Getting Your Product Retail Ready
Getting a barcode is one step in a sequence, and the order matters. Testing your artwork after you’ve printed is too late, and you can’t get a verification report before you’ve printed.
Most people are done after step 4. Steps 5 to 8 depend on your retailer.
1. Check what your retailer needs
Do this first, because it can change every decision after it.
Our barcodes are accepted by nearly all retailers in the UK and worldwide. A few large chains only accept barcodes issued directly by GS1, and some others accept ours but ask for a verification report.
Check barcode acceptance in the UK before you buy anything. If your retailer isn’t listed, ask them.
Selling on Amazon? Read Amazon barcode requirements first, as there are conditions.
2. Work out what you need
How many: You need one barcode per product, and one for each variation. Retailers use barcodes to track stock and price, so each size, colour, and flavour generally needs its own.
Which type:
| Your product | What you need |
|---|---|
| Most retail products | Retail barcode package |
| Book | ISBN book barcode |
| Magazine, newspaper or journal | ISSN magazine barcode |
| Outer cartons and cases | ITF-14 carton barcodes |
| You already have a number | Barcode images only |
3. Buy your barcode
From £26. You pay once, with no renewals, and the barcode is yours for life. You get:
- the number
- images in three formats (PDF, PNG and SVG)
- a guarantee certificate
- free registration
We email it within minutes.
Buy it before you send your packaging to the designer. Fixing a barcode in an artwork file is free, but fixing it after a print run isn’t.
4. Add it to your packaging
Your images arrive at the standard size and work as supplied. Problems usually happen when you change them in the artwork file. Watch these four things:
- Size: Don’t shrink the barcode below 80% of the standard size or enlarge it above 200%.
- Quiet zones: Keep the blank margins on each side clear. They’re part of the barcode.
- Contrast: Use dark bars on a light background, never over artwork.
- Placement: Put it somewhere flat and visible, not across a seam or fold.
For more help, see barcode dimensions, how to use your barcode, or have us do the artwork for you.
Not printing the barcode on your packaging? We can print it on sticky labels and post them to you anywhere in the UK.
5. Test your artwork before you print
The test costs £12. You email us a PDF, we test it on verification equipment, and we send you a graded report. Most barcodes that fail verification later fail because of a size or quiet-zone mistake made at this stage, when it would still have been free to fix.
6. Get a verification report, if your retailer needs one
A report costs £35. Only some retailers ask for one (see step 1). It tests the barcode on your finished, printed packaging, so it comes after your print run. You post us a sample, and we send the report within 2–3 working days of receiving it.
7. Get a GLN, if your retailer needs one
A Global Location Number (GLN) identifies your business, not your product. Some retailers and ordering systems require one.
8. Register your barcode
This is free with every package. It adds your product to the International Barcodes Database, so phone scanners and search engines find your product instead of nothing. Your barcode scans fine either way.
9. Supply your retailer
Your barcode number arrives blank and contains no product information. When the retailer first receives your product, they scan it and enter your product details and price into their system. From then on, it brings up your product at the till. That’s why the same number works in any shop, in any country.
Not sure where you fit? Ask us. We’d rather tell you that you don’t need something than sell it to you.