Barcode for handmade products: a kitchen brand's first ten lines

Each product you sell under its own name, size and flavour gets its own barcode number. Print it on the label, scan it once at your own counter, and the line is ready for a shop.

One number for each of the ten lines

A barcode for handmade products does one job. It scans at a till and brings up one line from the shop's own list: the name, the size and the price the shop entered. That is all it does. It does not say who made the jam or how.

Take a kitchen brand with ten lines ready for its first shop. Three jams in 250 g jars, two pickles in 300 g jars, two spice blends in 100 g pouches, two chutneys in 200 g jars and one gift box of three small jars. Each of those ten is a different thing at the counter, so each needs its own number. The mango pickle and the lime pickle cannot share one, because the till would ring the same price and count the same stock for both.

The task today is to get all ten numbers onto labels, scan them once at your own counter, and write the list down so it never changes.

Decide what counts as one product

Before buying anything, settle the list. A product is one name in one size in one flavour. Change any of the three and it is a new line with a new number.

The same mixed-fruit jam in a 250 g jar and a 500 g jar is two lines. A 250 g jar of the same jam with a festive sleeve is still one line, because the sleeve does not change what is inside or the price. If you plan to sell the festive sleeve at a higher MRP, it becomes its own line.

For the kitchen brand this gives ten numbers. Write them in a plain spreadsheet with four columns: the product name as it will appear on the label, the net weight, the MRP, and an empty column for the number. The MRP goes in as a rupee figure, ₹249 for the jam, ₹199 for the pickle, and so on. Keep this file. It is the one thing a shop will ask for when it loads your products into its till.

Buy the numbers and fill the fourth column

Order ten numbers in one go, so the lot stays together. On the order page say how many lines you have today and leave room for the next flavour. Most small brands add two or three lines in the first year, so buying twelve or fifteen is sensible.

Use code STARTUP10 for 10% off one order per account. It is valid until 31 December 2026 or for the first 100 uses on this site, whichever comes first.

When the numbers arrive, each one comes with its barcode image. Paste one number against one product in the spreadsheet, in the order you listed them, and never swap them later. The chilli pickle keeps the number you gave it on day one for as long as it exists.

If a shop or an online store asks for something specific about your numbers before it lists you, tell us where you sell and we will say what that channel needs.

Print the label

A jar label that scans needs three things right: size, contrast and a flat surface.

Size first. The barcode image should be at least 30 mm wide and 20 mm tall on the printed label. Smaller works on a good scanner and fails on a tired one. For a 250 g jar, a label of 70 mm by 50 mm leaves room for the name, the weight, the MRP, the ingredient line and the barcode without crowding. For the 100 g spice pouch, use a separate small label of 50 mm by 25 mm for the barcode alone and stick it on the back.

Contrast next. Black bars on white or cream paper. Kraft paper looks right for a kitchen brand, but its brown ground cuts the contrast and some scanners miss it. If you want kraft, print the barcode on a white patch within the label, or use a white sticker for the barcode and kraft for everything else.

Material matters for jars. For jars that will sit in a fridge or be wiped down, use a vinyl or polypropylene label with permanent adhesive. Plain paper lifts at the edge after one wet shelf. For dry pouches, paper is fine.

Placement last. Put the barcode on a flat section of the jar, never over the curve near the lid, and keep a 3 mm margin of blank space on either side of the bars. A barcode that wraps round a curve reads as a smear.

Print a sheet of ten first, one per line, before ordering five hundred.

Scan every line at your own counter

This is the step most first-time sellers skip and the one that saves the most trouble. You do not need a shop's till to test. A basic USB scanner costs about ₹1,200 and plugs into any laptop. Open a blank spreadsheet, point the scanner at each label, and the number appears in the cell.

Scan all ten labels in a row. Each scan should land the exact number you wrote in the fourth column. If one does not scan, go back through size, contrast and surface in that order. Reprint that one label and scan again.

Also scan a label that has been on a jar for a day. Adhesive that lifts overnight shows up here, not in the shop.

Pack the shipper carton

A shop usually takes a carton of twelve jars at a time. The carton does not need a barcode of its own for a first order, because the shop scans the jars. What it needs is a plain printed label on one short face with the product name, the count inside, the MRP per jar and the batch date. A small shop will take a hand-written one. A larger shop will want it printed, so print it.

If a line ships in mixed cartons, say six mango and six lime, label the carton with both names and both counts. Keep one spreadsheet column for the carton size so the next order is packed the same way.

The list that never changes

The spreadsheet with ten rows is now the brand's product list. It holds the name, the weight, the MRP and the number. When a shop agrees to stock you, send that file and a labelled sample jar. The shop loads the rows into its till, and from then on each scan brings up your line.

Add rows for new lines. Never edit a number in an old row. If a flavour is dropped, leave its row and mark it discontinued, so the number is not given to something else by mistake.

Keep the spreadsheet and the order confirmation from https://purchasebarcode.com/ in the same folder, so when a shop's buyer asks which number belongs to the jam, the answer takes a minute.