Barcode numbers are a standard way to uniquely identify products by brand owners and retailers. Any product that you pick off the shelf is likely to have a barcode number. It’s further likely that the product you have picked has an 890 barcode on it. These barcodes are called GS1 barcodes and they are based on global standards. This means that they meet all compliance requirements regardless of the country or industry.
In India, GS1 India is the only authorised body to allocate 890 barcodes to brands and these barcodes come with many benefits. Let’s explore the benefits of buying barcodes from GS1 India.
Contents
- Need for Barcode Numbers
- Advantages of GS1 Barcodes
- Differentiate your Products
- Improved Visibility on Search Engines
- Easy Listing with Retailers and e-Commerce Marketplaces
- Additional Benefits
- Conclusion
Need for Barcode Numbers
As a brand owner, whether you have one product or one hundred, the struggle is very similar. You need to identify each product uniquely, both for your own inventory as well as for the retailer’s shelf. You need a simple way to manage the data of your products. Unique product ids are also required to meet compliance requirements.
You can get barcode numbers for unique product identification and better visibility of products. These barcode numbers are encoded in barcodes (the black bars you see on product packaging). These barcodes can be scanned electronically using laser or camera-based scanners.
Advantages of GS1 Barcode Numbers
You can get barcode numbers for your products from virtually anywhere, but it is better to get them from GS1 India. There are many reasons for getting barcode numbers from GS1 India such as
Differentiate your Products
GS1 India provides globally unique barcode numbers for products. It is the only authorized body in India which issues the barcode numbers starting with 890. By registering with GS1 India, you get a unique Global Company Prefix (GCP) and all product SKUs of the company get globally unique 13-digit Global Trade Identification Numbers (GTINs). These GTINs are the same numbers we mentioned above which get encoded in barcodes which you can print on product packaging.
Each individual product SKU will get a unique barcode number. This helps to identify the products uniquely while selling in different markets – domestic or international, online or offline.
If you get barcodes which are not globally unique, the same barcode number might be used by multiple people for multiple different products and this can very well confuse retailers and impact business. Hence, it is beneficial to buy barcodes from an authorised body such as GS1 India. These barcodes are guaranteed to be globally unique and universally accepted.
Improved Visibility on Search Engines
Today the tech savvy consumers research products online before buying. They can search for specific products using barcode numbers. When someone searches for a particular product barcode number, Google can fetch the data from GS1 data repository and let them know which product it is linked to. If your products have GS1 barcode numbers, their search engine visibility in Google search is likely to improve.
The consumers can also search for products using barcodes on e-commerce marketplaces like Amazon or Google Shopping. If a product has a unique GS1 barcode and it is listed on the e-commerce marketplace, then it is likely to show up in search results.
Easy Listing with Retailers and e-Commerce Marketplaces
It is possible to sell products in local markets and through small retailers without GTINs. However, for listing the products with leading retailers like D-Mart and Reliance Retail or e-commerce marketplaces like Amazon and Big Basket, unique GTIN barcode numbers may be required. GTINs are also essential if you want to sell your products through the Canteen Stores Department (CSD) of Indian Army.
Most of the e-commerce marketplaces and retailers need a unique product code, which can be authenticated. This helps them list products uniquely and manage their internal processes such as ordering, invoicing, despatch, receipts, etc. Hence they require brand owners to share GTINs to list their products.
GTIN can be linked to information such as product specifications, serial and product number, manufacturing details, etc. These details are required by retailers and e-commerce marketplaces while listing the products. If you buy GTIN from GS1 India, you can use DataKart portal to share these details with retailers and e-commerce marketplaces.
The retailers and e-commerce marketplaces need to ensure that product codes received from suppliers/sellers are always valid. GTIN also enables product validation. For example, Amazon India uses GS1 India’s GTIN validation service for verifying and validating the products listed on their site.
Additional Benefits
Any brand owner knows the hassle of managing product data. You have to maintain data of many product attributes as well as product images. Apart from managing product data internally, it has to also be shared with retailers while listing the products. Each retailer has a unique format to take product data from brand owners.
GS1 India has a national product data repository, DataKart, which hosts information on over 30 million products. Brand owners who have got GTINs from GS1 India can upload the product data and detailed attributes on the DataKart portal. It stores all product-related information that can be accessed at any time by brand owners, retailers and online marketplaces.
DataKart takes care of presenting your product data in each retailer own specific format without you having to do anything extra. All you have to do is upload your product data once and DataKart takes care of the rest. This enables easy product data management.
DataKart helps its users meet several requirements such as expediting the product listing process, generating product and carton barcodes, sharing product changes with retailers/e-tailers, etc., that are crucial in the B2B, B2G, B2C space.
You can also directly connect with your consumers and share detailed product information with them through the Smart Consumer mobile app. The Smart Consumer mobile app pulls the data from DataKart portal. Consumers can scan the barcode on product packaging or search the GTIN numbers to get the information about the product.
Conclusion
Getting GTINs from GS1 India gives you many benefits like unique product identification, master data management of products, data sharing with retailers and e-commerce marketplaces, etc. Hence it is beneficial to get GTINs from GS1 India.
