What is an EAN code?

EAN (European Article Number) is a product number that identifies a product beyond the boundaries of a single company. The standard is managed by GS1, and the numbers are assigned, not invented, so two different products cannot have the same EAN. It is the sequence of digits under the barcode on the packaging.

It’s easy to confuse it with a SKU, and it’s important to keep these terms distinct. A SKU is your internal code; you set it yourself, and it applies only to your store and your warehouse. The EAN is common across the entire market: the same product has the same number at your store, at your competitors’, and at the manufacturer’s.

In online sales, the EAN determines whether a product can be matched to third-party databases. Marketplaces, price comparison sites, and product feeds match listings based on the EAN, so a missing EAN or an incorrectly entered number can remove the product from the sales channel where it was supposed to be sold. Bundles assembled in your own store usually do not have an EAN, because no one has manufactured such a product; only sets packaged by the manufacturer receive an EAN.