How to create barcodes?
Barcodes are unique codes that you can link to products or variations of products. With the POS App you can use or barcodes to quickly find a product with a scanner or with the camera of your device (iPad or iPhone). We will tell you how to make them and how to enter them in this article.
How to determinate the string?
It's possible to create barcodes for products that do not have a barcode (EAN or UPC) with the Code 128. This barcode standard is made for retailers and contains a barcode based on a self-invented sequence. Code 128 has 3 types. You can find more information about this here.
Example
Your invented string consists of eight digits. The first two digits determine the category and the last six digits determine the product.
Your red and yellow striped hammock, from the hammocks category, could then have the barcode 45002614. 45 stands in this case for the hammock category, the serial number is the SKU number.
Creating a barcode
You may be thinking: "And how do I turn that into a barcode?". All kinds of free tools to generate barcodes can be found on the internet. An example of this is http://www.free-barcode-generator.org/bulk-barcode-generator/. You can enter the codes you have come up with here and have them turned into barcodes.
For the techies among us ... We don't support it, but in Excel you can also create barcodes with a few extra steps. Here's how: https://www.barcoderesource.com/excelbarcodefont.shtml
Enter barcodes in your webshop
You can enter barcodes in the back office of your webshop per product or per variant.
Per Product
- Open the back office of your webshop
- Edit a product for which you want to enter the barcode
- Under the product description you enter the barcode you have invented in SKU number field.
- Do you have an EAN or UPC code?
- Go to the tab 'Extra Fields'
- Check the 'Barcode' field to activate it
- Enter the desired barcode - Save the product
Score! Your first barcode has been added to a product. If you want to enter it per variation, that is also possible! Then read on ...
Per variation
- Open the back office of your webshop
- Edit a product for which you want to enter the barcode
- Under the product description, click on the gear wheel in the SKU number field
- Check 'Set per variation' here
- Do you have an EAN or UPC code?
- Go to the tab 'Extra Fields'
- Click on the gear next to the 'Barcode' field
- Check 'Set per product variation' here - Save these settings
From now on it is possible to enter the barcode per variation on the "Variations" tab. Such as the sizes of a t-shirt or the colors of a hammock.
Did you know that...
… A barcode scanner does not read the black bars, but the white space between them?
… The barcode will be 47 years old in 2021?
… More than five billion barcodes are scanned every day worldwide?
… The first barcode looked like a bullseye with thick and thin circles?