We often get asked a lot of questions about UPCs, so here’s everything you need to know:

WHAT EXACTLY IS A UPC?:

A UPC is a "Universal Product Code". People get social security numbers assigned to them whereas products get UPCs. The UPC usually is on the paper store tag, or is printed directly onto the product and it usually looks something like this:

WHAT DOES A UPC DO?

A UPC allows products to be scanned and tracked for inventory and identification purposes. Each UPC consists of a series of digitally-readable bars plus numbers that people can see.

For the most part, every product that has a upc has a unique upc that only applies to that specific product.

DOES EVERYTHING HAVE A UPC?

No! Not every product has a UPC. Here’s a couple types of items that will not have UPCs:

• Most Non-Branded Products
• Handmade items
• China-Sourced Items
• Many “Boutique” Goods
• Small Run Products
• Used Merchandise
• Most Store Returns
• Merchandise that one came inside packaging but the packaging is missing

DO I NEED UPCS TO SELL ONLINE?

NO! You can sell merchandise online, in a flea market, in your boutique or other places without a UPC… unless the site you sell on (Amazon) insists you have one. Unfortunately, Amazon is it’s on animal and makes it’s own rules, so if you insist on selling on Amazon you have to do whatever they want. If you have merchandise that isn’t allowed on ‘Zon because it doesn’t have a UPC, you can sell it literally ANYWHERE else. So just man up and pick a different platform for those items. However if you absolutely INSIST on selling your UPC-less item on Amazon you can actually purchase UPCs:

• Snap Up — barcodes start at $5 for one or as little as $0.10 per code.
• Barcodes Mania — barcodes start at $4.99 per code, or $140 for up to 600.
• Barcode Love — barcodes start at just over $5 per code or about $580 for up to 5,000.

Personally, I wouldn’t, but whatever floats your boat.

HOW DO I GET UPCs FROM A WHOLESALER I WANT TO BUY THROUGH?

This can get tricky because not all wholesalers offer spreadsheets with UPC databases. Here at BigBrandWholesale.com, our merchandise sells too fast for us to even bother with it, so here’s a list we made of 59+ wholesale companies that have Manifests / Databases / UPCs available. Enjoy!