How to Generate Barcodes From Retail Force Barcodes & Labels App: A Complete Guide

Barcodes are important for keeping your inventory organized, speeding up order fulfillment and tracking products accurately. If you run an e-commerce store on Shopify, generating barcodes for your products can help you manage stock, make checkout faster and reduce mistakes. In this complete guide, our App Development and Customer Support Team will walk you through the process of generating barcodes in Shopify including various methods, the tools available and tips for getting the most out of barcode generation.

Barcodes are machine-readable codes that represent data in a visual format. They are widely used in retail and warehouse management to identify products quickly and accurately. Barcodes are made up of a series of lines and numbers which correspond to specific product details such as the SKU (Stock Keeping Unit) or the product ID.

In a Shopify store, barcodes are essential for:

Inventory Management: Barcodes help you easily track products and quantities.

Faster Order Fulfillment: Scanning barcodes during order picking ensures that the correct items are shipped.

Reduced Errors: Automating product identification with barcodes reduces the likelihood of manual mistakes.

Integration with Point-of-Sale (POS): If you sell offline, barcodes are essential for smooth transactions at your physical store.

Retail Force Barcodes & Labels is a Shopify app designed to help store owners easily generate and print barcode labels for their products. This app offers powerful features for creating and managing barcodes especially for those who have a large inventory or need a custom barcode format. You can generate barcodes automatically, design and print labels in bulk and customize labels to meet your specific needs.

Step 1: Installing Retail Force Barcodes & Labels

To begin generating barcodes for your products, you first need to install the Retail Force Barcodes & Labels app from the Shopify App Store.

1. Go to the Shopify App Store.
2. Search for "Retail Force Barcodes & Labels".
3. Click Install and follow the on-screen instructions to integrate the app with your Shopify store.

Once the app is installed, you can access it directly from your Shopify dashboard.

Step 2: Set Up Barcode Generation

After installing the app, the next step is to set up how barcodes will be created. Retail Force Barcodes & Labels has an easy-to-use interface that lets you customize barcode generation for your products.

a) Go to the Barcode Generation Section

1. From the Retail Force Barcodes & Labels dashboard, go to the Barcodes & SKUs section.
2. Click on Edit next to Barcode Generation Settings to open the barcode customization options.

b) Select Barcode Format

The first step in customizing your barcodes is selecting the Barcode Format. Here, you will have several options, such as:

• General (default, typically used for most barcode applications)
• UPC-A, UPC-E (UPC, UCC-12): Commonly used for retail products in the United States.
• EAN-13 (EAN, JAN, EAN-13): Used internationally for product identification.
• EAN-8: A shorter version of EAN-13, often used for smaller products.
• ITF-14: A format used for packaging or shipping labels.

Select the barcode format that fits your product type or region. Most Shopify stores will use General or EAN-13.

c) Prevent Barcode Duplicating

Enable the "Prevent barcode duplicating" checkbox. This option ensures that each barcode generated is unique, preventing any conflicts in your inventory.

d) Your company prefix

This section allows you to enter a unique prefix for your company. It is crucial to note that the company prefix can only consist of digits and should not exceed 10 digits in total for UPC-A and UPC-E (UPC, UCC-12) formats. If you intend to have your barcodes authorized worldwide, you must ensure that the company prefix is obtained from an authorized body. This prefix, when combined with other digits, will form the barcode structure.

e) Customize the Barcode Pattern

In the Barcode Pattern section, you can create a custom pattern for your barcodes. The pattern defines the structure of the barcode such as the number of digits or letters and whether they are random or predefined.

Here’s how to use the pattern:

• [0-9]{6}: This will generate 6 random digits between 0 and 9 (e.g., 123456).
• [a-z]{10}: This will generate 10 random lowercase letters from a to z (e.g., abcdefghij).
• [a-z0-9]{10}: This will generate 10 random characters combining letters and numbers (e.g., a1b2c3d4e5).

You can also create a more complex pattern by mixing custom text with random characters. For example:

• BAR[A-Z0-9]{10}: This will generate a barcode like BAR003A12NF00.

Adjust the pattern to fit your business needs, whether you want random barcodes, alphanumeric codes or a combination of both.

f) Save Your Settings

Once you have configured your barcode format, enabled the prevention of duplication and set your barcode pattern, click Save to apply the settings.

Conclusion

Generating barcodes in Shopify with the Retail Force Barcodes & Labels app is a simple and efficient process that helps you maintain better control over your inventory. The app’s features allow you to generate barcodes in bulk, customize label designs and print barcode labels with ease, making it an essential tool for Shopify store owners. By automating barcode generation, you can save time, reduce errors and keep your inventory organized. If you haven’t already, give Retail Force Barcodes & Labels a try and start streamlining your store’s operations today.

Updated on: 17/01/2026