What is an SIC Number?
SIC (Standard Industrial Classification) Codes are 4-digit numerical codes used to classify businesses by industry. Established in the United States in 1937, it has since been replaced by the NAICS (North American Industry Classification System), though both systems are still in use today.
What Do the Numbers in an SIC Code Represent?
The first two digits of a SIC code identify the major industry group, such as Manufacturing or Transportation. The third digit identifies the industry group, such as Electronic Components under the Electronics category. Finally, the fourth digit identifies the industry. And if an industry cannot be located, the number “9” is used in the third or fourth digit position to show NEC or Not Elsewhere Classified industries.
Why are SIC Codes Important?
SIC codes are important for many reasons. In addition to properly identifying a business, they are used for tax purposes, in government statistics, classification, state and federal registration, and to determine eligibility for government contracts. SIC codes provide an efficient way to analyze and report economic metrics and are required for certain forms and applications, such as business tax returns or when applying for a loan with the SBA (Small Business Administration).
Why Melissa?
Melissa has been helping businesses with their data quality needs for over 35 years by offering solutions that not only clean customer data, but enrich data to give businesses greater insight and help them uncover new business opportunities.
Melissa Direct’s Data Append Services include our NAICS / SIC Code Service, which classifies U.S., Mexico and Canadian businesses into industry-specific categories. Simply upload your file and our Service Bureau codes all your business records to provide you with better intelligence about your target markets.
Listware is Melissa’s all-in-one data cleansing tool that easily cleans, dedupes, and enriches your customer data to increase deliverability, improve response rates, and better optimize your marketing and sales efforts. Listware is available online, as an Excel plugin, or open source desktop software.
Melissa’s Global Business Web API implements the Business Coder Web service to return detailed firmographics on over 25 million U.S. businesses, including standardized company name, job title, contact information (name, address, phone, and email address), SIC/NAICS, employee size, stock ticker abbreviation, sales volume, and more.