To succeed in today's global marketplace, brands of all sizes need efficient supply chain management. As e-commerce and multi-channel selling become more popular, it's critical to have a standardized way of managing the different parts of your supply chain.
By Shane Morris | Business Development Director Ecommerce at GS1 US
To succeed in today's global marketplace, brands of all sizes need efficient supply chain management. As e-commerce and multi-channel selling become more popular, it's critical to have a standardized way of managing the different parts of your supply chain.
GS1 US is a neutral, not-for-profit organization that helps companies uniquely identify products, locations, and other assets and share information about them with trading partners and consumers in a consistent way. These data standards ensure products are easily tracked and identified from manufacturer to consumer.
The most commonly used GS1 Standards include Global Trade Item Numbers (GTINs), Universal Product Codes (UPCs), GS1-128 barcodes, Serialized Shipping Container Code (SSCC), and Global Location Numbers (GLNs). We'll explain each of these standards and how they can benefit your business as you expand across different retail channels.
The Power of a GS1 Company Prefix
A GS1 Company Prefix is a set of unique numbers that identifies a company within product or location identification numbers. To get one, companies can go to GS1 US or any GS1 member organization. A prefix can be licensed in different capacities, starting from 10 and going up to 100,000. This allows the company to create different kinds of identifiers like GTINs and GLNs. Licensing a Company Prefix is the first step toward helping businesses identify their company, their products, their shipments, their locations, and their parties.
Unique Product Identifiers
Global Trade Item Number – GTIN-12 and GTIN-13
The GTIN-12 and GTIN-13 are the numbers that are encoded into your UPC or EAN barcodes. These numbers help businesses with inventory management, product traceability, and fulfilling retailer and marketplace requirements. For example, Google and Amazon recommend sellers use a GS1 GTIN to help people find products more easily and to ensure product authenticity.
Global Trade Item Number – GTIN-14
The GTIN-14 is used to identify product packaging like inner or case packs. It is often included in an ITF-14 or GS1-128 barcode to identify contents inside the case. Used together this helps supply chain partners improve product traceability.
Logistics Identifiers
Serialized Shipping Container Code (SSCC)
The SSCC is a serialized, unique identifier that can be assigned to a logistics unit, whether it is a single carton, a pallet, or a container. The SSCC allows shipments to be identified as they travel through the supply chain. When paired with a digital Advance Ship Notice, the SSCC can help recipients understand exactly what is coming and identify received shipments. And as a shipper, it can provide clear data about where your product is as it moves through the supply chain. Generating SSCCs is easy with your Company Prefix and there is no additional cost. Even the smallest, 10-capacity prefix can generate over one million unique SSCCs!
Location and Party Identifiers
Global Location Number (GLN)
Supply chain visibility is key for industry stakeholders due to consumer demand for transparency about the products they buy, their origins, and their environmental impact. Clear visibility is also important for consumer safety. The GLN, which is derived from your GS1 Company Prefix, identifies a party, like a manufacturing company or a functional department, and a location, like a store, warehouse, or dock door. GLNs can also be assigned to digital locations, like an ERP system or an EDI gateway. Using standardized party and location identifiers is becoming more common in the retail supply chain because it reduces errors and redundancy caused by proprietary identifiers.
GS1 US Data Hub
GS1 US Data Hub can be used to easily create product and location identifiers from your GS1 Company Prefix. You will have automatic access once you license your prefix and set up your account on the GS1 US website. The screen will show an "I'm new" bubble that will guide you through the process of managing product information and assigning GTINs. Once you’ve mastered this process, Data Hub can be a useful tool for you to export product information to share with retail partners and to manage and share party and location information.
Getting started with GS1 US
Familiarizing yourself with the GS1 System of Standards is the first step to achieving a standardized approach to your business’s processes. Standards play a foundational role for businesses to accelerate growth across channels, as they provide a common language for all partners to move products through the supply chain. As the retail industry places more focus on improving supply chain visibility and resilience for improved consumer experiences, GS1 Standards are often a pre-requisite for doing business with retailers and marketplaces.
For more information about GS1 Standards, please visit https://www.gs1us.org.
