“The first step in creating barcodes and the numbers that go into them is to obtain a GS1 Company Prefix. A GS1 Company Prefix is a unique identification number that GS1 US® issues just to your company—and it’s part of every barcode, Universal Product Code (U.P.C.), and identification number (GTIN®) you create. It’s the internationally accepted way to uniquely identify your brand in the global supply chain.” - GS1 US

 

Once you’ve registered a GS1 Prefix for your company, then you can proceed to create UPCs (Universal Product Codes) for your retail level items, GTINs (Global Trade Item Number) for your master case distributed items and GLNs (Global Location Numbers) for your locations.