How Are Duplicates Created
Duplicates are most commonly created when one or more of the following happens:
- You incorrectly use the UPC, EAN, ISBN, ASIN, or JAN not belonging to the product to identify the product you are selling.
- You introduce distinct UPCs, EANs, ISBNs, or JANs for identical products. For example:
- You assign a product a new UPC or EAN in each Amazon marketplace where you sell the product.
- You assign a new UPC or EAN for compatible products such as a laptop charger that is compatible with multiple laptops.
How To Obtain Upcs For Selling On Amazon
July 25, 2019 Armando Roggio
Amazon requires private label brands and direct-to-consumer manufacturers that sell on its marketplace to have universal product codes or similar for virtually all products.
Fortunately, for as little as $250 just about any company can register a UPC prefix and obtain the required code. Think of it as the cost of doing business, much like an investment in pay-per-click advertising or search engine optimization.
How Do Upc Barcodes For Amazon Work
| ; | As you can imagine, since Amazon distributes so many items through their fulfillment centers with each item handled numerous times there is room for error. Amazon aims to increase accuracy, speed up the time needed to get your product in the hands of buyers, and streamline inventory/sales reporting by adopting barcodes across the board. In that spirit, we aim to help you meet their UPC barcode requirement by offering new Amazon sellers UPC code advice. At the end of this page, please find a detailed compliance guideline for working with Amazon. If you need additional advice, dont hesitate to call us at or toll free at . |
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Amazon Product Listing Creation
Step 1
To list a product on Amazon, one needs to login to the seller central. After login,; drag the cursor on Menu Inventory.
Step 2
For single listing creation, click Add a product.
Amazon is a home place of millions of products. So, if you are reselling a product, you can look for existing listing available on Amazon. Type a product name in the search box, if you finds the exact match product, select it and start .
To list a new product, click on Im adding a product not sold on Amazon.
Choose the right category and subcategory to proceed.
Step 3
Once you selected the category, the seller central will take you listing creation page. Move the toggle bar Advanced view to right side. It will visible additional sections.
Vital Info
Start with the first section Vital Info. Here, you need to add product title, brand, color etc information required to list products on Amazon.
Also, you will need a UPC/EAN/ASIN number to list a product to Amazon catalog. You can purchase UPC or EAN numbers from GS1.
Add variations
The next section is Variations. If you are selling a product that is available in different colors, shape, and sizes.So, you will need to define it in the Variations section. Do remember, each variation is unique and you will need individual UPC/EAN number for every variation.
Add product price, condition, and selling type
The next section is offers. Here you will add product price, item condition, inventory quantity, and fulfillment method .
Add images
What Is The Upc Code
UPC code stands for Universal Product Code. It is a 12 digit unique barcode to the product which is scanned before sales. The first 6 digits are your company prefix, the next 5 digits are your product number and the last digit is automatically created.
The last digit is called a check digit. UPC codes are used throughout the world for easier tracking of the trade items.
UPC-A, UPC-B, UPC-C, UPC-D, UPC-E as well as UPC-2, and UPC-5 are different types of UPC codes available. UPC-2, and UPC-5 are basically used for magazines, periodicals, or books. The most used UPC codes are UPC-A and UPC-E.
The main difference between A and E types is the latter has a shorter length of only 6 digits. It is designed for the small print area of the product.
UPC-A and UPC-E are essentially the same but UPC-E does not include 0s within the barcode. You can, however, see 0s on the corresponding GTIN.
As an Amazon seller, it is most important to understand Amazon UPC codes. Prior to being listed, Amazon requires all products to bear a GS1 UPC code.
GS1 is a non-profit organization that has set the global standard for supply chain barcoding. For brand owners to create their own unique barcodes, GS1 issues unique prefixes to them.
Currently, within the US and Canada, UPC barcodes are used as primary barcodes. Although other countries can scan and read UPC codes, most countries outside of the US and Canada use European Article Numbers .
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How To Buy Upc Codes For Amazon Summary
UPCs are used widely throughout the world, and are becoming ever more popular. The recent concern from Amazon is that people were using UPC codes that were not real and did not verify with the GS1, hence their explicit policy change. However, this is not to taint all third party sellers, as many sellers, including SnapUPC.com, have been selling UPCs for many years legitimately from the GS1 and will continue to do so. ;When you buy UPCs from us, youre buying a code that originated from the GS1, and is guaranteed to be unique to you and your product, which you own and can legally use.
We offer 100% money back guarantee if your codes dont work, and we stand by our product and service. We are here to serve you, and appreciate your business. ;Also check out our Frequently Asked Questions page for more information.
To buy UPC codes, simply order visit our pricing page and place your order, codes are delivered instantly upon checkout.
Have any further questions not answered here or on our FAQ page? Feel free to contact us, were glad to help.
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Assign Each Of Your Products A Product Number
Once your company prefix has been generated, GS1 will give you a digit length for your product number, also called a GTIN. The product number is usually the five digits after the six-digit company prefix. The length of the product number is based on the number of future products you indicated on your company prefix application.
Keep in mind that every unique product you have will need its own unique product number. For example, if you sell the exact same shirt in 10 different colors, each color variation will need its own product number. GS1 allows sellers to use their own numbering system for each product as long as it meets length requirements.
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Determine Your Barcode Type
The barcode type you need depends on where your product will be sold or scanned. Products scanned at a brick-and-mortar point-of-sale need different barcodes than products scanned in a distribution center or a warehouse.
- If you sell in both brick-and-mortar stores and online, you should use the same GTIN online and in physical stores;
- If you use Amazon FBA to fulfill your Amazon orders, Amazon typically requires that you place FNSKU codes on your items; we cover these in greater detail below. FBA uses FNSKU barcodes to track inventory throughout the order fulfillment process. If a particular item is exclusively available from you, Amazon may be able to use the UPC code alone to identify you as the seller, but we recommend always using the FNSKU as well to ensure there are no current or future issues
Because were talking about barcodes for Amazon, well skip to the online and ecommerce retail store requirements.;
How Many Upc Codes Do I Need For My Products
UPC codes are used to identify products with a unique 12 digit number, and then enable them to be scanned in and out of inventory.; It also allows computers to know what a product is simply by a code rather than by a description.; Every unique product needs a unique UPC code.; For example, if youre selling T-Shirts, each unique Color will need a unique UPC. ;If you have 20 Black, 20 White, and 20 Green for sale, youll need 3 unique UPC codes, 1 for each unique Color.; Each unique UPC barcode can be printed an unlimited number of times, so if you have 100 White Medium T-Shirts, you can print the same UPC barcode 100 times to place on your 100 units.
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What Kind Of Barcode Do I Need To Sell On Amazon
Good question. Lets start with what Amazon says
There are two kinds of barcodes for identifying products:
- Manufacturer barcodes
- Amazon barcodes
The first group, manufacturer barcodes, all fall into the GTIN family .
You dont need to know what these mean . All you need to do is ask the question: Does my product already have a manufacturer barcode?
To answer that question, answer this question
Prepare Your Product To Succeed
Obtaining a UPC code for your product is just one small step in the Amazon selling journey, but its a crucial one. Once you have your UPC codes for Amazon, youll need to ensure you have the right tools, data and guidance to succeed.
At Viral Launch, were here to help you navigate the way in this journey. If youve got questions, weve got answers. Our software is some of the best on the market and was created to help Amazon sellers just like you. You can also talk to one of our experienced coaches or sign up for our creative services, including product photography and listing optimization. Whatever you need, were here to help!
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How To Create A Listing On Amazon With Upc
To start using the UPC code, youll need an Amazon Merchant account that enables you to add new products to the Amazon catalog . ;Once you login to your account, click on the;Inventory;tab at the top left navigation, click Add a Product
Scroll down a bit to the List a new product section and then click on the Create a New Product Listing link.
After clicking that page, youll be taken to a page to select the category of your product, which you will choose depending on the product youre selling. ;You can either search for a category or browse for a category:
Once your category is selected, youll be asked for your Product Name, Manufacturer, Product ID on Amazon listing page. ;This is the Vital Info tab. ;At the bottom of the vital info tab is a required field called the Product ID, which is where youll need the Amazon UPC or EAN that you purchase from us.
Youll want to go through all of the tabs and fill in the required information on each tab, as well as any other information you can provide. ;Note that you can save the changes and later go back and edit them once all the required fields are filled in.;;Note: Make sure you filled in the required information on ALL tabs, otherwise you cant submit the listing.
Note that when you update the listing, it can take up to 15 minutes for the changes to save and for your listing to become active/updated.
A Little Primer On Upc Codes
Worldwide, theres a non-profit organization called GS1 that determines how UPCs should and do work. They have a database of all of these 12-digit codes in production, which Amazon dips into when checking if your UPC is a match.
GS1 is the only legitimate global producer of UPC codes, so use them to verify yours is correct. But just because GS1 is the world leader doesnt mean you cant buy UPCs elsewhere, as long as theyre GS1 organizations.
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What Is A Gtin
A GTIN is a Global Trade Item Number that identifies individual products not to be confused with an actual product barcode. GTINs are a combination of GS1 US-issued company prefix numbers and a unique product number, plus a check digit that helps to ensure the GTIN is created correctly.;
GTINs can be encoded into different types of barcodes:
Its important to assign each product a unique GTIN, and you must ensure that every variation of an item is assigned a globally unique number.
Keep in mind, in most Amazon categories, sellers are required to use a separate UPC for multi-pack products, and they must also indicate the item package quantity when listing multi-packs. Product bundles are composed of different products and each bundle requires its own unique UPC . For more info, check out Amazons Product Bundling Policy and How Products are Defined.
A GTIN, along with a UPC code, can be used anywhere in the world. GS1 is the only official global provider of GS1 GTINs and EAN and UPC barcodes.
Make The Product Private Label
If youre selling private label products, you can decide everything yourself in terms of:
- Whether any products are bundled together
- Not needing to get UPCs from the brand owner like you would with a white label product
- If you have Brand Registry, you can even contact Seller Support to get help listing your product without the need for a UPC
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Apply For Gs1 Company Prefix
This is the most important step in obtaining the UPC code for your product. The company prefix gives a unique identity to the products manufacturer. As a seller, your company prefix will remain the same for all the products. Then a unique product code is assigned for each product that will be placed after the company prefix.
The number of digits in the company prefix will vary from 6-10 characters depending upon the number of products that the manufacturer wants to identify. If each company correctly uses its own company prefix for product and shipping labels, each barcode and data structure will be unique.
What Are Some Other Common Terms In The Amazon Product Id Section Of Amazon Listings
ASIN
The ASIN is the Amazon Standard Identification Number. It is a 10-digit alphanumeric unique catalog number assigned by Amazon that wont actually be generated until the product is listed.
When creating a new product listing with a UPC code, Amazon assigns the new listing an ASIN identification. This is how the systems at Amazon keep track of which sellers are selling which versions of which items when multiple people list the same products.
GCID
When creating a brand on Amazon you will be given a unique identifier for your brand to list products under.;
The ID can only be used when adding new products that are part of the approved registered Brand list.
Registering your brand on Amazon allows you to circumvent the entire UPC code stage of listing a product. It allows you to sell products without a UPC code. Its something to consider once your sales ramp up on the platform.
GTIN
A GTIN is part of another code, such as an EAN or UPC code. These are 14-digit codes used to identify products, services, and items. Think of them as the umbrella that collects the GS1 barcodes well be using, including UPC codes.
Keep things simple by keeping in mind that all product listings require a UPC code. This should be standard practice for you.
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How To Obtain Upc Barcodes
As the authority on barcode creation and UPC implementation, Bar Code Graphics receives hundreds of call and emails every day from companies confused on how to go about obtaining UPC barcodes. This informational website is the starting point to understand the importance of a brand licensed U.P.C. Company Prefix and how to buy UPC barcodes.
In todays global marketplace retailers, wholesalers and online marketplaces, such as Amazon, require a unique identifier be assigned for every product. Unlike a suppliers proprietary part number, the required identifier needs to be globally unique and adhere to a worldwide standard. For the United States, this product identifier is the UPC barcode A UPC number normally consists of two primary components: a U.P.C. Company Prefix and a Product Number.
Obtaining barcodes for your products is an easy four-step process:
- Step One: Apply for a U.P.C. Company Prefix
- Step Two: Assign Unique Product Numbers.
- Step Three: Determine how your product will display barcodes.
- Step Four: Obtain accurate UPC barcodes for each item.
At the end of this simple tutorial, you will be directed to the necessary information enabling you to obtain UPC barcodes with a licensed unique UPC Company Prefix assigned to your company or buy single GS1 US UPC barcodes . In addition to having direct access to an assigned certified consultant, digital barcode files or printed barcode labels are included.
Are You Brand Registered With Amazon
If Yes, then you must rent directly from GS1.
Amazon does cross checking of UPC codes against the GS1 database, but only for Brand Registered Sellers. This means any seller registered with Amazons Brand Program, without a Prefix directly from GS1 will not be able to list their products. Amazon is forcing you to rent expensive UPC codes from GS1 and pay annual fees for the lifetime of your company and product.
If No, then you can purchase UPC Codes directly from us and save a ton of money.
There’s only two ways to legally acquire a UPC Code. You can rent it from GS1 or own it outright from ourselves due to the GS1/UCC class action lawsuit settlement in 2002. Our inventory of UPC barcode numbers or prefixes originate from GS1-US before 2002, this is how you can legally own them instead of being forced by GS1 into renting them for thousands or many thousands + annual fees.;
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