GTIN
GS1 is the global not-for-profit body that maintains standards for product, location, and shipment identification. GTIN (Global Trade Item Number) is the GS1-issued unique identifier embedded in barcodes such as UPC, EAN, and ITF-14, and it is the universal product ID used across purchase orders, ASNs, invoices, and EDI transmissions in O2C.
GS1 is an international not-for-profit organisation that develops and maintains the global standards used to identify products, locations, and shipments in commerce. Founded in 1973 to unify retail barcode systems, GS1 now operates through 116 member organisations covering more than 150 countries, including GS1 Germany, GS1 UK, GS1 US, GS1 France, and GS1 Australia. Each national member organisation licenses GS1 Company Prefixes to local businesses, which is the foundational block that allows a supplier to create unique product identifiers.
Beyond product identification, GS1 governs standards for location identification, logistics unit tracking, returnable assets, healthcare traceability, and electronic data exchange formats. Membership is paid annually based on company turnover, and the prefix issued to a company is the basis for every Global Trade Item Number, Global Location Number, and Serial Shipping Container Code that business will ever produce.
The Global Trade Item Number is the GS1-defined unique identifier for a trade item, meaning any product or service that can be priced, ordered, or invoiced. GTIN is a numbering scheme, not a barcode. The same GTIN can be encoded into several barcode symbologies depending on where and how it is scanned.
Barcode symbologies that encode these GTINs include UPC, EAN, ITF-14, GS1 DataBar for small items and healthcare products, and GS1-128 for logistics labels that need to carry multiple data elements alongside the GTIN.
GTIN is the most visible GS1 identifier, but it is one of several that O2C teams encounter daily. The Global Location Number (GLN) is a 13-digit identifier for a physical or legal location, used to identify ship-to addresses, bill-to entities, distribution centres, and trading partners on purchase orders and EDI documents. Most large retailers require suppliers to map every store and DC to a GLN before EDI onboarding can complete.
The Serial Shipping Container Code (SSCC) is an 18-digit identifier for a logistics unit such as a pallet or case, used on the SSCC-18 label that accompanies an Advanced Shipping Notice. The Global Returnable Asset Identifier (GRAI) is used for reusable containers like crates, kegs, and roll cages. GS1-128 barcodes can encode any combination of these identifiers with Application Identifiers that tell the scanner what each segment means, including batch number, expiry date, and serial number.
GTIN is the spine of order-to-cash for CPG suppliers. It appears on the purchase order from the retailer, the order acknowledgement from the supplier, the ASN at shipment, the invoice at billing, and every EDI message in between. When the GTIN on the supplier's invoice matches the GTIN in the retailer's catalog, automated three-way matching proceeds without intervention. When it does not, the invoice falls into exception, payment is delayed, and the retailer typically raises a compliance chargeback.
Common GTIN-driven issues include sending a multi-pack GTIN where the retailer expects the unit GTIN, reusing a discontinued GTIN before the GS1-mandated 48-month rest period has elapsed, launching a new SKU without registering the GTIN in the retailer's catalog, and failing to update the GTIN-to-product-master mapping when packaging configurations change. Each of these surfaces in AR as a deduction, a short payment, or a held invoice, and resolving them manually consumes analyst hours that could be spent on collections.
The most significant change facing GS1 users is Sunrise 2027, the industry initiative under which most major retailers will accept and increasingly require 2D barcodes on consumer products at point of sale. DataMatrix and QR codes can encode the GTIN plus batch number, expiry date, serial number, and weblink in a single symbol, supporting use cases that the traditional 1D barcode cannot, including expiry-based markdowns, recall management, anti-counterfeiting, and consumer engagement.
For CPG suppliers this is a packaging, master-data, and EDI project rolled into one. Production lines need print and inspection upgrades, product-master records need to carry the additional data elements, and EDI partners need to exchange and reconcile the richer information across the order, ship, and invoice cycle. AR teams will feel the impact when retailer chargebacks start citing 2D readability and batch-data accuracy alongside the existing GTIN-mismatch reasons.
An AI-native O2C platform treats GTIN, GLN, and SSCC as first-class data elements rather than free-text fields. At order entry, every GTIN on an inbound purchase order is validated against the customer's catalog and the supplier's product master, with flags raised for discontinued codes, multi-pack versus unit confusion, and unknown identifiers before the order is confirmed.
Agentic workflows then carry that validated data through to ASN generation, invoice creation, and EDI transmission, so the GTIN on the 810 invoice matches the GTIN on the 856 ASN matches the GTIN on the 850 purchase order. When a chargeback does arrive citing a GTIN or GLN issue, the platform retrieves the original documents, reconstructs the data trail, and either auto-disputes with evidence or routes a clean exception to the analyst. The result is fewer deductions, faster cash, and a master-data layer ready for the 2D barcode transition.
No. GTIN is the numbering scheme, while the barcode is the visual symbology that encodes it. The same GTIN-13 number can be printed as an EAN-13 barcode on a consumer unit and embedded inside an ITF-14 or GS1-128 barcode on the case, depending on where in the supply chain it will be scanned.
You join your national GS1 member organisation, pay the annual fee based on your company size, and receive a GS1 Company Prefix. You then construct GTINs by combining that prefix with an item reference number you allocate internally and a check digit calculated using the GS1 algorithm. Each unique consumer unit, multi-pack, and case configuration needs its own GTIN.
GS1 requires a 48-month rest period after the last sale of a product before its GTIN can be reassigned to a different item. Reusing a GTIN sooner than that creates data integrity problems across retailer catalogs, historical sales reports, and AR reconciliation, and it is a common root cause of invoice mismatches and compliance chargebacks.
GTIN identifies a trade item, meaning a product or service that can be priced, ordered, or invoiced. GLN identifies a location or a legal entity, such as a distribution centre, a retail store, a bill-to address, or a trading partner. Both appear on purchase orders and EDI transactions, but they answer different questions: GTIN says what, GLN says where or who.
Sunrise 2027 is the industry initiative under which most major retailers will accept and increasingly require 2D barcodes such as DataMatrix or QR codes on consumer products by 2027. These codes encode the GTIN plus batch number, expiry date, and other data. AR is affected because new chargeback reason codes will emerge around 2D readability and batch-data accuracy, on top of existing GTIN-mismatch deductions.
Retailers match the GTINs on inbound shipments and invoices against their catalog and the originating purchase order. A GTIN mismatch can trigger a compliance chargeback, an unauthorised-substitution deduction, or an OTIF failure if the wrong item or pack configuration arrives. Accurate GTIN, GLN, and SSCC data on the ASN and invoice is one of the most effective levers for reducing avoidable AR deductions.
