(NAPS)—You’ve got a great product—now what? As a small-business owner, you likely get only one opportunity to launch a product successfully and set your brand up for growth. Here are four practical ways to prepare your productforliftoff. 1.Barcode your products (the right way). While selling direct to consumers can be profitable, work- ing with a retailer partner can propel your brand forward andincrease sales. Meeting retailer requirements may be daunting, but the rules are in place to help retailers sell products successfully. Small businesses can avoidlost sales opportunities and unnecessary costs associated with relabeling by learning and meeting requirements from the start. Companies working withretailers and online marketplaces need a different UPC for each product they sell and product variations require unique UPCs to distinguish one variation from another, such as different flavors of candy. GS1 US has been the source for a product UPC, the numberthat appears under a barcode symbol, for more than 40 years. When used properly, a UPC uniquely identifies a product when scannedat various points in the supply chain—including the checkout counter in a retail store. Each barcode can be printed and attached to a product or incorporated into the package design. Make sure you have proper placement, sizing, and quality printing to help your productsail through the checkout process. GS1 UShas solution partners that help small businesses with barcode and package printing. More information is at www.gslus.org/solutionpartners. It is important to ensure that the UPCsassigned to your products are authentic and contain numbers that link your brand with your products. The GS1 CompanyPrefix is a number embedded in a UPC obtained from GS1 US. Purchasing UPCsthat do not have a Company Prefix assigned to your brand may hurt your chancesofbuilding future key relationships with retailers. For a guide to help businesses get started, see www. gslus.org/getstarted. 2.Get discovered digitally. Small businesses can reach a much wider audience in today’s digital age—an entrepreneur can sell products on Amazon Many small-business owners feel like they need to crack a code to know whatwill attract customers. In fact, they do need to know the best ways to go about using a UPC barcode. halfway around the globe in a matter of seconds. Online marketplaces also want to delight consumers with a wide productselection and rely on smallbusinesses for variety. With proper product identification, the right product can be surfaced in search engine results—consider it your product’s global passport to besold any- washable and more. Think about your own shopping experiences—observe how products surface and are presented in different marketplaces and payattention to the data. A networkofCertified Content Providers that serve as a resource for small businesses seeking guidance on gathering the right kind of product data to market their products can be found at www.gslus.org/ccp. where, anytime. The same numbers in a barcodeare also used online, makingit easier for your products to be found in Websearches andclassified for online marketplaces. On e-commerce platforms, if you want your product to be searchable, random or proprietary numbers won't work—yourproducts need to be identified according to the retailer's requirements or they may be hidden from searchresults. 3. Provide complete product infor- mation.Ina store, people use their senses of touch, sight, sound and even smell to help them decide if a product is right for them. But what about online? Imagine how important product information becomes in helping customers decide to buy your product. Remember—you never get a second chance to makea first impression, so launching a product with detailed information can be a great point of differentiation andhelp sell your product versus the competition’s. First and foremost, keep your au- dience in mind. For example, parents thinking about buying children’s hockey gear need full scopeof the product before decidingifit’s right for their child. ‘They may need to know about durability, safety features, whether it’s machine 4. Help the consumer picture it. A picture is worth a thousand words, especially online. Clear imagery is necessary to complement product details and more pictures can mean moresales. Professional photos of your product taken at different angles can mean outstanding reviews and increased sales rather than complaints about having to return your product. In today’s competitive marketplace, photosare critical to confirm that your product meets the consumer’s expectations. Moving forward,it’s importantto re- member that you're not alone in facing these startup learning curves. ‘The process of launching products can seem complex at first, but understanding consumer behaviors, retailer requirements and how retail has evolved can mean long-term success. The winning combination ofyour business ambition andretail best practices can help you plot out a new path for the next big growth opportunity. Learn More Further information about tools and services to help small businesses achieve their goals can be found at www.gslus.org/smallbusiness. — Editor’s Note: While this can be of interest to your readers at any time, it could be particularly useful by Small Business Saturday, November 25, 2017.
