Experiencing duplicate barcodes for different products on Shopify?

[Dave-Joelles]

When receiving and creating new products, we always have Shopify create barcodes.
We have had numerous occasions when we scan a product and it comes up as "Duplicate Barcode - Multiple products have this barcode.  Select the product you wish to add." 

This is very frustrating. Has anyone else experienced this?

[stlouisdancewea]

I'm having this issue too. Did you ever find a way to fix this?

[Dave-Joelles]

I don't know if Shopify updated anything - I was never notified of a fix.
We have not had double bar codes show up for the last several months.
That being said, we have only just opened from lockdown for in-store shopping - we have only had the problem when the physical store has been open.

I have a feeling it might have happened when we imported product from our old POS system.
I will post if it happens again.

[Dave-Joelles · Accepted solution]

Sorry, haven't been on the board much lately.
We did solve our problem by installing a new Barcode App.
We installed an app called Multi Label Barcodes.  It allowed us to create 10 digit barcodes.

More money, yes but it solved the problem and frustration.

The problem with the barcode generator built in to Shopify is that it generates codes based on the SKU. If you have two SKU's that are similar, it give them the same barcode.

Hope that helps!

[hope_mortimer]

One way this happens is if you edit a product with variants/options and click on "edit" of a variant, then "duplicate", you get a copy of an existing variant with everything filled in including the barcode of the original variant. You then obviously change the name and likely quantity. Other fields are helpful that they are filled in such as pricing and weight, but what is NOT helpful is that it retains the barcode of the original variant. You have to be sure to DELETE the barcode and then choose "create new barcodes" for that product so that the variant gets a unique barcode. I raised this once with shopify because I think it makes sense on a duplicate to NOT have that barcode. They gave me a reason for that, but tbh i can't remember what it was. The point is, be sure to delete the barcode when you copy a variant. 

[greensled]

This method did not work for me. The barcode app kept putting the old barcode in.

[ianbatters]

It appears that the Retail Barcodes App provided by Shopify generates barcodes based on the last 8 digits of the variant ID. Since variant IDs can be 14 digits long it is very easy for duplicates to occur.

Apparently this has been reported to the Shopify Development team but there is no fix planned.

You can manually add another number to the barcode once you find a duplicate, but this isn't really a great solution. I'd recommend finding an alternative barcode generation app.

[GlassHeather]

Hi Dave,

We are just adding barcodes to our products and we are experiencing this frustration as well! Since it has been 2 years since your post, we can deduce that Shopify is not doing anything about it. This seems like a no-brainer to me. We have thousands of products and have to go back and fix all of the duplicate ones by changing the last number (before first checking that it doesn't already exist). Wouldn't it be an easy fix when creating new barcodes in the system to check first for an existing number?? Shopify?? I get that when you are duplicating a product, you might end up with the same number but creating a new product?? This is basic. Do better Shopify.

[Dave-Joelles]

Hi There!  I have a solution. It costs money but it is well worth it based on the frustration that you are enduring. I agree that barcodes should be a reliable tool included with the Shopify platform. They could do so much better on many facets of the platform.
We solved the double barcodes by installing a Barcode App from the Shopify App store called "Multi-Label Barcodes".
I am not connected to that company or endorsing them - it is just the App that was recommended by our Shopify Expert.
It costs $9.99/month but everything has been working perfectly for the past two years - no duplicates!
I think the cost will offset the frustration.
I hope this helps you!
Dave

[peterasmith]

I believe it should be possible to solve this without having to pay for a third party app.

Using Shopify Flow you can create a flow which is triggered when a new variant is created.

It will make an Admin API call to update the variant to set the barcode value to be the full variant ID, rather than just the last 8 characters.

I've attached a screenshot showing roughly how it would be set up - although I've not fully tested this implementation yet - I'd be interested to know if anyone manages to use this as a successful solution.