The existing GS1 Global Trade Item Number (GTIN) Allocation Rules have been replaced by a new, simplified GTIN Management Standard.
The change will make it easier companies in the retail industry to make decisions, manage GTINS, save time and money and set the foundation for omni-channel commerce.
For years, businesses across industry and around the world have applied standardised rules to make well-informed decisions about product identification, using GTINs. Over time, however, the GTIN Allocation Rules became difficult to work with, frustrating to use and full of ambiguity.
This resulted in a growing lack of industry compliance and
unnecessary added costs.
The new GS1 GTIN Management Standard helps address these issues. Organised around a set of clear business principles and presented in an easy-to-understand format, the standard is simpler for businesses to comply with, and easier to share and explain.
At the heart of the new standard are 10 GTIN rules, simplified from 46 former rules.
The J.M. Smucker Company, a leading global food manufacturer, recently applied the
new GTIN management rules when evaluating the identification changes needed for 125
of its products.
“It made it easier to make clear decisions and communicate these decisions across the
organisation—saving the company time and money,” says Lori Bigler, Director, Industry
Standards at The J.M. Smucker Company. “Using the new rules, we completed the
evaluation of all 125 products in minutes instead of days.”
The clarity and consistency of the new standard is particularly critical to companies
supporting omni-channel commerce.
Maria Palazzolo, GS1 Australia’s Chief Executive Officer said, “The GTIN rules have a new look and feel, but the direction that they give to trading partners on when a GTIN must change remain basically unchanged. The business-centric language, “guiding principles” and brand-compliant images resonate across retail sub-sectors and enable industry to make decisions on GTIN changes confidently, consistently and more quickly.”