The Anatomy of a U.P.C. Barcode

U.P.C. barcodes are made of several sets of numbers that, when combined, form unique identifiers for your products. The foundation of a barcode is the company prefix, which is between 6 and 9 digits in length.  This prefix is a globally unique number, licensed for use by only your company.
 
     9 digit prefix     6 digit prefix 
 

 

                                                                                                                                                                                                  

Getting Your Prefix

To license a company prefix from GS1 US, you must join the Partner Connections program. Joining takes only a few minutes and requires some basic company information. As a Partner Connections member, you'll receive a company prefix and will gain access to online tools that help you make and keep track of all your U.P.C. barcodes.

 
                                                     

Creating a Barcode

To create a U.P.C. barcode, you'll combine your company prefix with a unique product number for each product you intend to sell. Partner Connections Members have access to an easy-to-use online tool called Data Driver that makes it easy to create these barcode numbers (GTINs or Global Trade Item Numbers). Data Driver also provides directions for managing and printing barcodes once you've created them.

 
 

So you've created barcodes for your items. What's next? U.P.C. barcodes allow you to generate coupons, track inventory, capture information and share it electronically with your customers. There are lots of ways to manage and use the valuable information captured as a Partner Connections member… and we're here to help you understand how!

Our Supply Chain Video is a good place to start learning about how barcodes fit into the supply chain process.

View our Supply Chain Video to learn how barcodes fit into the supply chain process.

Ready to license your company prefix?