Understanding barcodes to find out product origins

Have you ever wondered where your product was actually made? Well looking at the barcode will give you a clue. The first three numbers on a barcode are the country code of the member organisation (although not necessarily where the product was made).  It give you a good idea where that little knick-knack came from

Here are a few of the GS1 listings from Wikipedia

Numbers	Country
000 – 019	US and Canada
060 – 099	US and Canada
300 – 379	France and Monaco
400 – 440	Germany
489	Hong Kong
500 – 509	UK
690 – 695	China
750	Mexico
754 – 755	Canada
890	India
930 – 939	Australia
940 – 949	New Zealand

The rest of the world is detailed at the Wikipedia listings – but it gives you a great insight into where your purchase came from and a way for you to focus on buying locally if you choose.

Interesting stuff…

Image credit: joelogon

Eileen is a social business and social media strategist and consultant at Amastra, a columnist at ZDNet and author of Working The Crowd: Social Media Marketing for Business. Contact Eileen to find out how she can help your business extend its reach.