An alias is secondary barcode that is associated to an item, typically the EAN code or 'manufacturer's barcode'. Alias can be scanned to add an item to the point of sale and EAN codes are required for uploading items to Google shopping and some marketplaces.
For items imported into your database via SIM, the alias should already be present in almost all cases.
You can also manually add an alias to the product record in Cloud POS backoffice. This can be done on an item-by-item basis, or in bulk by using the Import Barcodes function. See the related article for guidance on using this functionality.
The current criteria for barcode values are:
- 12, 13 or 14 characters in length (We don’t currently support ISBN, which would be 8 characters)
- Numeric characters only
- Cannot start with 2, 31, 02, 04, 98, 99
- Cannot contain hyphen or dot
This is based on the guidance set out here:
https://www.barcoding.com/blog/barcode-prefixes-and-product-country-of-origin/
https://support.google.com/merchants/answer/6286293?hl=en-GB
