Over the years, one question I’m always asked is “how can I get single UPC Barcodes, or get them in small quantities?”

There hasn’t always been a good answer for this – the choice has been to invest in a GS1 company prefix (confusing to many people and can be expensive), or to buy UPC codes from a third-party seller, not all of which are reputable.

As more and more small businesses want to sell their products via online systems such as Amazon, this has become a bigger problem than in. the past.

Thankfully, GS1 has stepped up and come up with a solution for even the smallest business. It is now possible to purchase UPC barcodes directly from GS1 US – even if you just need a single UPC code, you’ll know it is correct and legitimate.

Even better, a UPC barcode license purchased from GS1 US costs only $30 with no annual renewal fee – sounds like a great deal to me!

As your business grows, or if you already have a larger number of products, it still makes sense to look at acquiring a GS1 Company Prefix so you can build a larger number of barcodes. This page over at the GS1 US site shows how this works and includes the current pricing.

This graphic (from the GS1 US page) shows how you can calculate how many barcodes you’ll need. It is important to remember that the number of digits in your Company Prefix is related to the total number of SKUs you are going to have and that if you need to add GTIN barcodes to your Secondary Packaging, you need to take these into account as well.

You can learn more about GS1 barcoding for both primary and secondary Packaging by downloading the ID Technology GS1 Barcode Guide.

At ID Technology we are printing huge numbers of GS1 barcodes every day – whether printing labels for primary packaging or on-line printing for secondary packaging with our Panther or ID Technology print/apply labelers or our FoxJet inkjet printers.

Do you need to add GS1 barcodes to your products or packaging? We’d love to help – contact us at 817-626-7779 or just use the form – we’ll get you connected with one of our experts right in your area!