GTIN (Global Trade Item Number)
The GTIN (Global Trade Item Number) is GS1’s globally unique identification key for trade items. It labels a specific product from a specific manufacturer unmistakably and is machine-readable as a barcode – from the checkout to the marketplace listing.
The GTIN (Global Trade Item Number) is the globally unique number the standards organization GS1 uses to identify trade items. Each GTIN belongs to exactly one product from a precisely defined manufacturer and is assigned only once worldwide. As a barcode on the packaging it is machine-readable, so a single scan at goods receipt, at the checkout or in the warehouse is enough to call up the item unambiguously in the ERP system.
GTIN is an umbrella term: it consolidates the numbering systems that were previously kept separate, above all the European EAN and the North American UPC. Since 2009 GTIN has been the official GS1 designation for all of these article numbers. A valid EAN-13 is therefore at the same time a GTIN – the term has merely evolved from a regional to a global, format-independent standard.
At a glance
- Globally unique GS1 identification key for trade items
- Umbrella term covering EAN (Europe) and UPC (North America) – official since 2009
- Four formats: GTIN-8, GTIN-12, GTIN-13 and GTIN-14
- GTIN-14 identifies outer packaging and cases via an indicator digit
- Kept in the ERP on the item master; mandatory field for many marketplace listings
How is the GTIN (Global Trade Item Number) structured?
A GTIN consists exclusively of digits and carries no descriptive meaning – it is a pure key that points to a data record. In all formats it is made up of the GS1 prefix, the company prefix, an item reference number freely assigned by the manufacturer and a concluding check digit. The GS1 prefix does not indicate the country of origin of the goods, but the GS1 member organization with which the company licensed its numbers.
The boundary between the company prefix and the item number is variable: companies labelling many products receive a shorter prefix with more free item positions; small ranges receive a longer prefix. What remains decisive is that the complete number exists only once worldwide and is permanently tied to the same trade item.
The four GTIN formats
GTIN comes in four lengths, all of which lie in the same number space. GTIN-13 is the classic EAN-13 and the standard for consumer goods. GTIN-12 corresponds to the North American UPC. GTIN-8 is the shortened variant for very small packaging. GTIN-14, finally, identifies outer packaging and cases – for example a carton of twelve individual items. In databases, shorter GTINs are often padded with leading zeros to 14 digits so that all formats can be processed uniformly.
Check digit and indicator digit
The last position of every GTIN is a check digit calculated using the modulo-10 method. It allows the system to detect scanning and typing errors immediately and to reject an erroneous posting. The GTIN-14 additionally carries an indicator digit (1 to 8) at the front, which specifies the packaging level – this is how a six-pack can be distinguished from the single bottle, even though both are based on the same base product.
The GTIN in the ERP system
In the ERP system the GTIN is kept as its own field on the item master, usually right next to the internal item number or SKU. From there it drives numerous processes: at goods receipt a scan reconciles the delivered goods against the order, in picking it ensures that the correct item was grabbed, and at goods issue a second scan confirms the shipment. The barcode translates the sequence of digits into a machine-readable signal that handheld scanners resolve in fractions of a second.
Because the GTIN is assigned per variant, every product variant needs its own number – every colour, every size, every fill quantity. The ERP must map this assignment cleanly on the variant model so that stock, shipping label and marketplace listing are correct per variant. Often the GTIN does not come directly from the ERP, but from an upstream PIM that maintains the product-related attributes and distributes them to the shop and marketplaces via interfaces.
For private labels and self-calculated merchandise without a manufacturer GTIN, retailers assign their own numbers from their licensed prefix. The ERP or the PIM manages the allocated pool of numbers so that no GTIN is used twice – a number assigned twice otherwise leads to misallocations across the entire supply chain.
Why the GTIN matters in retail
The benefit of the GTIN lies in uniqueness and automation. Because one number belongs to only one item worldwide, manufacturers, wholesalers and retailers as well as marketplaces understand each other about the goods without any prior arrangement – the GTIN is the common language of the supply chain. At the point of sale the scan speeds up checkout and prevents capture errors; in the warehouse it makes stock-in and stock-out fast and reliable.
In online retail the GTIN is moreover a prerequisite for visibility and catalogue maintenance. Large marketplaces such as Amazon require a valid GTIN for many categories in order to assign offers to the same product and to avoid duplicates in the catalogue. Price comparison portals and the shopping services of search engines also merge identical products from different providers via the GTIN. If it is missing or incorrect, an item remains undiscoverable or is kept as a separate product – consistent maintenance in the item master therefore pays off directly in sales and data quality.
Distinction: GTIN vs. EAN, UPC, SKU and ASIN
Several similar terms circulate around the GTIN. EAN and UPC are not competitors of the GTIN, but concrete formats under its umbrella: the EAN-13 is the GTIN-13, the twelve-digit UPC is the GTIN-12. Whoever owns a valid EAN thereby automatically owns a GTIN – a separate application is not necessary.
The SKU (Stock Keeping Unit) is fundamentally different. It is an internal item number that each company assigns freely according to its own system and that has no meaning outside its own house. The GTIN, by contrast, is globally standardized and the same for all market participants. In the ERP both stand side by side on the item master.
GTIN vs. ASIN and other marketplace IDs
Marketplaces maintain their own product IDs – at Amazon, for example, the ASIN. These IDs are platform-specific and are assigned by the marketplace, often based on a submitted GTIN. The GTIN remains the cross-manufacturer, platform-independent reference; the ASIN is merely the internal catalogue key of a single marketplace. In the product feed the retailer supplies the GTIN so that the platform assigns it correctly to its catalogue entry.
DACH specifics and assignment via GS1
GTINs are not invented freely, but licensed through the national GS1 organizations – in the German-speaking region GS1 Germany, GS1 Austria and GS1 Switzerland. A company acquires a company prefix there and forms its own item numbers from it. The typical DACH prefixes – for instance the range 400–440 for numbers assigned via GS1 Germany, 900–919 for Austria and 760–769 for Switzerland – only indicate which organization the licence came from, not where the product is manufactured or sold.
A widespread misconception is therefore trying to read the country of origin from the prefix: a GTIN with a German prefix can hang on an item made in the Far East. It should also be noted that GS1 is increasingly replacing the previously common free or unlimited single numbers with licence-based models. Marketplaces sometimes check submitted GTINs against the GS1 database – only properly licensed numbers are accepted permanently, which is why retailers should refrain from resold third-party GTINs.
Example
Example: beverage retailer labels the single bottle and the case
A mid-sized beverage retailer runs a private label and licenses a company prefix from GS1 Germany. For the individual 0.5-litre bottle it assigns a GTIN-13, which appears as an EAN barcode on the label and is scanned at the checkout. For the six-pack and the pallet it additionally forms GTIN-14 with different indicator digits, so that every packaging level remains clearly distinguishable.
All numbers are maintained centrally in the PIM and distributed to the shop and marketplaces via the ERP interface. When a marketplace demands the GTIN for a new flavour, it is already stored in the item master and is assigned to the correct catalogue entry without a query. At goods receipt the warehouse books the delivered pallets via the GTIN-14, while the picking of individual bottles runs via the GTIN-13 – stock and listings remain consistent across all levels.
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