Scaling into retail isn’t just about velocity or buyer meetings. It’s about whether your product can even be recognized by the systems behind the shelf. Barcodes are one of the earliest (and most overlooked) gatekeepers to retail scale. Get them wrong, and you risk stalling growth. Get them right, and you set up everything from onboarding to margins to long-term trust with retailers.
Kaitlin Friedmann is the Marketing Director of Member Growth at GS1 US®, the nonprofit global data standards organization best known as the recognized source for UPC barcodes. With over a decade of experience inside the organization, she works closely with growing brands on how barcodes and product data impact retail readiness, supply chains, and long-term scale.
When brands are ready to scale, what’s the first thing retailers look for before bringing them in store?
The single most important thing to have is products labeled with GS1-sourced barcodes. Retailers look for barcodes with numbers that can be verified in the GS1 Database as part of their authenticity checks and onboarding processes. It’s important to go with a source for barcodes that does not sell you previously used barcodes.
The image below shows two different products from two different companies with two unique identification numbers encoded into their barcodes. Imagine the data chaos if these two products somehow end up having the same identification number assigned to them.
We’ve heard stories from GS1 US members that went with previously used barcodes early in their business, only to find the barcodes were not accepted by their retail partners. They had to spend a lot of money to barcode their products all over again. The number encoded into your barcode seems like a small part of a product launch, but it carries a lot of power when you think about all the partners that need to identify that product in various systems as it travels to the end customer.
How can better product data help prove velocity and improve margins?
The quality of data is only as good as the business strategy around data. GS1 US offers a free membership benefit, a tool called GS1 US Data Hub, that can help reduce data errors, boost consistency, and enhance trust with your retailer partners. Among small businesses, frankly, it’s an underutilized benefit, even though it represents a big opportunity to speed up your products’ ability to be verified by retailers.
Basically, Data Hub allows you to assign identification numbers to each product as well as product data attributes (weights, dimensions, image URLs, etc.). That information will be set up to be shared with all of your retailer partners who have access to Data Hub. Without using Data Hub to set up and share data, many brands rely on spreadsheets, which are prone to manual errors. Plus, you might have multiple spreadsheets customized for each retailer, which means you’re spending a lot of time creating and recreating documents that are not as durable as a single portal for product data.
How does traceability and transparency become an advantage when pitching to new retail accounts?
Retailers want brands that align with consumer values. Currently, shopping behaviors are shifting, and consumers are scrutinizing products and labels more than ever at the point of purchase to ensure they align with their preferences and budgets.
Consumers want more transparency, and our digital world can provide real-time access to the information they seek. QR codes powered by GS1 are emerging on product packaging to help shoppers retrieve more-trusted real-time product details via a smartphone scan, supporting smarter, more confident decisions at the shelf. If your brand’s products can meet the consumer where they are, that is a direct advantage.
How can founders leverage their investment in GS1 standards to protect their margins and support growth in 2026?
Capital growth expenses are sure to be tight in 2026, just like they were in 2025. There is a lot of uncertainty with shifting trade policies and tariffs that makes it difficult for small brands to strategize. The choice to invest in something like a GS1 Company Prefix from GS1 US we realize takes serious consideration.
But I use the word “invest” purposefully. Your GS1 US membership and ability to use the Prefix to identify products can signify to retailers that you are a legitimate business that has taken steps to operate on the global standard that makes retail commerce flow around the world. The system of standards exists because the retail industry for 50+ years has agreed that GS1 identification numbers and other standards keep order in the supply chain. Trying to circumvent that system may introduce risk into your growth plan.
Beyond the initial startup phase, investing in a GS1 Company Prefix can help protect your brand, almost acting like part of your overall IP. Your prefix proves a link between your company and your products because it’s verifiable in the GS1 Database. It can be a valuable tool if you ever experience product listing hijackings on marketplaces, or if there ever were counterfeit listings competing to take business away from you online.
What’s one piece of advice you’d give to founders doing $1–5M and pushing for $10M?
Lock in your product identification and data-sharing strategy now. As the business scales up, complexity can multiply. A diverse product portfolio can mean more retail partners which can mean higher consumer expectations for transparency.
One system that will future-proof your growth is preparing for 2D barcodes (like QR codes powered by GS1) on-pack. These codes unlock richer product data throughout the supply chain, and through point-of-sale (and beyond), enabling:
Retailer readiness for Sunrise 2027 (when 2D barcodes will be scanned at checkout)
Traceability and compliance with evolving regulations like FSMA Rule 204
Direct-to-consumer engagement through scannable experiences Inventory accuracy and operational efficiency as distribution expands
Kaitlin Friedmann is the Marketing Director of Member Growth at GS1 US®, the nonprofit global data standards organization best known as the recognized source for UPC barcodes. With over a decade of experience inside the organization, she works closely with growing brands on how barcodes and product data impact retail readiness, supply chains, and long-term scale.