It is now literally difficult to start a product in India’s cutthroat retail market without one important component: a barcode. Knowing how to barcode of Indian Products is your ticket to modern retail channels, whether you’re a small-scale spice company in Kerala, a beauty startup in Mumbai, or a traditional sweet maker growing outside of local markets. In order to access supermarkets, e-commerce sites, and foreign markets, Indian items must have a barcode, which used to be a nice-to-have trait.
Why Every Product Needs Its Unique Identity?
These days, barcodes are more than simply the parallel black lines on packaging; they are the digital fingerprints that allow billions of transactions every day throughout the world. Beyond simple price scanning, barcodes play a number of important parts in India’s retail industry. They offer real-time stock tracking, ease inventory management, lower billing mistakes, avoid product duplication, and allow smooth connection with modern point-of-sale systems.
Barcodes are needed for product onboarding on big e-commerce sites like Amazon, Flipkart, Myntra, Big Basket, and Blinkit. Similar to this, before letting goods into their inventory systems, modern retail groups like Walmart India, Reliance Retail, Dmart, Max Fashion, Home Center, Shoppers Stop, and Aditya Birla Retail need accurate barcoding. Your items are still excluded from these high-volume sales platforms in the lack of barcodes.
Effective supply chain activities are made possible by the barcode of Indian goods. Barcode scanning is used by makers, carriers, wholesalers, and sellers to track the flow of goods from plant floors to customer hands. Barcodes are no longer optional benefits in industries including drugs, FMCG, food preparation, and healthcare; instead, they are now needed by law.
Your Barcode Options
There are two major ways to buy barcodes in India: private barcode suppliers and GS1 India registration. Every approach has unique benefits, costs, and factors to take into account.
GS1 India: The Official Route
The only group allowed to issue ‘890’ prefix barcodes in India is GS1 India, which was formed in 1996 by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry and prominent business chambers. It gives Global Trade Item Numbers (GTINs) in line with worldwide standards accepted in more than 100 countries as a partner of GS1 Global.
In order to register for GS1, you must visit their official website, create an account with all of your company’s information, select a membership plan based on your company’s size and product line, submit the necessary paperwork (GST certificate, PAN card, turnover proof, business registration), and pay the initial and recurring subscription fees. Depending on income amounts and necessary barcode numbers, yearly costs might range from ₹5,000–10,000 for small firms to ₹40,000–60,000+ for bigger organizations.
After clearance, GS1 India gives your company a unique Company Prefix, generally made of seven to ten numbers. Next, you create individual product numbers and add check digits to make full 13-digit EAN-13 barcodes. Additionally, GS1 gives customers and retailers access to DataKart, their national product data repository, allowing for unified product information management.
The Annual Fee Reality
Ongoing subscription responsibilities are a big factor with GS1 barcodes. In contrast to one-time sales, GS1 membership needs yearly renewals in order to keep the barcode current. If you fail to make renewal payments, your barcode may be deactivated, which might upset your whole supply chain and demand package redesigns, which can be costly for things that are currently in use.
Private Barcode Providers: The Alternative Path
After clearance, GS1 India gives your company a unique Company Prefix, generally made of seven to ten numbers. Next, you create individual product numbers and add check digits to make full 13-digit EAN-13 barcodes. Additionally, GS1 gives customers and retailers access to DataKart, their national product data repository, allowing for unified product information management.
After clearance, GS1 India gives your company a unique Company Prefix, generally made of seven to ten numbers. Next, you create individual product numbers and add check digits to make full 13-digit EAN-13 barcodes. Additionally, GS1 gives customers and retailers access to DataKart, their national product data repository, allowing for unified product information management.
High-resolution barcode images in a variety of formats (PNG, JPEG, PDF, EPS), online dashboards for managing product details, barcode verification tools verifying scanability, sizing and printing guidelines guaranteeing correct implementation, and prompt customer support answering technical questions are all typically provided by private providers.
Since 2015, more than 5,000 Indian companies in more than ten nations have successfully used private barcodes for a variety of goods, including spices, dried fruits, tea, cosmetics, cleaning supplies, packed meals, textiles, toys, stationery, and car parts. Retailers link these barcodes to their records in the same way that they do with GS1 numbers, and they serve the same purpose in inventory and billing systems.
Debunking the ‘890’ Myth
On social media, there is a widespread myth that “Made in India” things are definitely identified by ‘890’ prefix barcodes. This information is obviously deceptive and wrong. Barcode prefixes identify the GS1 partner organization that gave the number, not the production location, as GS1 has made clear.
‘890’ barcodes can be added by any buyer to goods made in Bangladesh, China, or anyplace else in the world and then sold in India. On the other hand, non-890 barcodes, such as those in the 060–089 numbers, are widely used by Indian makers on locally made things for both export and domestic sales. Only right GS1 membership or approved dealer origin are ensured by the barcode prefix; manufacturing site is never guaranteed.
Practical Implementation: From Number to Package
After acquiring barcodes, proper implementation ensures seamless scanning:
- Barcode Sizing: At 100% magnification, EAN-13 numerals generally measure 37.29 x 25.93 mm. Smaller sizes run the possibility of scanning failures, even though an 80% decrease (29.83 x 20.73 mm) is still scannable.
- Barcode height should not be shortened since this greatly lowers scan reliability.
- Color Considerations: High contrast is important for best scanning. White backgrounds with black bars look the best. Steer clear of writing directly on colorful or textured boxes without white backgrounds, light-hued bars on dark backgrounds, and red bars on any backdrop (red cannot be seen by infrared scanners).
- Placement Strategy: Barcodes should be put on level surfaces, away from package folds, seams, and curves. Make sure both barcode sides have at least 3-5 mm of silent zones, or blank spots. Barcodes should be put without object rotation so that readers may easily reach them.
- Quality Verification: Print test samples and use smartphone apps or retail-grade cameras to scan them prior to mass production. Before committing to thousands of packages, this finds design flaws, size worries, or contrast problems. Real-time scanning proof is made possible by a number of private suppliers’ Android verification apps that are tied to their databases.
Online Product Visibility
Indian product barcodes can improve online discoverability in addition to store usage. Manufacturers may add specific product information, including descriptions, specs, pictures, and certificates, to barcode numbers using free sites like gtinlookup.org. This information appears in search results when customers scan barcodes using mobile applications, giving marketing benefits and authenticity confirmation.
Making the Right Choice for Your Business
Deciding how to buy barcode in India depends on several factors:
- Choose GS1 if: You want to connect with GS1’s DataKart ecosystem, plan large-scale operations across several product categories, send to nations that clearly need GS1 proof, operate in controlled businesses that need GS1 membership, or have enough money for regular yearly costs.
- Choose Private Providers if: You operate mostly in domestic markets where retailer acceptance is confirmed, desire permanent ownership without renewal responsibilities, are a startup or small business with restricted product lines, wish to avoid recurrent yearly expenditures, or require instant barcode access without drawn-out approvals.
Whichever provider you choose, make sure they provide the following: distinct barcode numbers that guarantee no duplication, high-resolution photos appropriate for professional printing, correct check digit verification that prevents errors, customer support that responds to implementation questions, and unambiguous documentation of ownership rights.
Getting Started Today
Choosing suitable barcode packages (single barcodes or bulk quantities), registering online with basic business information, making secure payments via UPI, NEFT, or payment gateways, receiving emails with product detail forms within hours, submitting product information (names, descriptions, MRP), and receiving assigned barcodes with scannable images within a maximum of 24 to 48 hours are the typical steps involved in purchasing barcodes in India through private providers.
In contrast to GS1’s 7–15 day handling times, the full turnaround from purchase to execution often takes 1-2 business days. For companies in a hurry to meet store schedules or seasonal market windows, this speed is important.
The Bigger Picture
Barcode usage will only pick up speed as India’s shopping business modernizes. Barcode uses are becoming more common outside of traditional retail, as seen by recent legal developments such as the Ministry of Environment requiring barcodes for EPR compliance in packaging waste management and the AYUSH ministry permitting QR codes encoding medicinal formulations.
Indian goods barcodes indicate more than just shop wants or legal compliance. It’s your company’s passport to organized retail, dominance in e-commerce, better inventory management, fewer operational costs, increased customer trust, and eventually scalable development in India’s trillion-dollar consumer market.
Knowing how to acquire barcodes in India and putting them into effect properly sets up your firm for success, whether you’re beginning from zero or developing a present line. Which barcode option fits your business plan, budget, and growth goals is more important than whether or not you need barcodes. Make smart decisions, carry them out well, and see your goods enter areas that were previously unattainable.