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Companies that wish to export products to the US market can improve monitoring of the sales and management of their products through the use of an American market barcode.
Most countries use a 13-number barcode to manage production, procurement, inventory and sales. In the United States, the most common barcode consists of 12 numbers. Therefore, when some products with a non-American barcode are exported to the US, American importers may have problems reading the different standard of barcode.
According to the Sunrise Program, since 2005 American retailers have been required to adapt the American barcode system to the world standard barcode system. However, it is still not possible to state that everyone has switched to the international barcode system. So, before exporting to the United States, it is important to verify that the importer or the retailer is equipped to read the 13-numbers barcode. By doing this, exporters can avoid incurring in additional costs and problems linked to the application for a US barcode type and to the management of dual encoding barcode systems.
When it is necessary to apply for an American barcode it is really important to rely on an agent who knows the American market and the American barcode system. This is also because the US barcodes are built starting from a UPC code, also called GS1 company prefix, which is directly assigned in the United States.
Once the exporter has obtained the American barcode, it will identify in a unique way the product so that all the information related to it is available in the company database. In this way when the product is scanned the exporting company will be able to trace it. There are clear advantages in terms of sales and inventory control to having an efficient tracking system.
The utilization of barcodes for products exported to the U.S. increases the efficiency in terms of the time required for the registration of a product when it enters the U.S. market. Using an American barcode can also minimize human errors that could be committed in the identification of an exported product. It can also help foreign companies assess the preferences of the American market quickly.
Finding an importer in the US is getting harder. This is because in the years since the financial crisis of 2008, the importer has practically disappeared and been replaced by the distributor. Or, put another way, importers now act like distributors. Still, the need for an importer in the US is a tough-to-kill myth.
https://www.exportusa.eu/newsDetails--255.html