When we think about scaling a small business so that we can start distribution to retailers, the last thing we tend to think of is the need to have a unique barcode. But it is becoming critical to small businesses that each product has a unique identifier so that we can keep track of sales and stock.
Why Barcode?
Considering that many small businesses today start online, it probably won’t surprise you to learn that companies such as eBay and Amazon have sought ways of legislating barcodes with their sellers. As the world of online trade expands and diversifies, giving your products an identifier might be what keeps it from sinking down the search rankings.
If your product has done well and some retailers want to search for your item with the minimum of fuss, ensuring that it has a Unique Product Code or UPC will help them find it. Besides that, if there are similar items on offer online, without a product code you run the risk of having your product mixed up with someone else’s, thereby missing out on sales.
What are you going to use your barcode for? Each different step of the journey of your product should be considered, from the shelf at the back of your garage or warehouse to how the till clerk is going to log its sale 500 miles away.
Stocktaking
You can, for instance, set up a barcode system which is useful only to you if you are only a small, independent operation. This will make it easier for you to keep track of what you have in stock. For this, you need only a scanner, barcoding software, and barcoding labels. It should be emphasised that this only really helps with stock taking and for most online and traditional retailers they will require a world-wide standard UPC.
UPC Resellers
There is a whole industry made to resell UPCs for your product so you don’t have to spend much time on generating them yourself and they can be bought relatively cheaply. That said, costs can increase considerably the more you use these sellers and, in some cases, their practices are not entirely legitimate, so you must always approach this option with caution.
GS1 Issued Barcodes
If you are serious about giving your codes national and international legitimacy, then you should take the official route. There is an international network of GS1 Organisations which work to ensure that all new barcodes obtained are unique to that item.
In Australia that is GS1 Australia. When you enlist their help, you will be assigned a company prefix and they will be able to guide you in how many numbers you can assign through your company. The process takes a few steps but once you are set up you will be able to start scaling up your business without much effort.
Before you enlist their help, you should start considering a few things that you will need to know. These include:
- Whether it will need to be a ‘static’ (always the same) or ‘dynamic’ (changeable) barcode
- What data you need to communicate. Serial numbers or expiry dates, for instance
- Where it needs to work – is it going to be scanned at a check-out and a distribution centre?
- Design – the optimum is black on white and should always be solid colours, specifically dark on light.
- How many products you are going to need them for
Budget
The other thing to consider is how much you are willing to spend at this juncture on barcodes. A stock-taking barcode system can be built fairly cheaply, but when you want to scale up you should factor in the cost of design and printing. Much of what you will need can be bought relatively inexpensively, such as a thermal printer which you can find online in places like LG Business Systems. But barcoding is a long-term investment and is a commitment you should be willing to take if your business is to scale upwards.