A user is asking whether Shopify allows multiple products to share the same EAN barcode. Their specific use case involves selling touch-up paint for bicycles—the same product listed six times with different bicycle images so customers can visually identify and confirm their bike model before purchasing, which helps reduce return rates.
A respondent confirms this is possible in Shopify. The key requirement is that each product variant must have a unique SKU (Stock Keeping Unit), even though they share identical EAN/GTIN barcodes. The respondent tested this setup in their own store and verified it works as long as the SKUs remain distinct across all product listings.
Hi all,
Is it possible to have multiple products in your store with an identical EAN barcode?
As an example: we sell touch-up paint for bicycles and all 6 products in the screenshot below are the exact same product. The reason we have this setup is that we want customers to visually identify and confirm their bike before making the purchase, as it reduces the return rate.
Thanks.
Hi Olaf,
As far as I’m aware at least, the only distinguishing field between items on Shopify is the SKU. Just tested it on my store and was able to make multiple different identical products, with the same GTIN for example, just with different SKU’s.
So yes, you should be able to do that, just ensure they all have separate SKU’s.
Hope that helps.
