What are UPC Barcodes?
Can anyone explain me in layman terms what is the meaning of UPC Barcodes? and how to obtain these?
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May 10, 2016
Universal Product Codes (also known as GTIN-12) appear as lines (bars) of varying widths representing the series of numbers commonly shown below the bars. Barcode scanners, as you will know them from your favorite retailers, read the bars and convert them back to the 12-digit UPC number that they represent. This number is then looked up within the retailer's inventory system to find the corresponding product name and price that you provided them with when you signed your agreement for them to carry your product.
In short, the UPC is a 12-digit unique code for your product represented by scannable bars.
1st. You purchase a UPC code(s). There is NO information other than the official UPC barcode number stored or encrypted into your barcode symbol.
2nd. You print the UPC barcode image directly on your product or order pre-printed barcode labels from Simply Barcodes.
3rd. You place your product with a retailer/distributor.
4th. Each retailer/distributor asks you to provide information about you and your product.
5th. The retailer/distributor enters the information in their sales/inventory management system and associates it with your product's UPC number.
6th. When your product is scanned at the register, the scanner reads the UPC number from the barcode, looks up your product's price and description in the retailer's database, and your sale is recorded.
May 6, 2016
The Universal Product Code (UPC) is a barcode symbology that is widely used in the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Australia and in other countries for tracking trade items in stores. I have been using http://officialupccodes.com for a very long time for Amazon and Sears and I haven't had any problems and fast service.
Dec 26, 2013
I see you got all answered about what UPC barcodes are here.
Here is another one for general knowledge of UPC-A:
http://www.keepautomation.com/upca/
As for how to obtain those barcodes, there are a couple of ways too:
1. use UPC font(http://www.keepautomation.com/products/barcode_fonts/barcodes/upca.html)
2. UPC barcode generator
3.Web-based online UPC generator
4...
May 14, 2013
commonly used for retail check out to automatically stream the price to "cash register"; it's truly a product identifier, which streams into price paid.
key is "scanability" so that the code is optically readable
May 14, 2013
UPC barcodes is an abbreviated term for Universal Product Code. It's used by companies to track products used in trade.
May 11, 2013
G'Day Guys
Each UPC-A barcode consists of a scannable strip of black bars and white spaces, above a sequence of 12 numerical digits. No letters, characters, or other content of any kind may appear on a standard UPC-A barcode. The digits and bars maintain a one-to-one correspondence - in other words, there is only one way to represent each 12-digit number visually, and there is only one way to represent each visual barcode numerically.
The scannable area of every UPC-A barcode follows the pattern SLLLLLLMRRRRRRE, where the S (start), M (middle), and E (end) guard bars are represented exactly the same on every UPC and the L (left) and R (right) sections collectively represent the 12 numerical digits that make each UPC unique. The first digit L indicates a particular number system to be used by the following digits. The last digit R is an error detecting check digit that allows some errors in scanning or manual entry to be detected. The non-numerical identifiers, the guard bars, separate the two groups of six digits and establish the timing.
Standard UPC-A Standard UPC-E*
1 23456 78999 9
234569
Note: UPC-A 123456789999 corresponds with UPC-E 234569 (with the EOOEOE parity pattern). Equivalent UPC-A and UPC-E barcodes share the same check digit, which is 9 in this case.
Sorry if the 2 bar code pics didn't come, but it looks like ya TV screens gone black & white vertical stripes.
Cheers & catch ya later.
Spud!
May 11, 2013
The Universal Product Code (UPC) is a barcode symbology (i.e., a specific type of barcode) that is widely used in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand and in other countries for tracking trade items in stores. Its most common form, the UPC-A, consists of 12 numerical digits, which are uniquely assigned to each trade item. Along with the related EAN barcode, the UPC is the barcode mainly used for scanning of trade items at the point of sale, per GS1 specifications.[1] UPC data structures are a component of GTINs (Global Trade Item Numbers). All of these data structures follow the global GS1 specification which bases on international standards. Some retailers (clothing, furniture) do not use the GS1 System (other bar code symbologies, other article number systems). Other retailers use the EAN/UPC bar code symbology but without using a GTIN (for products brands sold at such retailers only).
May 11, 2013
I found this site that helps you create your own UPC bar codes:
http://www.barcoding.com/upc/
May 9, 2013
Check out http://www.ask.com/wiki/Universal_Product_Code?o=2801&qsrc=999 for a pretty good set of answers to your question.
May 9, 2013
when you swipe the barcodes over the scanner the price of the otem comes up. it also tracks inventory and cost of goods sold.( ithink!!)
May 9, 2013
What are UPC Barcodes?
Next time when you shop for your regular groceries and tow your cart towards the cash counter, note how the cash counter staff picks up each item you have purchased and hold it for a fleeting second in front of a ‘red’ eye. The red eye ‘scans’ the item and seems to give an ‘agreeing’ sound in the form of a ‘beep’. This item from your cart could be your favourite brand of toothpaste, bar of soap, perfume you love to wear for your specials, or even a shrink-wrapped pack of four red tomatoes!
One as many ‘beeps’ are heard, they are all immediately transferred on to the cashier’s computer screen.
Hello! What’s happening here?
Actually, the products that you are buying from almost anywhere do not mention any prices on the packaging except for a patch of black and white thin and thick strips. Below this patch, usually a number is mentioned. Both the patch and the number beneath it may be Greek to us, but to that ‘red’ eye, the patch means the price tag. This patch is digitally- coded and is called a Universal Product Code or simply put a Barcode.
If you use a Smart Phone, one of the Apps in your Smart Phone may be a Barcode Scanner. Have you ever used it? Try today. It’s simple. Just turn on the Barcode Scanner App ON and focus it on the black and white square o rectangle shaped patch on the pack of sausages you purchased or may be that pack of your favorite cheese. You will have to keep the patch within the white frame of the Barcode Scanner App of your Smart Phone. After a few blinks, lines running across and gleaming red, white and yellow stars, suddenly there will appear within the white frame of the App, all the information such as the link giving details about the origin of the product and the PRICE!
The Universal Product Code (UPC) is thus a very specific type of barcode usually being used in developed economies. Pricing products on a mass scale by just printing The UPC meted of pricing products is used on a mass scale as it saves all stakeholders in the business a lot of precious time besides providing accurate, reliable information about the price that a customer needs to pay – the exact price. Not a dollar less or more.
The beauty is the perfect synchronization between the product, its barcode (or UPC), the ‘red’ eye bar code scanner, the timely ‘beep’, the seamless integration of the price scanned appearing onto the cashier’s computer screen (because of a special software programmed to accept barcode readings of price and totalling the prices into sub-total and the grand total).
O nest time when you shop, look out for that ‘black and white’ patch of vertical lines.
That’s what we call as a Universal Price Code Barcode!
May 9, 2013
As with any question, I direct people to Google or Bing and tell them to input the question for an answer. It may be a bit unorthodox, sending someone away, but teaching people that you can ask a search engine questions is a fact a lot of people don't know. When I needed to find out how to install a car stereo into my van, I simply keyed in the search criteria to YouTube and found "hundreds of responses!" People always post lyrics to songs on social media sites, asking if you know the song... And I'm usually the first to chime in. Again, all I do is copy/paste into a Google search and I'll have the answer in a jiffy.
With the Barcode question, the first search results from Wiki, a site that's all about "layman terms" - Don't get me wrong, I believe in good customer service and in most cases I would do the search myself and then come back to them with an answer.
May 9, 2013
George,
UPC barcodes are the printed bar codes that appear on every product sold at retail.
It defines the company selling the product and the item number associated with the product.
There are two ways to obtain a UPC code. One is to buy one off the internet from a company that sells them. Not sure of the cost and any issues that accompany this type of purchase.
The other is to contact the Uniform Code Council (UCC) and obtain vendor number and an alloted amount of UPC codes. The vendor number and the leading digit will be assigned by the UCC and that takes care of the first six digits of the twelve digit code, you then supply the next five digts as your item number. The last digit or the check digit as it is known is determined through a formula that uses the first eleven digits.
Hope this helps.
If you have any further questions feel free to contact me at bruce@bhrglobal.com
May 8, 2013
It means unit pricing code. You can have one generated easily online. There are many sites that will do it. Bar codes talk is one but there are many others.
They are used by retailers to code in pricing of items. Whatever they code in to their computers is how the code reads it. So if an item changes price the code stays the same. I hope this helps.
May 8, 2013
UPC" stands for Universal Product Code. UPC bar codes were originally created to help grocery stores speed up the checkout process and keep better track of inventory, but the system quickly spread to all other retail products because it was so successful.
The manufacturer pays an annual fee for the privilege. In return, the UCC issues the manufacturer a six-digit manufacturer identification number and provides guidelines on how to use it.
You can see the manufacturer identification number in any standard 12-digit UPC code.
The UPC symbol has two parts:
- The machine-readable bar code
- The human-readable 12-digit UPC number
In general, every item the manufacturer sells, as well as every size package and every repackaging of the item, needs a different item code. So a 12-ounce can of Coke needs a different item number than a 16-ounce bottle of Coke, etc.
It is the job of the UPC code to keep all of these numbers and items sold straight for vendor inventory.
May 7, 2013
UPC Bar codes are most typically used to identify products in the retail marketplace. They are a series of black and white vertical lines with a number underneath. When scanned they provide information on that product to the register, or other computer reading the scan. This would typically be pricing and inventory info usually referred to as the Stock Keeping Unit (SKU).
UPC bar codes are also used to track shipping containers, rail cars, and packages, etc. Anything that needs to be identified electronically.
Bar codes can be obtained (i.e. re-sold) from many sources, but the actual numbers related to the bar code are only issued by only one organization; GS-1. GS1 is an international not-for-profit association with Member Organizations in over 100 countries. GS-1 actually only leases the number for the duration of your membership. Once you have the number, the bar code itself can be generated in a number of ways by various vendors. We typically use a firm called Symbology, Inc. in Minnesota.
If you need any help in obtaining a bar code, let me know.