This article we’ll talk about how you can make a UPC coupon. Desipte the efforts from GS1 to replace it with more advanced solutions, U.P.C. coupons are still the most common type all over North America.

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A U.P.C coupon look like a regular UPC-A barcode except that the first digit is always 5.

A coupon number consists of five parts, as illustrated in the barcode.

UCC Prefix

The first digit of a UPC-A number is called UCC prefix, which identifies the type of the product. It is also called Number System, or GS1 company prefix (UCC has changed its name to GS1, and is now renaming everything UCC to GS1). This digit signals to the POS system that it is canning a coupon, not a regular UPC code.

UCC Company Number

The following five digits identifies the manufacturer of the couponed item. This number must be the same as on the products being couponed.

What about if your company number assigned is longer than 6-digits? You would only use positions 2-6 for the Company Prefix on the coupon. The reamaining digits would be dropped.

Family Code

The following three digits is Family Code. This code designates items being couponed. Products being couponed must be assigned a family code. In order to the retailers to validte coupons, this family code must be communciated to retailers before the coupons are issued.

Family code applies on a group of products. There are 1,000 family code numbers (000-999). However, GS1 reserves the two ranges 001-009, 990-999. You should not use the these ranges.

Value Code

The two digits defines the value of the coupon.  Value codes are predefined. For example, code 05 means $1.40 off, and 13 means “buy 4 or more and get $1.00 off”. For the detailed list, obtain the manual titled The Application Standard for UCC Coupon Codes from GS1. You can also find it here.

Check Digit

The last digit is the checksum, the same as all UPC-A numbers. You can calculate check digits at http://www.morovia.com/education/utility/upc-ean.asp.

As you can see, U.P.C. coupon is quite simple but not flexible enough to deal many special requirements. As demans for a better coupon format grows, GS1 has proposed several extended formats, and we’ll explain them in the next article.

How to Create U.P.C Coupon

Morovia provide a font-based solution called
Morovia UPC/EAN/Bookland Fontware, and an image-based solution Monterey Barcode Creator. Both have trial versions and can be downloaded immediately after the purchase. Try them today!.