Retail Barcodes Guide
Retail barcodes – Everything you need to know about buying and using retail bar codes on your retail products.
Download our free Guide to Retail Bar codes that explains:
- The types of barcodes needed on different retail products (EAN, UPC, ITF14, ISBN, ISSN)
- How to buy barcodes
- Adding the barcodes to your products
- Registering your barcodes and products with retailers and online databases
Download the Guide to Retail Bar Codes (PDF).
The most common retail barcodes –
EAN13 barcodes
UPC-A barcodes
ISBN book barcodes – for books
ISSN magazine barcodes – for magazines
EAN13 are the most common barcodes on retail products in the UK and can be used on most products except published books, magazines and newspapers.
Please contact us if you have any questions about this.
Founding member of the International Barcodes Network.
What is a barcode?
A barcode is a symbol that can be easily read by a barcode scanner or smartphone app. They link a product to product information in a database. Each barcode is a globally unique number. Retailers use barcodes to quickly retrieve the name and price of a product at checkout and to track products as they move through the supply chain. Store owners are then alerted to low stock levels of a particular item, therefore, prompting them to reorder in good time. Every variation of a product (e.g. each size and colour) requires its own barcode.
Barcode1 UK
Barcode1 UK has been supplying retail barcodes to businesses across the UK since 2007.
Our mission is to make retail barcodes easy to buy in the UK. This is why we offer our barcodes for a one-off price, yours to own for life without any membership requirements or renewal fees. We supply retail bar codes (for products) and carton codes (for shipping boxes of products to retailers) to manufacturers and distributors in the UK. Barcodes keep track of inventory and show the product details at checkout in stores.
Why buy barcodes from us?
- Simple and fast to buy, with no restrictions on who can buy our barcodes
- No joining fees, no membership fees, no ongoing fees of any kind
- Barcode numbers checked for illegal use before sale
- Free barcode registration on the International Barcodes Database
- All prices in GBP
- Experienced staff who can advise you in order to prevent common barcode mistakes
- Founding member of the International Barcodes Network