Products can be offered on marketplaces with barcodes. For most marketplaces the barcodes are mandatory. It is important that the barcodes are officially registered.
The use of barcodes
A barcode or EAN is linked to a specific article and can only be used for that article. Please note that new versions or different packaging of the same article always have a different barcode. It is therefore not possible to reuse a barcode or to offer a comparable article that is not registered exactly in that way under the relevant barcode.
If you change the article or a product characteristic - such as brand, packaging or color - you must use a different barcode for this.
Apply for new EAN
Do you want to sell unique or new items, but you don't have an barcode yet? Then you can purchase this yourself via GS1. Here you can buy a valid, registered EAN (European Article Number) – also known as a ‘barcode’. This is a unique 13-digit number assigned to an item. An EAN must be registered with GS1 for both brands and non-branded articles.
Offering a bundle
An EAN belongs to a unique article with a specific number. So pay attention to the following points when offering bundles:
- When offering a combination of different articles in a bundle, the bundle must have its own EAN.
- When a bundle contains a branded item, a GS1 registration and permission from the trademark holder is required.
- Because a bundle is a unique article (containing a combination of different articles) it is mandatory to create a product information on the marketplace.