Barcodes in SA

What are the basic requirements for barcodes in South Africa?

In order to sell your products in retail stores in South Africa, you will require either an EAN or UPC barcode number. The retailers use this number to keep track of your product within their store and to monitor sales, stock and income trends. The particular barcode system your retailers have in place will determine which number format (EAN or UPC) you will need to use for your products. It’s a simple factor of some stores’ scanners preferring to read one version over the other.

Our suggestion is that you print a few samples of your EAN and UPC numbers and take them to your retailers with the intention of finding out which format is compatible with their scanning systems. This will save you a lot of trouble in the long run – can you imagine having your entire product range packaged and ready, but with a barcode format that your retailers cannot scan? To prevent these kinds of issues and to make life easier for you, we also provide both the EAN and UPC versions of your barcodes when you purchase barcode numbers from us.

With regards to your product line and how many barcodes you require, the general rule is one unique barcode number for every product variation. This means that every size, flavour, colour or type will need its own number. Think of it as an ID or number plate – you wouldn’t want duplicates that exist elsewhere in the world, and the same goes for barcoding products.

Once you have your products ready, and each variation has its own unique number visible on the packaging, your retailers should then be able to link your product information to their individual point of sale system. This will include the product description and pricing so that every time that barcode is scanned, the correct information will appear on the customers till slip.