that there are legitimate UPC code resellers where you can buy a few or even buy one UPC code.
There is additional good information in this post about How to Sell your Book at Amazon on Kevin Kelly‘s Cool Tools site and in the comments there. The information Simply BarCodes published on UPC Codes for Amazon.
I also recommend StartUp Nation‘s How to Obtain a UPC Code especially if you are a business selling in traditional brick and mortar stores like Nordstrom or Bloomingdale or any of the other companies that now require them for everything they sell.
If you sell handmade goods or collectibles that do not have UPCs and are unique (one of a kind) follow this UPC advice from SingleFeed:
“Do your best to include these unique identifiers in your product feed, but do not make these numbers up. If you’re selling handmade goods, you will not have MPNs or UPCs. That’s actually ok. If you’re buying your inventory from a distributor/supplier and that product has a real manufacturer, though, you can get MPNs and UPCs. It’s going to take work as not all distributors/suppliers are used to giving out this information, but you have to keep on them to do so.”
This UPC issue is going to affect resellers and merchants on a growing number of channels including Amazon and Google Product Search. See the resources below for additional resources specific to those channels.
SELLING ON AMAZON:
- Amazon Fee & Profit Calculator for Bulk Listings
- Selling on Amazon Now Requires UPC / EIN
- Selling on Amazon Sucks
UPC CODES GOOGLE:
- Official Google Merchant Center: Unique Product Identifiers including Using UPC Codes on Google Product Feeds
- Official Google Base Blog; Google Base MPC, UPC and ISBN Requirements
- LoveYourFeedBlog: Google Base Requiring MPN & UPC for Google Product Search
- Google Product Search Best Practices
- Optimizing Google Product Feeds
- Optimizing Google Base Product Feeds
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You’re welcome to check out our website http://www.speedybarcodes.com. We sell legal and legitimate barcodes at reasonable prices that everyone can afford. You can also learn about barcodes by reading our Barcode Questions page and our Barcode Knowledge page to learn more about barcodes and how they work.
We look forward to working with you!
We are also approved on George Laurer’s Authenticated UPC Registration Directory.
Hello Sonia,
Did you get your products on Amazon? If so, who did you buy your UPS codes from? We sell to the same demographic as you and are also interested in using Amazon to improve traffic to our site.
It’s one thing to promote your business, we all do it and if you promote honestly hopefully the interested readers will become a customer, but Phil from Nationwide will flat out lie to you. Read the article, “There is only one company that is legitimate, nationwide”? Anyhow, my name is Mark and my business is Code UPC, we are also a legitimate reseller along with many others, we do things a little bit different and hope to earn your business.
Mr. Larson,
The claim, “There is only one company that is legitimate, has the lowest prices and has immediate digital delivery of barcodes ” is based on several things.
This is a compound statement and is based on the following:
1) Looking at your price for 100 barcodes, you are sitting at $129.00 – We are at $88.00 – we go significantly lower on volume prices.
2) We are verified and validated by Mr. George Laurer, inventor of the UPC Barcode and co-publisher of the website: Authenticated UPC Directory.
3) We are the vendor of choice for Pandora Radio because of our bullet-proof solution for Amazon.
4) We have an A Rating and zero unresolved complaints with the BBB
5) We have an automated system providing all numbers and graphics immediately after purchase. We do not just provide the numbers and leave it to the client to figure out how to generate the graphic files.
6) We have our phone number(s) posted on our site to allow our customers and prospects to call us anytime.
7) We are a Trustwave validated merchant. They test our site every 30 days to insure that we maintain the required procedures to validate compliance with the PCI DSS.
In addition, we do not stoop to name-calling.
I appreciate the helpful information. Personally, I always leave a useful comment. I get plenty of useless, spammy comments on my own site that I have to get rid of.
A quick question (maybe a dumb question). Are the UPC codes sold by the mentioned resellers (example, Nationwide Barcode), only for use by US companies. Can a Canadian company purchase and use codes from these resellers without any issues?
Thanks!
Twitter: GrowMap
March 1, 2013 at 1:21 pm
Hello Chanjawa,
UPC codes are used internationally so as long as a company will sell to your country they should be usable for you. Here are some Canada specific resources for you:
http://www.gs1ca.org/
http://sbinfocanada.about.com/od/insurancelegalissues/g/upc.htm
http://forum.smartcanucks.ca/6328-upc-lookup-database-canada/
GrowMap would love you to read ..Why Your Geographic Location is Your BEST Niche
The US and Canada use the same UPC barcodes (12 digits).
EANs, formerly European Article Numbers…now International Article numbers, are used elsewhere. (13 digits)
…more than you asked about.
Conceptually, UPCs should be able to be read Worldwide. The EAN is a subset of the UPC. If your UPC barcode numbers is 123456789128 (8 would be the checkdigit), the EAN variant is 0123456789128 – the difference being the leading zero.
Phil Peretz would love you to read ..Tutorial: Buy a Barcode
Exactly how is lower prices destroying our economy? I always thought lower prices were a good thing because it meant more people could buy more things. Perhaps what is destroying our economy is more government, more people doing nothing for something, and all that comes with big government.
Twitter: GrowMap
December 1, 2012 at 12:31 am
Hi Todd,
People who have no jobs can not buy anything – and the jobs are gone because of the focus on prices that can only be attained by taking advantage of child and slave labor in poor countries.
Huge corporations put much pressure on their suppliers using extremely unethical methods which result in horrendous human rights violations and continual declines in quality that result in products that are junk that use up natural resources and end up in landfills.
The end result will be a tiny minority ending up with everything and the rest of the world impoverished to the point that even in America people will end up living in shanty towns and hoping there are soup kitchens so they don’t starve to death.
Price is NOT what is important. We have to be willing to pay a reasonable amount for quality products so that those who produce and sell them can earn a living wage. When we do that the economy gets stronger, the working class becomes stable and have decent lives, and businesses grow and create more jobs that pay more = prosperity for many instead of poverty for almost all.
That is what the new interest in Fair Trade and buying local are all about – and we need to get wiser and learn to tell the difference between real Fair Trade and local businesses and corporations masquerading to fool the masses.
We do need less government, rules, regulations, employees to remove obstacles to small business but we need to rein in the power of corporations that have corrupted government and regulatory agencies to the point where they control them all.
People no longer know how to start businesses or work or the connection between work and productivity because the media and educational systems have conditioned them into perpetual childhood.
You can’t have everything you want without working and you can’t expect to pay less than things cost to produce.
That is the fairy tale of low prices and how they are destroying America (and probably other countries as well). We have let corporations steal from some so that others can live in artificial prosperity while the costs of doing business have been transferred to taxpayers in the form of massive debt that can never be repaid. That will result in inflation and only then will most realize what a trap we’re in. The longer we stay in that trap the uglier the consequences and longer recovery will take.
GrowMap would love you to read ..Stop Believing in Adult Fairy Tales ~ Be Leaders ~ Support Small Businesses ~ Buy Local
After having worked at Walgreens for 15 years and managing the product database, I can tell you that most of the information on this post is incorrect. Due to a legal gaff, companies with older UPC prefixes were not tied to any terms of use. Consequently, resellers came out selling numbers (nothing more) and claiming they are small businesses best friend. This is completely not true.
A UPC is nothing more than a unique identifier and having one numbering authority assures duplication will not occur. All these small internet reseller sites cannot realistically provide any assurances that their numbers will not be duplicated. Buyers of these numbers are playing russian roulette since there is not authority overseeing resellers. George Laurer was the inventor of the barcode but NOT the numbering schema. His site is very informative but not the gospel.
We routinely saw small companies trying to use the company prefix from their purchased barcode for a shipping label and it conflicted with companies already in our database. Buyer Beware.
Twitter: GrowMap
September 22, 2012 at 7:44 pm
Hello William,
Yes there ARE scammers who sell random “numbers” but if people read this post they should understand that what they need to be buying is a number that is specific to their one individual product and no other.
This post specifically recommends sites that have positive reputations for reselling and adequately ensuring they sell a number only once for one product – as it should be. There IS only one numbering authority. What they are doing is reselling numbers they bought from that one authority.
Just because there are scammers in this niche does not mean they are ALL scammers. There ARE legitimate resellers – not many of them – and those are the only ones you can trust and should be buying through.
Twitter: ben_baygas
May 9, 2012 at 6:29 am
There’s no need to worry about UPC codes if you resells product from thunderball and ingrammicro, its directly available in their backend…:)
bennix would love you to read ..Mozilla to Sale B2G Phones in Late 2012 | B2G to Compete with Androids?
Twitter: UPCbarcodes
March 17, 2012 at 9:17 pm
Hey folks,
My company, Nationwide Barcode, is a company that Mr. George Laurer (inventor of the UPC Barcode) recommends. We are the lowest cost legitimate reseller of barcodes, plus we provide graphics, transfer of ownership. We are also the vendor of choice for Pandora Radio as we work with both small businesses and musicians.
http://www.nationwidebarcode.com
Buy a Barcode – Barcodes for Amazon, Retail and Music
Phil Peretz would love you to read ..Leading Digits – UPC-A Barcodes
Twitter: GrowMap
March 18, 2012 at 1:12 am
Welcome to GrowMap, Phil, and thank you for the links and responding to other comments. I don’t know why I didn’t come across you when I was researching this post. I’ll add you to the body so those who don’t read comments won’t miss you.
Do become familiar with how KeywordLuv works so you can build backlinks with your desired anchor text whenever you comment in a blog like this one that is small business friendly.
growmap would love you to read ..Small Business Brand Advocates Drive Free WOMM Word of Mouth ~ Benefits of B2I2C Marketing
The problem with the UPC requirement is now that eBay sellers are picking top selling products and listing using these UPC codes. So, now Amazon has a lot of spamming on the lstings selling products that don’t match the UPC on the Amaazon ASIN but the sellers just want to sell anything. So, the UPC code requirement although good for mass producede items. Amazon does not requrie UPC in other categories and for collectibles. Anyway, eBay is for collectibles. Or is ebay not even working for unique products anymore?
Twitter: none
January 30, 2012 at 2:44 pm
There’s a great ebook about UPC bar codes at: http://www.mybarcodestore.com
It explains all about how to get a UPC code, who is authorized to sell them, how to print them, and much more.
Twitter: UPCbarcodes
March 17, 2012 at 9:20 pm
Here is another book about UPC barcodes with a lot of information from Mr. George Laurer, inventor of the UPC Barcode. http://www.nationwidebarcode.com/resources/barcodes-demystified2/
Phil Peretz would love you to read ..Leading Digits – UPC-A Barcodes
Twitter: GrowMap
March 1, 2013 at 1:17 pm
Thank you both for sharing those two books. I will move the links up into the body of the post.
GrowMap would love you to read ..Automated Social Networking: How to Use IFTTT to Distribute Your Content [VIDEO]
Twitter: gogogoodie
January 23, 2012 at 1:01 pm
We are a small business and trying to enter the Amazon world. Our margins are very small and buying UPC codes is a big hurdle to doing business with Amazon. I’ve seen numerous sites offering “free” upc’s but I’m gathering these are just random numbers and not valid.
Bottom line, if I only need 5-10 codes what is my cheapest solution?
Thanks for the article and reading all the comments helped too!
Twitter: GrowMap
January 23, 2012 at 3:56 pm
Hi Sonia,
If you’re sure you want to get on Amazon and they require UPC codes for your products you will want to buy them from a legitimate reseller as explained in this post. There are probably additional suggestions in the comments.
While Amazon is huge if your margins are small they are not what I would recommend. Have you looked into sites like Etsy or other alternatives to eBay?
Amazon is a hard site to make money from and many of us boycott Amazon because of their evil ways.
growmap would love you to read ..What If There Was an Easy Way to Get Your Tweets Retweeted? There Is – And It is Fast and Free
Twitter: gogogoodie
January 23, 2012 at 4:07 pm
Hello Gail,
We are going to just try Amazon for a few months to test the water. It might not be a valuable outlet for us, but as of today, we are willing to give it a try. Being a new website it’s been a slow to build traffic to our site, so hopeful that we can use Amazon to create revenue while we improve our SEO. I do understand the negative feelings that are growing towards Amazon…. small businesses have a HARD time competing!
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