Do I need a UPC to sell on Etsy?

No. Etsy does not require a GTIN, UPC or EAN for most listings. The listing form includes an optional barcode field, and leaving it blank will not prevent you from publishing or appearing in Etsy search.

Do I need a UPC to sell on Shopify?

No. Shopify will not block you from selling without a GTIN. But Google Shopping strongly prefers products that have one, and any marketplace you connect through Shopify, such as Amazon or Walmart, has its own requirements regardless.

Does Amazon require a UPC?

For most new listings, yes. Amazon has required GTINs obtained from GS1 since 2016 and validates them against the GS1 registry to confirm the code belongs to you. The two legitimate alternatives are a GTIN exemption for specific categories and situations, or matching an existing listing instead of creating your own.

Do I need my own UPC if I resell other companies' products?

Usually not. Products you resell already carry barcodes assigned by whoever manufactured them, and you use those. You need your own GS1 numbers when you are the manufacturer or you private label, because a GTIN has to be registered to the company that owns the product.

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Guidebeginner9 min read

Do I Need a UPC to Sell Online?

Q: Do I need a UPC to sell online?

It depends on the channel. Amazon, Walmart Marketplace and Target Plus require one and verify it against GS1 records. Grocery and club retailers such as Costco, Kroger, Whole Foods and Sam's Club require one through supplier onboarding. Etsy, Square, Shopify and Faire do not require one at all. What decides it is whether anything downstream of the listing has to scan your product.

It depends on where you sell, and the split is not the one most people expect.

The usual assumption is that big platforms are strict and small ones are relaxed. That is not really it. What actually decides the answer is whether anything downstream of the listing has to scan your product. Etsy never does, so Etsy has never cared. A Kroger register does, so Kroger cares a great deal. Amazon sits in the middle and cares because its catalog would collapse without unique identifiers.

Here is the honest answer for every channel we have a detailed guide for, then the one question underneath all of them that tells you what you actually need.

The short answer, by channel

Where you sell	UPC required?	The detail that matters
Amazon	Yes, for most new listings	Validated against GS1 records as belonging to you
Walmart Marketplace	Yes	A valid product identifier on every item you list
Target Plus	Yes	GS1-issued specifically; reseller codes are not accepted
Costco	Yes, at every packaging level	The club pack is its own product with its own GTIN
Kroger	Yes	Every configuration, including cases, needs its own
Whole Foods Market	Yes	A unique GTIN per size, flavor and pack configuration
Sam's Club	Yes	Members scan your pack themselves, so mismatches are visible
Instacart	Indirectly	The grocer submits the item; your printed UPC is what flows through
Wayfair	Expect to supply one	Catalog requirements live in Partner Home and vary by category
TikTok Shop	Not universally	Gated categories and Fulfilled by TikTok change the answer
Shopify	No	But Google Shopping and any connected marketplace will want one
Faire	No	The retailers buying from you expect one anyway
Square	No	The field can stay empty forever without consequence
Etsy	No	Optional field, blank is fine, most sellers never fill it

Each of those links goes to the full requirements for that channel. The rest of this page is about how to read the table.

Channels that require a UPC and check whose it is

Amazon, Walmart Marketplace and Target Plus all require a product identifier to create a listing. The important part is not the requirement, it is the verification.

Amazon validates GTINs against the GS1 registry and has required GS1-obtained codes since 2016. The check is not whether the number is well formed. It is whether GS1's records say the number belongs to you. Target Plus is explicit that codes bought from barcode resellers are not accepted.

This is the group where a resold barcode fails, and it fails after your packaging is printed, as a suppressed or rejected listing rather than a warning at the point of purchase. If you are selling in this group, you need numbers issued to your own company. There is no version of this that works out.

Channels where a buyer requires it, not a form

Costco, Kroger, Whole Foods and Sam's Club are a different situation. There is no listing form to reject you. There is a buyer, an onboarding process, and supplier requirements that are distributed privately rather than published, which means your buyer and their supplier team are the authority for your category, not any guide including this one.

What is consistent across all four is the underlying standard: GS1-issued GTINs, a unique one per sellable configuration, and increasingly some evidence that the numbers are registered to you.

The rule that catches first-time suppliers here is counting. Every variation is its own product. Whole Foods puts it plainly: three sizes in three flavors is nine GTINs, not one. Costco and Sam's Club add a wrinkle on top, because a club pack or a two-pack is a distinct trade item with its own number, separate from the items inside it. That is where brands discover the ten-number entry tier does not cover the range they planned.

Instacart is the odd one out and worth understanding before you assume it is a channel you control. You are usually not the one submitting the item; the grocer is, from their own system. Your leverage is the number printed on your packaging, because that is what flows into their records and out to Instacart. If it is a GS1-issued GTIN registered to you, everything downstream resolves correctly.

Channels that do not require one

Etsy, Square, Shopify and Faire will all let you sell indefinitely without a UPC. That is a real answer, not a technicality, and if one of them is your only channel you can stop reading here.

But the reasons they do not require one differ, and so does what you give up:

Etsy genuinely does not need it. The barcode field is optional and blank is fine. Handmade, vintage and craft supplies make up most of the platform and none of it gets scanned anywhere.
Square has the field and you can leave it empty forever. What a GTIN unlocks there is operational: scanning at checkout, and creating items by scanning stock you did not manufacture.
Shopify will not block you, but the rest of the commerce ecosystem increasingly expects one. Google Shopping strongly prefers products with GTINs, and any marketplace you connect through Shopify has its own requirements regardless of what Shopify asks for.
Faire does not require one, and most successful brands there include one anyway, because the retailers buying wholesale need to receive, stock and ring up what you send them. A product without a barcode is extra work for every store that carries it.

TikTok Shop and Wayfair sit in between. TikTok does not require an identifier in most US categories, but gated categories like beauty, supplements and electronics increasingly ask for one during review, some categories require it outright, and Fulfilled by TikTok needs the barcode physically printed on the package. Wayfair expects a product identifier in its catalog fields, with the detailed specification published to onboarded suppliers through Partner Home rather than openly.

The question underneath all of this

Channel-by-channel answers are useful for the listing in front of you. They are not the decision. The decision is:

Are you the manufacturer of the product, or are you reselling someone else's?

If you are reselling, the products already carry barcodes assigned by whoever made them, and you use those. You may never need your own GS1 numbers at all. A shop running entirely on manufacturer barcodes is a completely normal way to operate.

If you make the product, or you private label, then you need your own numbers eventually. Not because of any single channel's rules, but because a GTIN is the only identifier that means the same thing in every system that will ever handle your product. Your own SKU does not travel. An Amazon ASIN belongs to Amazon. A GTIN is the one number a warehouse, a distributor, a register, Google Shopping and a retailer's item record all agree on.

The practical version: if you make it and you have any intention of selling anywhere other than your own store, get your own numbers before your packaging goes to print, not after a retailer asks.

What it takes if the answer is yes

Less than most people expect, and the cheap-barcode sites have made it seem more expensive than it is.

GS1 US licenses a single GTIN for $30 with no annual renewal, which covers one product and is the right answer for a maker with one item. A GS1 Company Prefix starts at $250 with a $50 annual renewal and covers ten products you assign yourself, which is the right answer for a product line and the only option if you need to identify cases, pallets or coupons.

Both come from GS1. The sites selling individual barcodes for $5 are reselling numbers subdivided from a prefix GS1 issued to a different company years ago, which is exactly the thing Amazon and Target Plus check for. They scan perfectly and fail the check that matters.

Our full guide to getting a UPC code walks through choosing between the two, counting how many numbers your product line actually needs, and generating the barcode artwork.

One thing to know before you print

If you are ordering packaging now, it is worth knowing that retail is transitioning from linear barcodes to 2D codes. It is an industry milestone rather than a legal deadline, but it means packaging designed today is worth designing once.

Your GTIN is the part that carries over. A GS1 Digital Link QR code encodes the same number you would put in a UPC, and also works as a web link a shopper can scan with their phone. Whether that is a now problem or a later one depends on your product and your retailer, and our checklist is the fastest way to find out.