1d-retail
UPC-E (Zero-Suppressed Retail) (UPC-E)
Zero-suppressed 6-digit variant of UPC-A engineered for small retail consumer products across North America where standard 12-digit UPC-A labels physically will not fit.
Governing Specification: ISO/IEC 15420:2009 / GS1 US
Data Format & Required Fields
Compresses standard 12-digit UPC-A codes containing consecutive zeros into a compact 6-digit symbol using parity pattern permutations.
Allowed Character SetExactly 6 numeric digits (zero-suppressed UPC-A).
Payload Length Rule Exactly 6 characters
Required GS1 Structure Encodes standardized GS1 Application Identifiers (AIs). Unit-level and master packaging require primary identification (e.g. GTIN-14 or SSCC-18) combined with variable batch and serialization attributes for supply chain verification.
Check Digit / Checksum Rule Requires a verified modulo-10 check digit to prevent scanner misreads and data transposition errors.
Example Valid Format
012345Industry Guidance & Practical Applications
- Small retail candy bars, chewing gum, and beverage cans
- Cosmetics, lip balms, and travel-size toiletries
- Single-dose OTC pharmacy packaging
Packaging & Scanning Notes: Universally accepted at North American retail POS scanner lanes.
Symbol Constraints & Label Guidelines
- Only UPC-A numbers with specific patterns of multiple zeros can be zero-suppressed into UPC-E.
- Purely numeric data.