Barcode Questions people are dying to ask
What barcode questions are you dying to ask? What have you always wanted to know about a retail barcode, but have been too shy to ask? We, at www.sabarcodes.co.za are here to answer all your curious questions. Where would you like to start?
Let us start at the beginning….it’s a very good place to start. What exactly is a barcode and why do I need it? What are they used for? Firstly, they are a list of individual numbers combined with an image of black and white linear stripes that are able to be scanned by a scanner to bring up the product in question. Most retail codes are either 12 or 13 digits long. The UPC format being 12 digit and the EAN being 13. They are used to enable the retailer to sell your product, as well as track and monitor inventory.
Most retailers in South Africa will require your product to have a barcode and they will not accept it into their store until you have purchased a GS1 and have the proof to state that it is registered under your details. Having one for your product will also lift your business’s reputation and raise your business to the next level. It will give your business a professional image and encourage retailers to take you seriously. In the business world today, you can use all the help you can get in order to make your business thrive
Secondly, how many do I actually need? Do I need a separate barcode for every size of my product, or can I use one for all the sizes? The answer is that you will need a separate, individual number for every size and variation of your product. For example, if you are selling both red and white wine and you are also selling the wine in two different size bottles such as 750ml or 1 litre, you will need 4 in total, one for each size and for the red and white variant.  This will help the retailer to be able to accurately track the sales of your product and know when to reorder. This is also very important for when the store does stock take, as in all stock takes the specifics of each product need to be recorded. So if all the products had the same barcode even if they had different sizes then the stocktake would not be very accurate. But with each color, size, flavor, etc having its own unique number the records are perfect and up to date at all times. Before the use of a retail barcode on products, all this had to be done manually and it left huge room for error and recounts having to be done. We can only imagine how much time it would consume and the loss of profit as a whole. Even if you have a small home-based business do not think that you cannot use a barcoding system for your stock inventory. Anyone can, and it helps immensely in keeping track of stock and sales. It keeps everything formal and on record.
Thirdly, can I change the size of my image? How big or how small can I make it? It is definitely possible to change the dimensions of your retail barcode to suit your specific needs. The normal size for EAN and UPC formats is 37.3 mm wide and 25.9 mm high. If you would like to make this smaller, it is best to only decrease the size by 80% of the standard size – 30mm wide. The largest possible size is 200% of the recommended size – which would make it 74.6 mm wide. It is crucial to remember that the width is more important than the height. This is because it must be possible for scanners to distinguish between the vertical lines in a barcode image. We always recommend test scanning to make sure that it can scan, before doing your full print run.
Another question that people are dying to ask is a practical one. What is the exact process of getting a barcode? How do I go about it? How long will it take? Buying from us is a very simple, easy, and affordable process. The first step is to contact us for a quote and the next step is payment. After this, we will need a name to register the barcode under, you have the freedom to choose this name, you can either have it registered under your company name or under your own name, this name will be on your Ownership Certificate as well. Once this is completed, we will send your pack through to you via email. This whole process does not take longer than a day or two. We also include the scannable images in your pack which you can forward to your designer.
Okay, I have got my retail barcode, what must I do with it? The next step is to approach a retailer to see if they would like to stock your products. This is if you have not already done so. They will ask you to fill in a product information form with all of your details as well as the information regarding your products. The retailer will then load the retail barcode onto their sales system and link it to your product so that when they scan the item, your information will come up. You can then either incorporate the barcode image into your package design or you can print the barcode onto barcode stickers and stick these stickers onto the products directly. After this, you are all set to go.
In conclusion, we are always available to answer all your questions regarding barcode technology. You do not need to continue walking in the dark. We are here to switch the light on.
