Noon Barcode Requirements (2026): GTIN and EAN, Custom Barcodes, Exemptions, Uploading and Printing

The question Indian sellers ask about noon barcodes is usually the wrong one. It is normally some version of do I need a GTIN, or how much does a GS1 India subscription cost for noon. The answer, from noon's own barcode article, is that noon requires a barcode on every unit but does not require it to be a GS1 GTIN or EAN at all. That single fact changes the cost of entering the Gulf for a small private label.

This guide covers exactly what noon demands, the accepted alternatives to a manufacturer barcode, the rules that trip people up, how to upload and print, and what a barcode failure costs you. Everything comes from noon's help centre as read on 27 September 2026. Rupee figures use an illustrative Rs 23.50 per AED and Rs 23 per SAR.

Does noon require a barcode, and on what?

Yes, and on everything. noon's words: to ensure a smooth fulfilment process when selling via Fulfilled by Noon (FBN) or Fulfilled by Partner (FBP), having barcodes on all units is mandatory. There is no exemption by fulfilment model. Whether noon holds your stock or you ship from your own warehouse, every unit carries a barcode.

noon gives three reasons, all operational: accurate picking and packing, tracking through the fulfilment cycle, and passing quality checks. The consequence is stated just as plainly. Products without barcodes will be rejected during quality checks and cannot be fulfilled. For an Indian exporter that means the rejection happens after the goods have crossed a border, which is the expensive place for it to happen.

Does noon need a GTIN or EAN, and are there exemptions?

noon's barcode article does not require a GS1-issued identifier. It says that if your products lack a manufacturer's barcode you must create your own, and gives two accepted routes.

So the honest answer to whether noon has a GTIN exemption process is that the question does not arise: there is no GTIN requirement to be exempted from. A private label with fifty SKUs and no GS1 prefix can list and fulfil on noon using self-generated 16-character codes. Our GTIN glossary entry explains what a GTIN is and when a genuine one is still worth buying.

What are the rules that actually cause rejections?

Three rules do most of the damage, and all three are easy to get wrong on a first inbound.

• One unique barcode per SKU, including every variant. noon is explicit that if a product comes in different sizes or colours, each version must have its own barcode. Different SKUs sharing one barcode leads to reconciliation issues, which in practice means stock and payout disputes you then have to unpick.
• No symbols and no spaces. Avoid plus, slash, hyphen, percent, ampersand and similar characters, and do not put spaces between characters. Indian internal SKU schemes are full of hyphens, so a straight lift of your ERP code will often fail.
• A barcode cannot be deleted once assigned. You can upload a new barcode for an SKU, but the original remains. There is no clean way back from a bad mapping, only a layer on top of it. Get the scheme right before the first upload.

That last rule deserves emphasis because it is the one with no remedy. Decide your barcode convention, check it against the character rules, check variant-level uniqueness in a spreadsheet, and only then upload. This is the kind of one-way catalogue decision our noon account management work front-loads, because reversing it later is not possible.

How do I upload barcodes to Seller Lab?

The route is Catalog, then Imports, then Add Import, then import type Barcode and import sub-type Partner Barcode Map, then Download Template. The template takes three columns and nothing else.

Fill it, upload it and click Submit. Note that the example codes in noon's own template are 12 alphanumeric characters with no separators, which is a reasonable pattern to copy: a short brand prefix, then a sequential number, no hyphens.

How do I print noon barcodes?

Printing directly from Seller Lab has a hard hardware requirement: a Zebra printer that supports the ZPL programming language. noon states that only Zebra printers are compatible with Seller Lab, and that you should verify your Zebra model supports ZPL. You also need QZ Tray, a cross-browser plugin, and noon says it bought the QZ Tray licence so that partners have what they need.

The setup runs: install QZ Tray, click its icon in the menu bar, choose Advanced, then File Location, then Sample Demo, then Sample.html, and enable ZPL in Raw Printing. Plug the Zebra printer in over USB so it appears in the control panel. Then in Seller Lab go to Fulfilled By noon, then My ASN and Storage, and click Print Barcode. With QZ Tray online, search by product or by pending requests and click Print; Settings controls label size and barcode position on the label. View Details, then Print Multiple, lets you enter a quantity for a single item.

If you do not have a Zebra printer, you are not blocked. noon tells sellers with other printers to generate barcodes using a free online generator and print them conventionally. For an Indian brand that is usually the right call: generate the codes, send the artwork to the printer who already does your labels, and skip the Zebra and QZ Tray chain entirely. Two reprint rules are worth knowing. If an item already has a barcode and you lost the printout, reprint the same barcode from Seller Lab. If the item is a generic SKU with no barcode at all, generate one with any online generator and then update it on the product offer details page in Seller Lab.

What does a barcode failure cost?

noon does not publish a barcode-specific penalty. The cost shows up instead as rejected units at inbound quality check, which then have to be removed from the warehouse, and inventory removal is a published charge. Using noon's KSA removal rates, the cost of getting it wrong on a small inbound looks like this.

Worked example: 200 unlabelled units rejected at a KSA inbound, average 0.5 kg each

The UAE removal table is structured similarly and cross-city freight is charged at a higher rate per kilogram, so check noon's removal article for your exact case; both figures also carry VAT at 5% in the UAE and 15% in KSA like every other noon fee, as our noon fees guide sets out. Under 5 SAR per unit is not ruinous, but the real cost is the selling weeks lost while 200 units sit unsellable, and for an Indian exporter the alternative to removal may be writing the stock off rather than paying return freight to India.

A practical barcode plan for an Indian brand

• Decide whether you need a real GTIN for other channels. If noon is your only Gulf channel, you do not need one for noon.
• Design a code: a short letter prefix, then digits, 16 characters or fewer, no hyphens, no spaces. Check it against your variant matrix so every size and colour has its own code.
• Get the label onto the unit in India, on the primary pack, positioned where a warehouse can scan it without unpacking.
• Upload the mapping through Catalog, Imports, Barcode, Partner Barcode Map before the first inbound, and keep the sheet as the master record.
• Never reuse a code across SKUs, and remember you cannot delete one once assigned.

FAQ

Does noon require a GTIN or EAN? No. noon requires a barcode on every unit, but accepts a custom alphanumeric barcode of up to 16 characters, or your partner SKU or model number, if the product has no manufacturer barcode.

Are barcodes mandatory for FBP as well as FBN? Yes. noon states barcodes are mandatory on all units for both Fulfilled by Noon and Fulfilled by Partner, and units without one are rejected at quality check and cannot be fulfilled.

Can two variants of the same product share a barcode? No. Each size or colour version must have its own unique barcode. Different SKUs sharing a barcode causes reconciliation problems with stock and payouts.

Can I change or delete a noon barcode? You can upload a new barcode for an SKU, but the original cannot be deleted and remains against the SKU. Decide your barcode scheme before the first upload.

What printer do I need for noon barcodes? To print from Seller Lab you need a Zebra printer supporting ZPL plus the QZ Tray plugin, whose licence noon has bought for partners. With any other printer, generate the barcodes with a free online generator and print them normally.

What characters are not allowed in a noon barcode? Symbols such as plus, slash, hyphen, percent and ampersand, and spaces between characters. Indian ERP SKU codes often contain hyphens, so they usually need reformatting before use.

Getting the catalogue right the first time

Barcodes are a small job that is expensive to redo, because noon will not let you delete one and because the failure surfaces at a quality check in another country. If you want the barcode scheme, the variant matrix and the inbound checks handled before the first container moves, see our noon account management service. We run noon alongside Amazon and Flipkart for Indian brands, so the identifier decision gets made once, for every channel.