Yesterday we discussed the Complete Guide to Invoices so we might as well follow it up with The Complete Guide to UPCs, right? 

Let’s begin!

WHAT 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

WHERE TO LOOKUP UPCs

If you are trying to find data on a product with a UPC you can use an online database, such as:

Barcode Lookup

UPC Search

UPC Database

UPC Barcodes

UPC Scavenger

The reason I listed five different sites is because it is possible (and quite likely) that a product might not be listed on one source but could be listed on a different site.

WHY ISN’T MY UPC APPEARING IN A DATABASE?

First of all, UPC databases are relatively new, this means it has not yet reached “Youtube Level”, meaning you cannot type in anything and get a matching result. Secondly, someone has to actually ADD the product to the database (Surprise! It does not automatically appear on its own), this means if nobody has yet added it, it will not appear. Third, a UPC not appearing in a database does NOT mean the product is “fake”. Instead it most likely means:

The product has simply not yet been added to the database. You could be a real peach and take the time to add it if you wanted.

The product may be rare / discontinued (which is a major score for online sellers!!!! GREAT BUY!)

The product may be a limited edition / limited run, therefore not many people have it, which is why it has not been added to the database

The product could be brand-spanking-new and therefore nobody has beat you to adding it to the database

It could be a “made for outlet” item. These are products that are literally made for Outlet stores. Typically, the factory uses up their extra (scrap) material to create small productions of a specific product. In this instance the item may have a generic UPC that might match many other “made-for-outlet” products.

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.

WHY DO SOME ITEMS NOT HAVE PAPER STORE TAGS?

There’s many reasons something could be missing paper store tags:

It’s manufacturer direct

It’s not intended for selling in a store. The purpose of a “paper store tag” is for a STORE CASHIER to scan the tag to ring-up the price and product data. However, due to internet selling (AKA: eCommerce) being totally mainstream now, many companies plan ahead to have 50% or more of their products sold online. This means the product ships directly from their warehouse to the buyer. With that being said, there is no point for the brand to pay 1-5 cents each for paper store tags since they know in advance that a cashier will never be scanning the item. Instead they have the merchandise packaged in clear plastic bags and the UPC is located on a sticker on the outside of the clear bag or even on a sticker placed on the outside of the actual box that the items come in. With that bing said, if the merch you are buying is this eCommerce-type, chances are it may not have a papr store tag attached with a UPC code printed on the paper store tag.

WHAT IF THERE’S NO “PAPER STORE TAG” AT ALL?

If you love to buy liquidations, store returns or other types of “last chance merch” you are inevitably going to come across items without paper store tags. As mentioned above, there are many reasons a paper store tag might not be present. If the item doesn’t have a paper store tag you might be able to do a little research and look it up by locating the RN Number:

Pretty much ALL clothing sold in the USA will have an RN Number on the interior tags. Sometimes you have to look for a bit to find it. Often the RN Number is located on the inside of the item but NOT on the manufacturers tag. Usually, it is easiest to find the "Hem Tag" by turning the item inside-out.

Now you can see the RN number for this specific item is #36543. The next step is for us to go to the United States Government FTC website and look it up:

When we look this item up, this is the results we get:

HOW TO MAKE SURE YOU GET UPCS:

You absolutely should NOT expect every wholesale company to provide you with excel sheets contain UPCs. The only way to guarantee getting UPC codes is to go to the list we made of 59+ wholesale companies that have Manifests / Databases / UPCs available.  If the company is not on this list, chances are they do NOT offer UPC lists.   

HOW TO DEAL WITH ITEMS FOR AMAZON WITHOUT UPCs

Amazon is it's own animal.  It's not like any other site.  Amazon has it's own rules, regulations and entire ecosystem that is nothing like anywhere else.  With that being said, you should plan ahead to have a secondary channel of selling merchandise for items that don't "qualify" for Amazon.  There are plenty of other places to sell; eBay, Poshmark, Walmart, Sears, Bonanza, Depop and more.  Check out our Brutally Honest Selling Site Reviews. The truth is, if you want to sell on Amazon, you have to do whatever they say, so if they tell you that you can't sell it because it doesn't have a paper price tag (even though it's factory direct), I guess that is what you agreed to when you signed up to be an Amazon seller and therefore you must comply.