UPC or ITF?
In the last few days I have been dealing with UPC codes and ITF codes. Mostly in respect to artwork being placed on packaging our products. To be honest I never knew what an ITF code was before this began or even how it was used and different from a UPC code.
Today I had some clarification from the company we purchased our UPC codes from. Here is what I was told. Some of you may be aware of this but for those of you who are not hopefully this will help.
I will use our scenario for reference:
Currently we have 2 UPC codes. One for the individual product and one for the box that the product comes in. Some retail locations are selling the product either by the each or by the box, therefore 2 UPC codes were needed. An ITF code is strictly for carton/pallet/(whatever else you ship in that contains the product to be sold) for inventory purposes for distribution locations. This ITF code is created and linked to the UPC code on the product inside of the carton. It is your responsibility then to provide the distribution location(s) with a sheet detailing how many pieces of product are inside said carton and their UPC code number(s) (basically all the relevant information for them and their inventory processes).
It was suggested to me that we do NOT use both the case UPC code and the ITF code on boxes as it could cause confusion in the distributor(s) database. So the general rule of thumb here would be that if you are selling only by the each then having an ITF code on the case is ok. If selling by the each or box then 2 UPC codes are needed. Now that doesn’t mean that you cannot put a UPC code on the bottom of the box along with an ITF code if selling by the each or box, but distributors will need to be made aware that BOTH codes are on the box.
Obviously there is much more to this topic. For our usage though this is all we need to know at this current point. I searched the internet for about an hour before I finally broke down and called someone, and even then I needed to “clarify” what they were telling me so I knew we were on the same page. Anyhow maybe this will help someone maybe not, either way I found it interesting, I hope you do too.
