EAN Barcode Minimum Size Requirements: Avoiding Frustration and Lost Sales
As an entrepreneur, you want to ensure that your product is easily identifiable, so it can be efficiently and accurately sold in the marketplace. While it is crucial that your products are properly identified with an EAN barcode, did you know that the size of your barcode matters just as much as its accuracy?
In this blog post, we'll cover the minimum size requirements for EAN barcodes, why it's important to meet these requirements, then we’ll also provide examples of how not meeting them can cause frustration and lost sales.
Minimum Size Requirements for EAN Barcodes
The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) has published guidelines for the minimum dimensions of barcodes, including EAN codes. According to ISO 15416, the minimum width of a barcode line should be 0.33mm, and the minimum height of a barcode should be 13mm.
ISO/IEC 15420 has also specified that the quiet zone for an EAN-13 barcode must be at least 10 times the width of the narrowest bar or space in the barcode symbol. Overall, the minimum acceptable size for an EAN-13 barcode is 30mm x 20mm when printed with a high-quality printer at a resolution of at least 600 dpi.
Why Size Matters
Meeting the minimum size requirements for EAN barcodes is essential to ensure that they can be easily scanned by both resellers and end-user customers. If your barcode is too small, it may not be legible by scanning technology, leading to errors in the supply chain, unhappy customers, and lost sales.
However, it's important to note that the size of the barcode can vary based on the type of product being labeled and the packaging size. For example, if the product is small and the packaging is limited, the barcode may need to be smaller than the minimum size requirement.
Examples of Frustration and Lost Sales
Let's take a look at some examples of how not meeting the minimum size requirements for EAN barcodes can cause frustration and lost sales.
1
Shop owner: A shop owner notices that their staff is taking too long to manually key in the barcodes because the EAN barcodes on the products are too small. The result is longer checkout lines, frustrated customers, and lost opportunities.
2
Drop shipping: When drop shipping products, you want to ensure that your products can be scanned by automated systems. If your barcode is too small, it may not be readable, and your product could be rejected or delayed, causing frustration and lost sales.
3
Self-checkout: Many customers now prefer to use self-checkout kiosks. If your barcode is too small, it may not be legible by scanning technology, causing frustration and lost sales.
