The product identification codes UPC and EAN are permanent and unique. The so-called permanence means that once a product code is assigned, it is lifelong. Even if the product is no longer produced and sold, its UPC or EAN code can only be kept and cannot be assigned to another product. Uniqueness means that if the product is different in price, name, size, material, packaging, etc., the same UPC or EAN code cannot be used and must be re-encoded.
For example, a backpack has 1 size and 5 colors, then 5 UPC or EAN codes are required; if there are 3 sizes and 5 colors, 15 (3×5=15) UPC or EAN codes are required; if there are 3 sizes, 5 colors, and 2 packaging, 30 (3×5×2=30) UPC or EAN codes are required.
The purpose of Amazon’s new UPC code policy
There are too many products on Amazon at present, and the quality of products has become uneven, and there are millions of identical products, which brings a bad shopping experience to buyers. In the long run, not only will buyers be lost, but it will also not be of any benefit to the brand of Amazon, especially some sellers choose to sell UPC codes without audit certificates at low prices on certain third-party platforms in order to reduce the cost of products, which further reduces buyers’ trust in the Amazon platform.
Amazon said it would severely crack down on sellers who use counterfeit or wrong UPC codes and conduct a screening of sellers that have already settled in. Amazon hopes to use GS1’s database information to purify its product library, ensure that each product is only published once, and reduce the chance of sellers repeating the distribution.
Although some sellers’ products are the same as those already sold on Amazon, they choose to build their own product pages, upload product photos taken from different angles, and upload purchased UPC codes to get more exposure and display. This time, Amazon will review the UPC code and punish unqualified sellers and products, prompting sellers to enter the real UPC code of the product, and then merge the products with the same UPC code into the same page, that is, the same ASIN, to minimize duplicate listings.
At the same time, this move also indirectly promotes the personnel of traditional foreign trade brands and foreign trade factories, realizing that good money drives out bad money, and extending an olive branch to high-quality sellers, allowing them to serve Amazon’s high-quality buyers. So what is a high-quality seller? It means that the seller’s products are of good quality, micro-innovation, and branding.