Can we add two barcodes to a single variant for retail POS?

Shopify Discussion

Topic summary

Request to support two barcodes on a single product variant in Shopify POS, to handle Amazon FBA labels (FNSKU) alongside retail/Google Merchant Center requirements without relabeling. Key acronyms: FBA = Fulfillment by Amazon; FNSKU = Amazonā€™s fulfillment barcode; POS = point of sale; GMC = Google Merchant Center.

Proposed options:

  • Metafields to store extra barcodes (e.g., ā€œfba-barcodeā€/ā€œfnsku-barcodeā€), but this needs custom work and doesnā€™t integrate with POS barcode scanning by default.
  • Workaround: place two barcodes in the barcode field separated by a comma (some tried ā€œ, ā€). Results: appears in POS product search but does not scan into the Cart to add items; others couldnā€™t make it work at all.

Context: Prior systems (e.g., Microsoft RMS) supported unlimited ā€œaliasā€ barcodes per product, which merchants want replicated in Shopify.

Latest update: Shopify support reportedly confirmed itā€™s not possible to have multiple scannable barcodes per variant in POS. The comma-separated workaround is inconsistent and insufficient for checkout scanning.

Status: Unresolved/ongoing. No official feature or reliable workaround; merchants request native multi-barcode (alias) support in POS.

Summarized with AI on December 28. AI used: gpt-5.
1

Who else here needs to do have shopify to add 2 accepted barcodes for one variant , the reason is we do fba , and print fnsku on products and now want to sell products using shopify retail pos , but in shopify you can only put numeric barcodes as thats all google accepts or its gmc wont accept your products . So if we want to use pos we will have to relabel our products with the barcodes that

2 Likes
2

Hi Rahul,

The only thing that comes to mind that might help you is to use metafields.
Metafields can contain extra information on a product or variant that youā€™re not able to add in the Shopify Admin. You can then name a metafield ā€œfba-barcodeā€ (or whatever you like) and ā€œfnsku-barcodeā€. You can find several apps in the app store that allow you to edit these metafields.

Using these metafields and passing the correct data to whatever service it needs will be the tricky part. I donā€™t know where you want these barcodes to show up or where you need to sends them to, but I think this will require some custom work as well.

Paul

3

this infomation should be searchbale usinhg shopify barcode scnaning functionality

4

Hi,

iā€™m having the same issue. I switch over from Microsoft rms and it was super easy to add an ā€œAliasā€ ups ( unlimited ) to any product. Did you find a solution? Thanks

Sven

1 Like
5

Hi Sven, did you ever find a barcode alias solution?

6

Hi,

No unfortunately.

7

In my extremely limited testing, concatenating two barcodes with a ", " between seems to work from a scanning perspective.

8

Iā€™m joining to this conversation. Weā€™re also planning to migrate from a solution that currently supports multiple barcode per SKU/variant. Did you find a solution to you issue?

1 Like
9

Did you find a solution?

10

Hey Zackonrads, did this solution end up working for you?

11

Is that a comma and a space? Or just a comma? Did you put it in the barcode field or in the SKU field? I tried it in the barcode field without success.

12

I am currently testing this, I have separated by comma and a space (eg. ā€˜08055783027535, a1012905bā€™) 2 barcodes, this works in Product ā†’ Search Bar in the POS but does not allow items to be scanned in the ā€˜Cartā€™ section to be added to a sale. Any help would be much appreciated.

1 Like
13

Any Help from the Shopify team?

14

I asked the Shopify Team and they said it wasnā€™t possible. Seems a bit stupid to have it searchable via the search bar on POS but not whilst scanningā€¦

1 Like