When you go to a grocery store or open your refrigerator, chances are you will see that almost every product has a printed UPC barcode. In fact, almost every product in the United States has its own UPC barcode, whatever type of product it may be. So what are UPC barcodes and what are they for?

Universal Product Codes, or simply known as a UPC, is a 12 digit long number that appears on the majority of all United States products. These barcodes were originally intended to help grocery and department stores speed up their checkout process. Also, through these UPC barcodes, grocery stores were able to efficiently keep track of their inventory. The system quickly caught on with all other retail products because of its benefits. UPC barcodes were designed for mass circulation and tracking of products.

Remember that the barcode must be placed on a white background - no exceptions, therefore please take this into consideration when designing your artwork.

Sample UPC Barcode
Sample UPC Barcode

Online Shopping and Amazon Barcodes
The invention of the Internet has dramatically changed the way people shop. Perhaps, one of the most popular online retails stores is Amazon. Through the years, Amazon has been considered as the most reliable online retail store by most online consumers. Also, most retailers have found success in marketing their products through Amazon. Barcodes have also played an integral part in marketing a product in Amazon.

As sellers and marketers, we normally sell products under a certain brand and most of these products already have their respective UPC barcodes. However, there are instances where we create the product ourselves and this is where we need a barcode. When you create a new product page on Amazon, you will be asked with the details of the UPC barcodes of your products. For amateur Amazon marketers, seeing that the product they are trying to market doesn’t have a UPC barcode, panic sets in and oftentimes, they give up on the idea of marketing the product on Amazon.

For European markets you would need an EAN barcode. When you order a Barcode from BlankMediaPrinting you will receive all barcode formats.

Sample EAN Barcode:
EAN Barcode Sample