Labeling Packaging and Containers

According to the FDA, there are two ways to label packages and containers for food and drug items.

The first way is to place all required label statements on the front label panel. The front label panel is also called the Principal Display Panel or PDP. The second way is to place certain specified label statements on the PDP and other labeling on the Information Panel. The information panel must be immediately to the right of the PDP so the consumer can see the information panel facing the product.

Place the statement of identity, or name of the food, and the net quantity statement, or amount of product, on the PDP and on the alternate PDP.

The information panel label must contain certain label statements including the name and address of the manufacturer, packer or distributor, the ingredient list, nutrition labeling and any required allergy labeling.

When designing the information panel labeling, use a print or type size that is prominent, conspicuous and easy to read. Use letters that are at least one-sixteenth (1/16) inch in height based on the lower case letter “o”. The letters must not be more than three times as high as they are wide, and the lettering must contrast sufficiently with the background so as to be easy to read. Do not crowd required labeling with artwork or non-required labeling.

Intervening materials are items that are not required by the FDA and these items are not permitted to be placed between the required labeling on the information panel. A UPC Barcode is not considered a part of the FDA required labeling. A UPC Barcode is not regulated by any government agency and is merely a convenience or requirement of retail stores to help convey pricing and manage inventory.

For more information about UPC barcodes and to buy a barcode, contact Nationwide Barcode.

For more information about labeling requirements, go to the FDA website.

If you need labels, contact Pacific Barcode. Pacific Barcode is a preferred vendor of Nationwide Barcode.

Tutorial: Buy a Barcode

You are in business manufacturing, importing or wholesaling products. You’ve manufactured or ordered your products for resale and you realize that you need to buy a barcode.

The reason retailers require barcodes is that UPC Barcodes are used to convey prices to the electronic cash registers in stores and are also used to help manage inventory. By managing inventory, the retailer knows when to reorder products that have reached reorder points. Continue reading →

Combining EAN and UPC Barcodes for packaging design

This article is really part II to the one where we wrote about UPC and EAN barcodes being the same. We’ll recap quickly and then move on…

UPC barcodes are 12 digit barcodes and are used exclusively in the United States and Canada. You can convert a UPC barcode to an EAN, but you cannot go the other way. This is because the Country Code for both the U.S. and Canada is zero. EANs are 13 digit codes and unlike UPCs contain a country code.

The entire article is here: http://www.nationwidebarcode.com/are-upc-a-and-ean-13-the-same/2/

When you purchase barcodes from Nationwide Barcode, you receive a few things including a spreadsheet of numbers and barcode graphics. UPC-A and EAN-13 graphic overlay

The spreadsheet will have a list of both the UPC number and the EAN equivalent (or variant).

Since the mathematical computation for determining the check digit is exactly the same for both the UPC and the EAN, the additional number for the EAN is a zero which doesn’t doesn’t affect the barcode’s check digit, you can see in the illustration above that the only difference is the extra number below the EAN barcode graphic.

The leading zeros are nulls, meaning that they don’t get recognized, 01234 turns into 1234, 001234 turns into 1234, etc.

Here is our solution for the addition of a barcode if you are planning on selling in different parts of the world.

UPC and EAN barcodes for packaging

Simply use the UPC barcode graphic and below typeset your EAN number.

Since the graphic for both EAN and UPC are the same and the only difference is the addition of a leading 13th digit (zero), this will solve the issue of having to repackage or relabel for countries that exclusively use EAN barcodes.

Leading Digits – UPC-A Barcodes

The first digit of a UPC-A Barcode is number system character. The following table shows you what different number system characters mean

0:      Standard UPC number
1:      Reserved
2:      Random weight items (fruits, meat, vegetables, etc.
3:      Pharmaceuticals
4:      In store marketing for retailers (a store can set up unique barcodes for themselves, but no other store will be able to read them)
5:      Coupons
6, 7   Standard UPC number
8:      Reserved
9:      Reserved

Are UPC-A and EAN-13 the same?

Before you buy a barcode, we have written this tutorial to help you understand the differences between UPC Barcodes and EAN Barcodes. Below are both an EAN barcode and a UPC Barcode. The EAN contains a 13 digit number and the UPC contains a 12 digit number.

UPC Barcode and EAN Barcode graphics

EAN = 0012345678905
UPC = (0)012345678905 or 012345678905

The GS1, the original source for barcodes has created the confusion between UPC (Universal Product Codes) and EAN (European Article Numbers also called International Article Numbers). The UPC-A barcode was the original format for product barcodes. As demand in Europe, Asia and Australia started growing, country codes were added. US and Canada have a a country code of zero which is not printed under the barcode nor is it entered in US and Canadian Inventory and Point of Sale Databases.

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All about Barcodes

Wherever you go, the grocery store, department store, on line at Amazon or your own refrigerator or pantry, you’ll find that everything that you purchase has a UPC barcode on it. Sometimes they are a little hard to find, but if you flip the package around, it’s there.

In this book, we will demystify UPC and EAN barcodes so that you have a better understanding of how they work.

A barcode is an optical machine-readable representation of data. One of the first uses of barcodes was to label railroad cars, but they were not commercially successful until they were used to automate supermarket checkout systems, a task in which they have become almost universal.

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1D Barcode Formats

There are many different types of One Dimensional Barcodes. This tutorial will show you many of the 1D Barcode Formats and will help you understand the differences. A 1D barcode or One Dimensional Barcode is called this because of how the barcode is read. A 1D barcode is read from side to side.

If have barcode numbers and you need help generating them, please go to this page – barcode graphics – or contact us by phone or email.

CODABAR

Codabar Bar code
Originally developed by Pitney Bowes, the Codabar Barcode is used primarily by US Blood Banks, Photo Labs and Overnight Delivery Services. Codabar can encode the numbers 0 through 9, the start/stop characters A, B, C, D, E, *, N or T. and the six symbols (-:.$/+).

CODE 11 Barcode

Code 11 is a barcode symbology developed by Intermec in 1977. It is used primarily in telecommunications. The symbol can encode any length string consisting of the digits 0-9 and the dash character (-). One or more modulo-11 check digit(s) can be included.

CODE 128 Barcode

Code 128 is a very high-density barcode symbology. (A special version of it called GS1-128 is used extensively world wide in shipping and packaging industries.) It is used for alphanumeric or numeric-only barcodes. It can encode all 128 characters of ASCII and, by use of an extension character (FNC4), the Latin-1 characters defined in ISO/IEC 8859-1.

CODE 2 OF 5 – Interleaved

Interleaved 2 of 5 is a continuous two-width barcode symbology encoding digits. It is used commercially on 135 film and on cartons of some products, while the products inside are labeled with UPC or EAN.

CODE 39 Barcode

Code 39 (also known as Alpha39, Code 3 of 9, Code 3/9, Type 39, USS Code 39, or USD-3) is a variable length, discrete barcode symbology.

The Code 39 specification defines 43 characters, consisting of uppercase letters (A through Z), numeric digits (0 through 9) and a number of special characters (-, ., $, /, +, %, and space). An additional character (denoted ‘*’) is used for both start and stop delimiters.

One advantage of Code 39 is that since there is no need to generate a check digit, it can easily be integrated into existing printing system by adding a barcode font to the system or printer and then printing the raw data in that font.

Code 93 Barcode

Code 93 is a barcode symbology designed in 1982 by Intermec to provide a higher density and data security enhancement to Code 39. It is an alphanumeric, variable length symbology. Code 93 is used primarily by Canada Post to encode supplementary delivery information. Every symbol includes two check characters.

Code 93 is designed to encode 26 upper case letters, 10 digits and 7 special characters:

A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, K, L, M, N, O, P, Q, R, S, T, U, V, W, X, Y, Z

0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9

-, ., $, /, +, %, SPACE.

Each Code 93 character is divided into nine modules and always has three bars and three spaces, thus the name. Each bar and space is from 1 to 4 modules wide.

In addition to 43 characters, Code 93 defines 5 special characters (including a start/stop character), which can be combined with other characters to unambiguously represent all 128 ASCII characters.

EAN 13 Barcode

An EAN-13 barcode (originally European Article Number, but now renamed International Article Number) is a 13 digit (12 data and 1 check-digit) barcoding standard which is a superset of the original 12-digit Universal Product Code (UPC) system developed in the United States.[1] The EAN-13 barcode is defined by the standards organization GS1.

If you need an EAN 13 barcode, you can purchase these from our site: http://www.nationwidebarcode.com

EAN+ 2 Digit Barcode

This is a variant of the EAN barcode. This can be used for magazines where the last two numbers represent the volume or month of issue.

EAN 13 + 5 Digit Barcode

This is a variant of the EAN barcode. Often used for Greeting Cards and other items when the manufacturer or distributor is responsible for inventory tracking

EAN 8 Barcode

From wikipedia: An EAN-8 is a barcode and is derived from the longer European Article Number (EAN-13) code. It was introduced for use on small packages where an EAN-13 barcode would be too large; for example on cigarettes, pencils (though it is rarely used for pencils), and chewing gum packets.

EAN-8 barcodes may be used to encode GTIN-8s which are another set of product identifiers from the GS1 System. It begins with a 2- or 3-digit GS1 prefix (which is assigned to each national GS1 authority) 5- or 4-digit item reference element depending on the length of the GS1 prefix), and a checksum digit.

ISBN-13

The International Standard Book Number (ISBN) is a unique numeric commercial book identifier based upon the 9-digit Standard Book Numbering (SBN) code created by Gordon Foster, Emeritus Professor of Statistics at Trinity College, Dublin,for the booksellers and stationers W.H. Smith and others in 1966. (Wikipedia).

An ISBN barcode uses an EAN symbology.

ISBN with 5 digit Add On.

Most ISBN graphics also include a 5 digit add on. The first barcode is the ISBN barcode (using an EAN symbology) and the second barcode to the right indicates the price of the book. The first number, 5, represents a dollar sign ($). The next four numbers are the price of the book. In this exanple 51295 means that the book sells for $12.95. Since there are only 4 numbers after the 5, books that sell for more than $99.99 will be represented by 5999.

ISMN Barcode

The International Standard Music Number (ISMN) is a unique number for the identification of all notated music publications from all over the world, whether available for sale, hire or gratis–whether a part, a score, or an element in a multi-media kit.
The ISMN is designed to rationalize the processing and handling of notated music and the respective bibliographical data for publishing houses, the music trade and libraries.
As of 1 January 2008 the ISMN consists of 13 digits starting with 979-0
Existing 10-digit ISMNs are prefixed by 979-
The leading M- of the 10-digit ISMNs will be replaced by 0- (zero)
The resulting 13-digit number will be identical with the EAN-13 number that is currently encoded in the bar code
ISO Standard 10957 gives the basic rules of the ISMN system.
The thirteen-digit number allows a billion items each to carry a different number.

For Information about ISMN numbers go to: http://www.ismn-international.org/international.html

ISSN Barcode

Used mainly throughout Europe, The ISSN (International Standard Serial Number) identifies periodical publications as such, including electronic serials.

The ISSN is a numeric code which is used as an identifier: it has no signification in itself and does not contain in itself any information referring to the origin or contents of the publication.

The ISSN takes the form of the acronym ISSN followed by two groups of four digits, separated by a hyphen. The eighth character is a control digit calculated according to a modulo 11 algorithm on the basis of the 7 preceding digits; this eighth control character may be an “X” if the result of the computing is equal to “10″, in order to avoid any ambiguity.
The first 3 digits

ITF 14 (GTIN 14)

The ITF14 is a 14 digit barcode used to mark the master shipping containers of products with a UPC identifier. It is based on the I2of5 barcode. ITF14 barcodes usually contain a top and bottom bar (sometimes rectangle) called the Bearers bar. These bars make sure that the barcode is read completely. The first number is typically an arbitrary number between 0 and 7, the next number is a zero, the following 11 numbers are the first 11 numbers on a UPC barcode and the last number is a check digit.

LOGMARS Barcode

LOGMARS (Logistics Applications of Automated Marking and Reading Symbols) is a special application of Code 39 used by the U.S. Department of Defense and is governed by Military Standard MIL-STD-1189B.

MSI Barcodes

MSI (also known as Modified Plessey) is a barcode symbology developed by the MSI Data Corporation, based on the original Plessey Code symbology. It is a continuous symbology that is not self-checking. MSI is used primarily for inventory control, marking storage containers and shelves in warehouse environments.

Pharmacode Barcode

Pharmacode, also known as Pharmaceutical Binary Code, is a barcode standard, used in the pharmaceutical industry as a packing control system. It is designed to be readable despite printing errors. It can be printed in multiple colors as a check to ensure that the remainder of the packaging (which the pharmaceutical company must print to protect itself from legal liability) is correctly printed.

SSCC18 Barcode also known as UCC 128

This Symbology is also known as UPC-128 Shipping Container Code, Code 128 UPC Shipping Container Code, Serial Shipping Container Code, UCC-128, EAN-18, NVE (Nummer der Versandeinheit)

This is a special version of UCC/EAN-128, with Application Identifier (AI) = 00. It is used to identify shipping containers by a serial number.

SSCC18 Barcodes can be configured 3 different ways, no bearer bars, bearer bars top and bottom or bearer bars on all 4 sides.

UPC A (UPC 12)

UPC-A Barcodes are used for marking products sold in stores throughout the USA and Canada. The barcode is comprised of three groupongs of numbers, the manufacturer ID (the company who owns the barcode prefix) which is 6, 7, 8 or 9 digits in length, the balance of numbers totalling 11 digits and the final 12th number (Check Digit or Checksum).

UPC A with 2 Digit Extension

Often used for Magazines – the second barcode indicates month or edition.

UPC-A Barcode with 5 Digit Extension

Often used for Greeting Cards where the publisher takes responsibility for inventory management and stocking of product.

Barcodes – Where Products Come From

This viral email has been going around for a couple of years that is mainly untrue. The email says that you can tell where a product has been manufactured by the UPC or EAN barcode. This tutorial will help you understand how to read a barcode. Continue reading →

Barcode Fonts

The following is a list of companies where you can purchase or download barcode fonts.

Aeromium Barcode Fonts - Develops and publishes barcode fonts package that creates Code39, Code128, UPCEAN and I2of5 barcodes.
Azalea Software Inc. - Publishes bar code software that creates Code 39, PDF 417, Code 128, UPC, EAN, Interleaved 2 of 5, and other barcode symbols. Bar code fonts work under Microsoft Windows, Macintosh, UNIX, and other platforms.
BarFonts - Collection of PostScript Type 1 fonts for printing bar codes, available under the GNU General Public License. The fonts consist of bars only, there is no human readable text along with the bars.
Barcode Writer - Open source PostScript barcode writer.
BarcodeSoft Fonts - Publishes barcode fonts and MICR fonts for cheque printing.
BizFonts.com - Bar code fonts including Code 39, Code 128, EAN and UPC. High density barcode fonts such as PDF417 and DataMatrix are also available. Free downloads.
Carolina Barcode - Code 2 of 5 Primer and Extended Code 3 of 9 fonts for Macintosh or TrueType format. Demo available.
ConnectCode Barcode Fonts - Develops and markets barcode fonts that supports the I2of5, UPCEAN, Code128, Code39 and UCCEAN barcodes.
Elfring Soft Fonts, Inc. - Developer of a wide range of barcode TrueType and LaserJet fonts for use under DOS, Windows and Unix. Trial packages available for download.
Free Code 39 font - Free Code 39 true type bar code font. This font supports the 43 characters of the Code 39 symbology.
FreeFloat Barcode Package - Barcode package includes the following symbologies Code 39, Code 128 (UCC/EAN-128), Standard 2 of 5, Interleaved 2 of 5, and Codabar.
I Shot the Serif – Free 3 of 9 - Completely free Code 39 font includes all ASCII characters.
IDAutomation TrueType Fonts - An easy to use package of TrueType Barcode, MICR and OCR fonts.
Kanecal - Offers symbols used in drafting/blueprint callouts. Geometric Dimensioning and Tolerancing (GD&T) symbols (with Feature Control Frames) plus Statistical Process Control (SPC) symbols. Barcodes for government shipments and Quality symbol fonts.
PrecisionID Inc. - A global supplier of barcode software and fonts including Code 128, Code 39, Interleaved 2 of 5, EAN, UPC, ASP, PDF417, Data Matrix and more

Creating a QR Code Strategy

What is a QR code?
A QR code is a 2 dimensional barcode. Unlike a UPC or an EAN barcode that contains numerical data only, is read in a single direction and requires some sort of database to pull information, a QR barcode contains alpha-numeric data and is read both horizontally and vertically.
Data is embedded in a QR Code. Typically, the data in a QR code is a URL pointing people to a website or a Facebook page. It can also be used for virtual business cards and to send other information, however the most common use is directing your customers to a website landing page.

Why scan?
If you are going to add a QR code on your packaging, flyers, website, posters, etc., do it from your client’s perspective. Make the experience count. Get your landing page to take them to the next step in the business relationship. Don’t tell them the same thing you already told them and make it fun, interesting or educational for everyone involved.
Things that you can do are: Give additional information, have a contest, send people to your online store, scan for directions to your business, sweepstakes, liking your Facebook page, conduct a survey, etc.

Make it serve a purpose.
In addition to making it worthwhile for your customer, there has to be a reciprocal reason for you. What is your purpose for adding a QR code? If you are not gathering information about your client so you can further the business relationship, it’s truly a waste of time for you. This can be done either by getting them to sign up for your mailing list, liking your Facebook page or making a purchase.

The Right Size
Make the QR code big enough to scan easily. The minimum size should be 1.25x 1.25. If the QR code is any smaller than that, the code becomes difficult to scan. QR codes were created to make it easy for people to link content so, make it easy for them to scan properly.

Make the codes easy to read.
The longer the URL for the landing page, the more data there is in the QR code. The shorter the URL, the easier it is for the smartphone to grab the image. Think about using URL shirtners like TinyURL or Bitly.

Provide multiple paths.
The QR code is secondary, your primary goal is getting people to respond to your campaign. Not everyone will use a code reader to ‘snap’ the code so it is very important to include multiple paths to get to your campaign. A shortened code that they can click on or input into their web browser will get more people involved.

Check out our new eBook

Watch our video to learn more

Media Media Inc. can help with your QR code strategy. Contact us at info@mediamediainc.com or call 775-376-8075

Barcodes Demystified

Fab Farm, LLC from Martin Boysen

Our company has not yet purchased barcodes but we are getting closer. The online manual that you offered “barcodes demystified” was very helpful and appreciated.

Website: http://www.fabfarm.com

Watch our Video

Looking to buy a barcode? Want to learn how barcodes work and how they help you get your product to market? Watch our informative video about EAN and UPC barcodes.

Our philosophy

Message from founder and President, Phil Peretz

We appreciate our clients and hope that you will consider us for all of your EAN and UPC barcode needs. We want to make the purchase and ownership of UPC Barcodes and EAN Barcodes to be easy as possible for businesses of all sizes.

We pride ourselves on being the most trusted and preferred vendor for barcodes anywhere. We provide 100% legal bar codes to businesses worldwide and whether you need 1 barcode for a single product to be sold at a local retailer, a batch for all of your products to be sold nationwide at stores like Whole Foods, Lowes, Costco, Fryes Electronics or other chain stores or you need thousands of barcodes for selling on Amazon, Google Merchant or other internet website we will treat you like a VIP.

There is a lot of information on the internet about barcodes…some of it is fact and some of it is misleading. We take a no-nonsense approach to business and pride ourselves on working with you every step of the way. Don’t be fooled by the so-called official sites or “recommended by the Washington Post” guys….next to the GS1, we are the largest providers of UPC barcodes all with 100% customer satisfaction. We guarantee that our numbers have never been previously used nor recycled. When you buy from us, these numbers belong to you and become an asset of your organization.

In addition to top-notch service, we also send you a link to download a copy of my eBook, Barcodes Demystified(tm) with every order to make this a painless process….and we provide free phone and email technical support.

We have a video that we have produced that is a very comprehensive tutorial. You can find this video on our home page toward the bottom of the page.

We are commerce, SEO, marketing, graphics and merchandising professionals. Our sister company is Media Media Inc, a long standing member Visual Media Alliance and Printing Industries of America. We know how important it is to get high quality graphics, guaranteed unique barcode numbers and an attention to detail not found anywhere else.

We also know that you need these quickly, so we have automated our site allowing you to get your barcodes within seconds of placing your order.

If you have any questions, please feel free to call our sales department or e-mail us directly at info@nationwidebarcode.com

Nationwide Barcode Facts

Periodically we do a search to see what our competitors are doing and we chuckle at the assortment of nonsense in the marketplace. There are people touting that they are the official source or official site. There is one fellow who tells people to be wary of low prices. There is one that says, “Avoid Shady Imitators.” Our marketing strategy is to lead with knowledge…not to diminish our competitors with their weaknesses. They do a great job of doing that without our help. If you want to check out a list of barcode resellers ‘who’s who’ - http://www.nationwidebarcode.com/about/comparing-barcode-providers/

There are two classes of businesses that sell barcodes. Those that obtained their prefix prior to August of 2002 and those that haven’t. The ones who obtained prefixes prior to this date can sell or subdivide their barcode prefixes. There are only a couple of businesses that are violating their agreement with the GS1 (where all barcodes originate) and they can be found here: http://bellsouthpwp.net/l/a/laurergj/UPC/index.html

We fall within the first class. We legally and professionally do what we do….and we do it really well.

Nationwide Barcode is in the business of selling barcodes. We do have another business which focuses on new business development, marketing and promotion. We help people and companies get better at what they do. For us, our business is working with people in business. It’s not Horse Chiropractic, selling fishing bobbers or other unreleated diversion. Our focus is helping people market themselves or their products…and a barcode is a very important part of that.

We are listed on Mr. George Laurer’s Website as being a legitimate reseller, we are the preferred vendor of choice a ton of clients but most notably, Pandora. Pandora is the world’s largest internet radio company that dovetails with Amazon.

We have thousands and thousands of repeat customers throughout the world equally divided between small to mid size manufacturing companies, independent musicians and Amazon resellers. We obtained all of our prefixes prior to that August 2002 date, we’re part of a grandfathered program with the GS1 which insures that can do what we do and we don’t pay renewal fees. Since we do not pay renewal fees, neither do you.

Our business is based on providing barcodes at a very affordable price. We can afford to be the lowest in price because of simple supply and demand.

We have a very large supply and there is a high demand. Since we have a high demand, we can afford to be the least expensive in the industry. We want to make a lot of money but our strategy is to make money based on the volume of barcodes sold…not from one customer.

In addition, we base our business on great customer service and knowledge. This knowledge is not just about barcodes but about retail and wholesale process management. We know how barcodes work, we understand graphic design and label manufacturing and wholesale and retail process flows. We are members of Printing Industry of America, Visual Media Alliance and several Amazon groups that allow us to stay informed of upcoming changes in the industry.

Our goal is to be the ‘last man standing’ in this industry. The majority of our competition only has one barcode prefix, they are attempting to turn a quick buck from this asset. This means, when they sell out, they’ll disappear. Your barcodes will continue to be good, but if you need support, you lose your certificate of authenticity and need help, they will be gone. When you need support a year or two or five years from now, we’ll be here.

With our reserve of almost two million barcodes, we will be around for a long, long time…plus with our secondary business of ‘new business development’, we’re not that hard to find. Our business is helping you. It’s what we do.

We have a toll free number and each order comes to you with Nationwide Barcode’s President and Founder, Phil Peretz’ direct phone number. If you want to contact Phil by e-mail, you can e-mail him at phil@nationwidebarcode.com – He answers every email personally. Nationwide Barcode appreciates your business.

Why our ‘All Sales Final Policy’ is the best guarantee for you.

If you are looking for guaranteed unique barcode numbers, our fair but firm policy makes the most sense for you. Because of our integrity and unique business proposition, you are safer buying barcode numbers from Nationwide Barcode than from any other reseller.

1. We guarantee 100% that our numbers are unique. If we had to refund you, we would lock these numbers out of our database. We would refund your money if there were duplicated numbers or if the numbers were ‘no good.’

With over a million barcodes in our pool, we have never had to refund anyone.

We are careful. We know that doing it right thing the first time is important.

2. Our customers are smart.
You know what you are doing and if you don’t, you are smart enough to know to call and ask questions so we can help coach you in this labyrinth of barcodes.

3. We do not take barcodes back ever. We do not take a barcode that we issued to one person and put it back into our database. We do not have a 1-day, 5-day, 7-day or 30-day buyback policy. We cannot take this chance. Since our customers are smart (see #2) this will not be an issue.

This is a potential issue with the majority of our competitors. Since they cannot compete against us with experience, knowledge of the industry nor price, they create Return Policies to make you feel good about doing business with them. A guarantee is good (If you have a problem with a number, we’ll give you your money back), a return policy creates a pool of ‘used’ barcodes. We don’t do that.

We value all of our customers and want to make sure everything goes perfect. That’s our commitment.

Price Check by Amazon – Barcode Scanning from your phone

There are a number of great barcode applications on the market, but Amazon has made it easier as faster to locate items where you want to do some comparison shopping.

There are three ways to locate items.

Scan it, simply locate the barcode on the product and the application searches the extensive Amazon database for the products.

Snap It. I took photographs of a lot of different items in the house and my office and the best results were with Books, CDs and Books.

Say It. I am in awe of voice recognition software and was delighted with the almost instantaneous listings of the products that I was researching. What work really well is reading the UPC or EAN barcode number, in fact, this is a lot faster than scanning the barcode number.

If you are scanning, the application scans the barcode quickly and accurately. I’ve used other applications that scan barcodes and the scan time varies. The Amazon Barcode Reader is fast. The steadier your hand, the faster the application works.

Centering the barcode is easy. With many other barcode readers, you have the feeling of threading a needle, not with this application. The instructions mention that you need to avoid shadows and glare, but I found that it was quite easy to scan directly from a computer screen

Once items are located, you get a list of all matching products and you can purchase directly from your smart phone.

Beware of buying a Cheap UPC barcode.

Are you looking to buy a cheap UPC barcode?

There are a lot of companies on the internet that sell barcodes. Many of them give you truthful information and there are a handful that are quite deceiving using such terminology as Official Site or Official Source, etc.

Be aware of what you are getting yourself into when you decide to make your purchase. If a company mentions that they have to pay renewal fees, they are in breach of their agreement with the GS1 (formerly known as the Uniform Code Council). Only companies that hold a valid prefix that predates August of 2002 can subdivide their pool of barcodes and sell them.

Sometimes Buying a Cheap UPC Barcode isn’t so cheap. There are companies that have convoluted terms and conditions hidden on various pages eluding to the fact that once they sell you Cheap UPC barcodes they will then charge you a monthly subscription fee. There are companies will accept barcodes back which means that there can be multiple vendors using the same barcode.

There are only two ways to get a barcode. You enter into an agreement with the GS1 which can be a sizeable amount of money or you go Nationwide Barcode or a similar company.

Barcodes are a very important aspect to getting your product to market. It can be very expensive to learn after the fact that your provider didn’t have legal right to sell you barcodes or your barcodes have been assigned to another company. We are the least expensive legitimate barcode provider on the internet.

Nationwide Barcode: www.nationwidebarcode.com

Compelling your Clients

I started in advertising right out of school as an art director for a group of Shopper Newspapers in California. I had a wonderful boss who regularly and gently beat me up with his chant of “Who, What, Where, When and Why.”

I’d get the ad copy from the salespeople and I would put together a series of speculative ads for them to go out and sell new clients. This was in the early 70’s. This was when salespeople didn’t need to be called Account Executives or Marketing Managers. They knew who they were…they were salesmen and saleswomen.

Their job was to make things happen…help get people in the door so they would buy something. The idea of speculative ads was to get the prospective advertisers excited about doing business with us and to know that we cared and understood their business. We made sure that these ads contained a who (the store), what (the item or service being sold), where (the complete address and contact information including the City and State), When (the date or range of dates including the year) and Why (the compelling reason for doing business NOW!).

If everybody realized that their job was that of a salesperson, business would be better. If nothing else, business would be easier. Selling is sharing complete information to make sure that people are able to make an informed decision to do business with you.

The mantra of who, what, where, when and why is more important today then it was in the 70’s. In the 70’s advertising was disposable. Magazines and newspapers were time dated and radio and TV ads were always ‘in the now’…or the next weekend. You would never expect to pick up a newspaper 6 months later and expect the specials in the newspaper ads to still be going on.

Now, in the internet age, nothing goes away, ever.

There are massive amounts of legacy material on the internet. People are searching for events and bargains and without complete information, they can’t make an informed decision.

Nothing is more frustrating than to find an event on Facebook, on a website or blog that is incomplete. Since information doesn’t go away, the simple addition of the year to a post will let people know if the information is current, if it happened last year or years before. Little things like the City and State in a post will help people know if the event is local or across the country. Detailed descriptions of what the events are will engage people and compel them to get involved. The more information you give your readers, the more likely they will want to be involved with your business. If your ad, invitation or post answers Who, What, When, Where and Why, you’ve helped your reader, you’ve given them compelling reasons to do business with you and more than likely, you’ll see an upturn in business.

What’s the Difference between a UPC and EAN?

There are two components to a barcode graphic. The barcode graphic and the number beneath the bars.

EAN = 0012345678905
UPC = (0)012345678905 or 012345678905

The GS1, the original source for barcodes, has created the confusion between UPC (Universal Product Codes) and EAN (European Article Numbers also called International Article Numbers). The UPC-A barcode was the original format for product barcodes. As demand in Europe, Asia and Australia started growing, country codes were added. (We have a list of country codes on this site). US and Canada have a a country code of zero which is not printed under the barcode nor is it entered in US and Canadian Inventory and Point of Sale Databases.

If you look at the graphics above, you will see they are exactly the same. The width of the bars and the width of the spaces between the bars are exactly the same. The only major difference is the placement of the numbers below (human readable numbers) which are there only as a back-up in case the barcode doesn’t scan properly and the information has to be manually entered into the point of sale system

Taking this a step further, we have overlaid the UPC and the EAN graphics (symbologies) so you can see that the graphic is identical. The country code doesn’t appear beneath the barcode in a UPC since the GS1 didn’t grasp the importance of US and Canada indicating country codes. They felt that since the majority of products sold in both countries originate from importers, distributors or manufacturers in the US or Canada, they could forego the leading zero in the human readable numbers.

We still believe that if you are currently doing business in the United States and Canada exclusively, it is safer to order UPC barcodes for your products. Many retailers, especially smaller retailers may be using older accounting and inventory systems that only allow them to enter in 12 digit UPC numbers and not a 13 digit string. If this changes in the future, you can convert your 12 digit UPC to a 13 digit EAN by adding in the country code 0. There is nothing on the horizon indicating that the US and Canada will ever switch over to EAN 13 barcodes.

Other countries are able to scan and read UPC barcodes.

The Retail Buyer’s Checklist

You have spent a lot of time and money developing your new business and now, you plan on making phone calls or knocking on the doors of the retailers in your area.

The job of a retail buyer is to make informed decisions whether or not to buy your product. They have to do this because they report to senior management who will ask them all these same questions before signing the Purchase Order and approving the purchase.

Here is a list of questions that many buyers will ask prior to adding your new product to their inventory.

Who is your target audience? How do you know this?
Do you own patents to this product? Can it be knocked off by a competitor?
If I place an order, do you have it in stock or is there a lead time before you can ship?
What are the minimum order requirements?
Who pays freight from your warehouse? Is there a certain order qualtity where you will pay freight?
Do you have competition? Who is it?
What is my cost on the product?
What is the retail selling price?
How did you determine this price?
Do you think this is a competitive price?
Who else is selling this product?
How did you test and certify this product? (electrical products need UL)
How do we deal with defectives?
What is the warranty?
What is the average defective rate for this item?
How is the product boxed and shipped to the retailer?
How is your item packed to sell? Box, bag, clam shell, etc.
Do you have a UPC/EAN barcode for your product?
Do you have product samples available for testing?
Do you have marketing funds for us to help sell your products?
Is their training for the retail sales associates? How is this training delivered?

Remember, although your item may be a passion for you, it is a business for the retailer and is one of thousands and thousands of items in their shop. They want to feel confident about your product

As a barcode provider, we can help you get UPC and EAN barcodes for your product.

As business consultants, we can also help you with your business. Feel free to book an appointment for consultation at www.mediamediainc.com

Are UPC Barcodes the “Mark of the Beast”?

The short answer is “no”

The longer answer follows:

Revelation 13: (17) so that they could not buy or sell unless they had the mark, which is the name of the beast or the number of its name. (18) This calls for wisdom. Let the person who has insight calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man. That number is 666.

Barcodes are all database driven. The barcode only represents a series of numbers containing a prefix, item numbers and a check digit.

The numbers corresponding to the barcode are scanned or entered into a database exactly as indicated below the barcode (the human readable numbers). Along with the barcode number, the information relating to the product including ‘regular’ and ‘sale’ price is also entered. When an item is scanned, the information is pulled from the database and the customer is charged the proper amount of money, at the same time, inventory is adjusted downward.

There are the three sets of guard bars, two bars on the far left, the far right and in the middle. Since these guard bars appear three times in a barcode, and look similar to the number 6, some people have claimed that the pattern 6-6-6 was embedded in every barcode.

According to Mr. Laurer, the inventor of the UPC/EAN barcode, “There is nothing sinister about this nor does it have anything to do with the Bible’s mark of the beast. Each character is a fixed length, 7 modules and composed of two spaces and two bars. From the outer ends toward the center, the character starts with a space and therefore a single bar is required to ‘close’ the character. The other bar is used to allow the level setting (gain) circuitry to adjust to the contrast of the particular symbol. The center pattern is narrow space, narrow bar, narrow space, narrow bar. This pattern is 4 modules wide and distinguishes it from the a 7 module character thus giving direction and end information to the logic. The assignment of digits to specific patterns was arbitrary.’

Barcodes are one of the things that helped bridge the gap between physical products and automated inventory tracking.

Sources: http://www.laurerupc.com/ and common sense.

How do you register a barcode?

After you buy a barcode, the next steps are pretty simple. First, there are no formal comprehensive regional or world-wide database. Sites like www.upcdatainfo.com and www.upcdatabase.com are hobbyist sites that are really well done but contain a small fraction of barcodes and products.

The true registration process is less formal than what people anticipate and is strictly between you and your retailers. When people purchase EAN or UPC barcodes from us, we provide a transfer of ownership (and certificate of authenticity) for the single or block of barcodes. We also send along an excel spreadsheet containing all of the numbers to make it easier to track which barcode goes with each of your products.

Then, as you are about to launch a new product and sell it into stores, you assign one of the barcode numbers to the product and then convey the information about that product to your retailer. If you are selling products that have variations (size, design, style, quantity, etc.), you will need to assign a different barcode number to each one of these items.

The retailer then inputs this into their inventory management system which is tied to their electronic point of sale systems.

The way it works is:
1. You tell the retailer about the product that is going into their store (description, price, barcode number)

2. The retailer enters the information into their database along with the starting inventory and usually the quantity where they plan on reordering your item(s).

3. Then, they sell the item…customer picks up the item in the store, takes it to the check stand, the item is scanned and the ‘cash register’ sends a query to the database. The database sends the item and pricing information to the ‘cash register’. At the same time the ‘cash register’ tells the database to remove the items purchased from inventory

Every retailer from your local hardware store to Amazon has their own ‘closed’ system. Every retailer has their own system based on the inventory management and accounting systems that they use.

Between UPC numbers (US and Canada) and EAN numbers (Europe, Australia, South America, Africa), there is the potential to have 100 Billion different numbers that can be used for barcodes. (Not every series is used and some of the number series are reserved for internal use of coupons, but it’s still a massive number) Nobody wants to manage a database this large, so, everyone manages their own system that is relevant to their inventory.

There are some interlinking systems. Google Merchant, Amazon and a couple others that help populate smart-phone UPC/EAN barcode readers like Red Laser, Shop Savvy, etc.

Learn how to get your barcodes to show up on smart phones.

For musicians and video producers, Soundscan is an optional registration process.

How is price determined in a Barcode?

There is no data, except for the barcode number itself, embedded in a UPC or EAN barcode. When the scanner at the checkstand scans the product and reads the barcode, the electronic cash register sends the number to the stores central database where the number is looked up. The central database sends the information back to the cash register where the customer is charged.

If there was pricing embedded in a barcode, nothing would ever be able to go on sale without replacing all of the barcodes. This allows the store to change the pricing as needed and gives complete flexibility to the store to put things on sale.

UPC and EAN Country Codes

We get a lot of questions from clients about barcodes and if you can tell where something is manufactured.

Barcode prefixes do not provide identification of origin for a specific product. They merely provide number capacity to different countries for assignment of barcode prefixes by the GS1.

UPC Barcodes do not show the leading zero. A UPC Barcode that starts with 7 would have a country code of 070 – 079.

Here is the current list of country codes

00 – 019 U.S. and Canada
020 – 029 Restricted distribution
030 – 039 U.S. drugs (see U.S. National Drug Code)
040 – 049 Restricted distribution (MO defined)
050 – 059 coupons
060 – 099 U.S. and Canada

100 – 139 U.S.
200 – 299 Restricted distribution
300 – 379 France and Monaco
380 Bulgaria
383 Slovenia
385 Croatia
387 Bosnia and Herzegovina
389 Montenegro
400 – 440 Germany (440 code inherited from old East Germany on reunification, 1990)
450 – 459 Japan
460 – 469 Russia
470 Kyrgyzstan
471 Taiwan
474 Estonia
475 Latvia
476 Azerbaijan
477 Lithuania
478 Uzbekistan
479 Sri Lanka
480 Philippines
481 Belarus
482 Ukraine
484 Moldova
485 Armenia
486 Georgia
487 Kazakhstan
488 Tajikistan
489 Hong Kong SAR
490 – 499 Japan
500 – 509 United Kingdom
520 – 521 Greece
528 Lebanon
529 Cyprus
530 Albania
531 Macedonia
535 Malta
539 Ireland
540 – 549 Belgium and Luxembourg
560 Portugal
569 Iceland
570 – 579 Denmark, Faroe Islands and Greenland
590 Poland
594 Romania
599 Hungary
600 – 601 South Africa
603 Ghana
604 Senegal
608 Bahrain
609 Mauritius
611 Morocco
613 Algeria
615 Nigeria
616 Kenya
618 Côte d’Ivoire
619 Tunisia
621 Syria
622 Egypt
624 Libya
625 Jordan
626 Iran
627 Kuwait
628 Saudi Arabia
629 United Arab Emirates
640 – 649 Finland
690 – 695 China, The People’s Republic
700 – 709 Norway
729 Israel
730 – 739 Sweden : EAN/GS1 Sweden
740 Guatemala
741 El Salvador
742 Honduras
743 Nicaragua
744 Costa Rica
745 Panama
746 Dominican Republic
750 Mexico
754 – 755 Canada
759 Venezuela
760 – 769 Switzerland and Liechtenstein
770 – 771 Colombia
773 Uruguay
775 Peru
777 Bolivia
779 Argentina
780 Chile
784 Paraguay
785 Peru
786 Ecuador
789 – 790 Brazil
800 – 839 Italy, San Marino and Vatican City
840 – 849 Spain and Andorra
850 Cuba
858 Slovakia
859 Czech Republic
860 Serbia
865 Mongolia
867 North Korea
868 – 869 Turkey
870 – 879 Netherlands
880 South Korea
884 Cambodia
885 Thailand
888 Singapore
890 India
893 Vietnam
896 Pakistan
899 Indonesia
900 – 919 Austria
930 – 939 Australia
940 – 949 New Zealand
950 GS1 Global Office: Special applications
951 EPCglobal: Special applications
955 Malaysia
958 Macau
960 – 969 GS1 Global Office: GTIN-8 allocations
977 Serial publications (ISSN)
978 – 979 Bookland (ISBN) – 979 formerly used for sheet music
980 Refund receipts
981 – 983 Common Currency Coupons
990 – 999 Coupons

Prefix 950 (GS1 Global Office) is used for special applications and bi-lateral agreements.

Is there data encrypted within a UPC or EAN bar code?

No. The bar code bars represent only the number below. There is no other information contained within the bar code. All information is supplied to you to the wholesaler or retailer.

A barcode is a graphical representation of the numbers below the graphic. UPC and EAN barcodes rely on data being entered into the retailers database. The 12 digit UPC or 13 digit EAN number is associated with the product name, specifications and selling price. When a barcode is scanned, a query is sent to the database and the response is the information about the product.