EAN barcodes for products: where to get and add them

Inventory management with a barcode scanner is only fast if the product has a barcode and the software knows which product it belongs to. So the first question that comes up is: where do you get an EAN code for a product, and how do you get hundreds of codes into the system without going through every product by hand? This article gives a short answer to both.

What is an EAN code

An EAN code is a numeric product code printed on the packaging as a barcode. A shop's till or inventory software reads the number from the barcode and uses it to find the product. The most common lengths:

Code	Digits	Where you'll see it
EAN-13	13	Most European retail goods
EAN-8	8	Small packs where a long code won't fit
UPC-A	12	Goods from North America
GTIN-14	14	Cartons and bulk packs

All of these belong to the same GTIN family. The last digit is a check digit — if one digit is entered wrongly, the check fails and good software tells you so straight away.

An important difference: an EAN is not the same as an SKU. The SKU is your own internal product code, which you set yourself. The EAN is generally the manufacturer's code, and the same product carries the same EAN in every shop.

Where a product's EAN code comes from

Goods you buy in. If you sell other manufacturers' goods, the EAN is already on the packaging. You don't need to apply for anything — you just need to get the codes into your system. The simplest source is the supplier's price list: most wholesalers have a column of EAN codes in their Excel file.

Your own product. If you make products yourself and want to sell them through other shops or large online stores, your business needs its own EAN codes. In Estonia they are issued by GS1 Estonia (elsewhere, by your country's GS1 organisation). Check the conditions and fees on their own website, as they depend on the size of the business and the number of codes and may change.

Only for your own shop. If nobody but you sells your product, you may not need an official EAN. An internal SKU is enough then: the product can be found by search, and at the till by its code too. Before you start printing your own codes, consider whether the product might one day end up on another shop's shelf — if so, it's better to get a proper code from the start.

How to add EAN codes to the system in bulk

Going through a hundred products by hand isn't an option. The right workflow:

1. Open the supplier's price list in Excel and find the column with the product code that is also in your system (SKU), and the column with the EAN.
2. Put these two columns side by side — SKU on the left, EAN on the right.
3. Save as CSV, so that each row reads SKU;EAN.
4. Import and check the result: which SKUs weren't recognised and which codes were invalid.
5. Fix the exceptions by hand.

For products with variants (size, colour), each variant has its own EAN. In the price list they're usually on separate rows, so the import works the same way — each variant with its own SKU. For clothing, where there are many variants, I wrote about this in more detail in online store for a clothing shop: sizes and colours.

How it works in NUNDINAE

In NUNDINAE, each product and each variant has an EAN / barcode field that accepts an 8-, 12-, 13- or 14-digit code.

• In bulk: above the product list there's "Import EAN codes (CSV)". Rows take the form SKU;EAN — you can upload the file or paste the contents straight into the box. An empty EAN removes the code. The result shows unrecognised SKUs and invalid codes.
• One at a time: in the variants table you can scan the code straight into the cell.
• Checking: the product list has an EAN column you can sort by. Sorted ascending, products without an EAN are on the first pages — so you can see at once where codes are still missing.

Once the codes are in, everything else works with the barcode scanner:

• goods-in — each beep adds one item;
• stocktake — CSV in the form EAN;quantity;
• stock check — beep a product and you see its name, price and stock;
• till — beep it and the product is in the basket.

Stock is one and the same in the online store, at the till and in the stockroom, so you add a code once and it works everywhere. I wrote about goods-in and stocktakes in more detail in inventory management with a barcode scanner.

When the scanner reads but the product isn't found

The two most common reasons:

• That EAN hasn't been entered for the product or variant — or the product is a draft rather than active.
• The scanner doesn't press Enter after the code. Most scanners do this by default, but some need setting up.

Any USB or Bluetooth barcode scanner that works as a keyboard will do; no separate software is needed. On a phone or tablet you can use the camera.

Summary

Goods you buy in already have an EAN, and you can get it from the supplier's price list in one import. For your own product, get a code through GS1 (GS1 Estonia for Estonian businesses) if it might end up on other shops' shelves. And once the codes are in the system, one beep should work in the stockroom, at the till and in the online store — not in three different programs. I wrote about the till side in POS system for a small shop.

If you'd like the EAN codes from your supplier's price list to reach your system in one go, order NUNDINAE or ask for a demo.