Gepubliceerd op 12 augustus 2024
EAN-13 Barcodes 101: Launch New Products Without Delays
Understand how country prefixes, company ranges, and check digits work so you can issue compliant barcodes the same day you need them.
Ship retail-ready products in a single afternoon
Every retailer, marketplace, and fulfillment partner checks whether your product carries a valid EAN-13 barcode. When teams wait for a new block of codes from their GS1 account, whole launches can stall. The good news: once you understand how the 13 digits are structured, you can generate compliant numbers instantly.
The moving parts inside an EAN-13
- Country prefix (2-3 digits). This refers to the GS1 member organization, not where the product is manufactured.
- Company prefix (4-8 digits). Assigned by GS1, this identifies your business. Larger catalog sizes receive shorter prefixes.
- Item reference (variable length). You control these digits. As long as you keep a ledger of assigned ranges you can spin up thousands of codes per day.
- Check digit (1 digit). Calculated automatically using a modulo 10 algorithm.
With the EANCloud shop you provide the prefix, pick a starting number, and we calculate the check digit for every line.
Why marketing teams should care
- Merchandising campaigns stay on schedule. No last minute scramble to “buy a barcode” from an online marketplace.
- Consistent analytics. When all SKUs go live with validated EANs, downstream channels (Google Shopping, Bol.com, Amazon) can merge conversion data correctly.
- Ready for paid placements. Retail media platforms reject creatives if the product feed references an invalid code. A clean EAN list protects your ad spend.
Implement a lightweight process
- Reserve a block of numbers per launch in your GS1 dashboard.
- Use EAN4Free to generate up to 10,000 codes with a single click.
- Save every batch to Supabase (coming soon) so sales, ops, and finance share one source of truth.
- Embed a download link in your product requirement doc so manufacturers always have access to the latest file.
Next steps
Start with a single campaign, document how you assign ranges, and make the blog on this site the home for every barcode playbook your team writes. Consistency is what keeps launches predictable.