There is a lot going on about EAN and UPC recently. For eBay sellers this has been a real pain. However, Amazon started indexing products with EAN / UPC since the start with exceptions in manufactured products and seeds. Out of interest, I looked into one particular EAN in Google “8711600536661” to see what results I get. I immediately saw it was a Dove soap with images and few other things that are listed below:

#1 UPC index link shows this product originated in the Netherlands and also gives the details of company who registered this set of codes.  If you did not know any products that starts with prefix 870 – 879 belongs to product from the Netherlands as this is  allocated number for that country by GS1.

#2  The result further down shows this product’s availability in Russia and Italy. There is another link that shows its origin in Germany which is conflicting information from the one shown by UPC index above.

#3 Towards the end of the first page, the result shows that pricecheck is the UK distributor for this soap.

#4 When clicked on shopping  there was only one result with only four sellers retailing in the UK including two on eBay which points out to an Italian account. The supply chain from pricecheck seems to end with only few retailers in the UK.  So, this product may either be discontinued product or perhaps other reason which pricecheck may be able to answer.

There is a wealth of information you can dig with single set of numbers. We could easily find  where it was made and who is distributing it in the UK. And if you had this EAN  with your eBay listings your products will be identified easily as genuine with the rest of the listings and this is a very good reason for eBay to take it seriously. Currently, EANs are flooded in the market through resellers and they are cheap ( 10 for 99p). These may work but they are not assigned to your company and any serious business would  consider getting their own set from GS1.

We have recently completed  a project for a midland based eBay seller to include EANs in all of their listings at a very reasonable cost.  If you need help in getting you products listed with EANs please get in touch.