Additional data beyond the GTIN can be provided by a retail trading partners when supplying stock, as well as by staff for goods processed, produced or compiled internally (e.g., in-store or stock room). This section outlines the most common use cases and benefits which can be achieved with different types of data, where that data may come from and how the data may be accessed or used.
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The examples focus on barcodes and labels generated by retail staff for goods produced, processed or compiled within their stores or stock facilities, and demonstrate a single 2D barcode label, as dual barcoding is not required for in-store produced barcodes when 2D capability is not yet enabled within the store ecosystem. For own brand/private label use cases and barcode label examples, please refer to Brands and Manufacturers' Sections 5.3 and 5.6 respectively.
The GS1 Application Identifiers (AIs) referenced in the use case Sections 6.6.1.1 to 6.6.1.4, are provided to illustrate how different use cases can be enabled or facilitated through the adoption of AIs. Table 6-3 in Section 6.6.1.5 provides an overview of the AIs shown in the examples and demonstrates how various AIs can be applied to more than one of the use cases described. Other AIs or combinations of AIs may also be used in the scenarios. More detailed guidance may be found in the relevant sector specific GS1 implementation guidance. In some use cases, regional regulatory or legal requirements will also need to be taken into consideration.
Opportunity overview: When stock has expired it cannot be sold and must be disposed of. At present, without additional barcode data to support GTIN, this is usually a visual check of the store's physical inventory, both in storage and on display - to locate and remove the expired stock from sale, or to move goods with a shorter lifespan for clearance. This can result in store inventory being depleted sooner than expected, as restocking is required to replace expired stock (which may also cause the loss of sales due to being out of stock). When re-stocking, goods also need to be rotated adequately, often through manual checks.
How GS1 standards can help: Additional barcode data such as expiry dates on perishable trade items, can be automatically captured by retailer inventory systems to enable visibility for the lifespan of all perishable trade items in shop floor and storage environments. This information can be used to facilitate food safety and inventory processes to remove expired stock or implement a hard stop at POS, to prevent the sale of expired goods, as well as generate automatic mark-downs at POS to promote clearance of goods close to expiring.
For stock processed, produced or compiled in-store, such as deli meats or baked goods, the legal sell-period and expiration date and time can be driven by the date and time of production, thawing or opening, rather than a supplier defined expiry date.
Barcode and syntax considerations: All Retail POS compliant 2D barcode options and syntaxes are applicable.
For retailer processes where barcodes and labels are generated by staff within the retailer's ecosystem, such as within the deli counter or store bakery, the GS1 element string encoded in a GS1 DataMatrix can be a good starting point for 2D barcode implementation, to easily test and trial new processes involving additional data provided in a 2D barcode. Retailers can focus on getting the data right and adapting in-store/business processes to use the new data, before defining the changes for other areas of the business to use 2D barcodes. Once the retailer is confident with the use of data provided by a GS1 element string within their environments, the transition to GS1 Digital Link URI may be simpler, as the data and labelling space for a 2D barcode is already well established. The only changes needed to switch to or enable capability for GS1 Digital Link URI syntax will be on the software used to encode and decode barcodes.
Please see Section 4.2.1 for 2D barcode considerations and Section 4.5 for GS1 barcode syntaxes used in retail POS.
GS1 Application Identifier (AI) options:
(11) Production date
(15) Best before date
(16) Sell by date
(17) Use by or expiry date
() Expiration date and time
() First freeze date
() Harvest date
() Production date and time
What to link or look up to: Pricing or additional associated data
Summary of key benefits unlocked by 2D:
GS1 element string encoded in GS1 DataMatrix, for label applied to consumer trade item packaging:
(01)(10)ABC123()
(01) Global Trade Item Number -
(10) Batch/lot - ABC123
() Date and time of production - 4 May 11:26
Opportunity overview: Consumer safety is paramount and can be compromised when retailer stock is impacted by contamination or sub-standard quality issues within a specific production facility or geographic location. In many cases, a stock recall will be initiated by a supplier to notify retail trading partners and prevent the sale and further movement of impacted trade items. This is of particular importance when related to food safety procedures, as retailers are responsible for preventing the sale of goods identified as being dangerous, to avoid any potential harm to consumers.
However, in some cases, this may not occur within an acceptable time frame for a retailer due to variations in business processes or regional regulatory requirements. In very rare cases, a recall notification may not be initiated by the supplier at all - meaning a retailer may be responsible for initiating investigations to identify impacted stock.
How GS1 standards can help: To facilitate efficient and effective recalls due to contamination in a geographical location, retailer needs to know country of origin (422) and/or country of initial processing (423) for a given batch/lot or instance of a trade item. This data can be provided by a supplier and looked up by a retailer.
For consumer safety issues due to substandard quality of stock from a specific production facility, a batch/lot number (10) is required to initiate a targeted recall; serial numbers (21) can enable targeted recalls for specific instances within a batch/lot, either held in stock, or sold to a customer; expiry date (17), best before date (15) or production date (11) can also enable the segregation of stock to prevent sale/movement of a partial recall. This data can be encoded in a 2D barcode, for data capture during inventory movements to facilitate stock removal or to prevent its sale directly at POS or captured with sales transactions with potential connections to retailer loyalty cards, to facilitate after-sales notifications for targeted recalls. When batch/lot or serial number is encoded in a 2D barcode it can provide additional data content related to the origin or provenance of the trade item.
Barcode and syntax considerations: All Retail POS compliant 2D barcode options and syntaxes are applicable.
Please see Section 4.2 for 2D barcode considerations and Section 4.5 for GS1 barcode syntaxes used in retail POS.
GS1 Application Identifier (AI) options:
(10) Batch/lot number
(21) Serial number
What to link or look up to: Additional associated data
(422) Country of origin
(423) Country of initial processing
(424) Country of processing
Summary of key benefits unlocked by 2D:
GS1 Digital Link URI encoded in QR Code for label applied to the consumer trade item processed in store:
HTTPS://EXAMPLE.COM/01//10/ABC123?17=&=
(01) Global Trade Item Number -
(10) Batch/lot - ABC123
() Net weight, kg - 0.900kg
(17) Expiry date - 04 May
Opportunity overview: Variable measure trade items identified with an RCN are prohibited from migrating to 2D barcodes and can impede the implementation of new business processes which rely on encoded data to support GTIN.
How GS1 standards can help: The GTIN is a fundamental GS1 identification key used globally for the unique identification of trade items and can be supported by many different pieces of additional data to improve business efficiencies within a retailer's environment as well as the broader supply chain. Adoption of GTIN also fulfils existing requirements for price look-up of variable measure trade items that were previously identified with RCN embedded with variable measure data. In cases where RCN was embedded with a sell price, retail systems will need to be reconfigured to look-up the price instead.
Barcode and syntax considerations: All Retail POS compliant 2D barcode options and syntaxes are applicable.
The GS1 element string encoded in a GS1 DataMatrix can be a good starting point for 2D barcode implementation, to easily test and trial new processes involving additional data provided in a 2D barcode. Retailers can focus on getting the data right and adapting in-store/business processes to use the new data, before defining the changes for other areas of the business to use 2D barcodes. Once the retailer is confident with the use of data provided by a GS1 element string within their environments, the transition to GS1 Digital Link URI may be simpler, as the data and labelling space for a 2D barcode is already well established. The only changes needed to switch to or enable capability for GS1 Digital Link URI syntax will be on the software used to encode and decode barcodes.
Please see Section 4.2.1 for 2D barcode considerations and Section 4.5 for GS1 barcode syntaxes used in retail POS.
GS1 Application Identifier (AI) options:
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As well as GTIN (01), AIs for price and count or measure (as listed below), to match what is currently provided within the data structure of an RCN:
What to link or look up to: Pricing and additional associated data
Summary of key benefits unlocked by 2D:
GS1 element string encoded in GS1 DataMatrix for variable measure consumer trade item:
(01)(10)ABC123(15)()()236
(01) Global Trade Item Number -
(10) Batch/lot - ABC123
(15) Best before date - 4 May
() Net weight, kg - 0.800kg
() Amount payable - $2.36
Opportunity overview: Inability to apply automatic price reductions or different price points to a single trade item, to improve stock flow, initiate clearance for overstocks, planned promotions or reduced shelf-life.
How GS1 standards can help: Additional data supporting GTIN such as, but not limited to, Consumer Product Variant (CPV) or expiry date, can provide distinction between various iterations of a single trade item, to enable different pricing for the same trade item instore and for online operations. When encoded in a barcode, the GTIN and additional data can be automatically captured in the retailer's systems, to trigger automatic price mark-downs at POS, without the need to manually apply clearance labels for stock (although, staff may still be required to apply updated shelf label or promotional signs). The additional data may also help retailers to guarantee their pricing policy by ensuring pricing is correct in system and at POS, even if physical stock and display labels are incorrect.
Barcode and syntax considerations: All Retail POS compliant 2D barcode options and syntaxes are applicable.
Please see Section 4.2.1 for 2D barcode considerations and Section 4.5 for GS1 barcode syntaxes used in retail POS
GS1 Application Identifier (AI) options:
(10) Batch/lot number
(21) Serial number
(22) Consumer Product Variant (CPV)
(15) Best before date
(16) Sell by date
(17) Use by or expiry date
What to link or look up to: Pricing and additional associated data
Summary of key benefits unlocked by 2D:
GS1 Digital Link URI syntax encoded in QR Code for label applied to consumer trade item (original) produced in store:
HTTPS://EXAMPLE.COM/01//10/ABC123?17=
(01) Global Trade Item Number -
(10) Batch/lot - ABC123
(17) Expiry date - 4 May
GS1 Digital Link URI syntax encoded in QR Code for label applied to consumer trade item (variant) produced in store:
HTTPS://EXAMPLE.COM/01//22/321/10/ABC123?17=
(01) Global Trade Item Number -
(22) Consumer product variant (CPV) - 321
(10) Batch/lot - ABC123
(17) Expiry date - 4 May
Multiple use cases can be unlocked by the same pieces of additional data encoded with the GTIN. Table 6-3 provides a summary of the AIs shown in Section 6.6.1.1 to 6.6.1.4 and demonstrates how various AIs can be applied to more than one of the use cases described. This summary is not intended to be normative and is not an exhaustive list of all available AIs for the use case.
Table 6-3 Summary of AIs shown in examples and the use cases that can be unlocked GS1 Application Identifiers (AI) (10) Batch/lot number (21) Serial number (22) Consumer product variant (15) Best before date (17) Expiry date () Date and time of production () Net weight (kg) () Amount payable Use Cases Waste reduction and improved inventory management (perishable trade items and food safety) ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ Product traceability for consumer safety✓✓✓✓✓Transition from RCN to GTIN for migration to open supply chain (variable measure)✓✓Dynamic pricing and automatic mark-downs✓✓✓✓✓✓GS1 barcodes use one of three syntaxes: plain, GS1 element string and GS1 Digital Link URI. See Section 4.5 for a detailed description of each syntax.
The syntaxes and the data structures that are encoded into barcodes have rules to ensure they can be properly decoded by scanners. The GS1 General Specifications define the rules for plain and GS1 element string syntaxes, GS1 Application Identifiers (AIs) and the AI associations rules and structures. The GS1 Digital Link URI Syntax standard defines the rules for the web URI syntax.
Plain syntax is a GS1 data structure containing GS1 identification key with no additional characters or syntactic features. Plain syntax encoded barcodes used in the context of EAN, UPC, and ITF-14 barcodes, refers to the way numeric data is encoded without special characters like FNC1 or additional application identifiers (AI). In plain syntax, the GS1 identification key’s numeric data itself represents the information without specific markers for different data elements.
For example, each digit sequence in the plain syntax corresponds directly to the Global Trade Item Number (GTIN) in the EAN-13 barcode, the plain syntax for GTIN-13 () would be encoded as follows:
GS1 element string syntax encoded barcode used in the context of GS1 DataBar family and GS1 DataMatrix barcodes, refers to the way data is encoded with special characters like FNC1, group separators or additional GS1 Application Identifiers (AIs). GS1 element string syntax is used for representing one or more data elements, including GS1 identification keys and additional data, used in barcodes. AIs can be encoded in any order and the data structures may have a fixed or a variable length. GTIN-8, GTIN-12 and GTIN-13 are all encoded in a 14-digit format. This 14-digit format is not the same as a GTIN-14. For efficient encoding, it is recommended that variable data be encoded at the end of the element string to avoid the additional special characters which identify the end of the variable data field, though this is not a requirement for the barcode to read correctly.
For example, a GS1 DataMatrix encoded with (01) GTIN-13 (), (10) batch/lot number (D), (17 )expiration date (December 31, ) and (21) serial number () and the Function Code 1 (FNC1) would be encoded with the following: FNC1DFNC1.
Note: FNC1 is an invisible character designed to identify and separate fields for variable-length application identifiers.
GS1 Digital Link URI syntax encoded barcode used in the context of Data Matrix and QR Codes, refers to the way data is encoded in a web URI structure. A GS1 Digital Link URI syntax is used for representing one or more data elements, including GS1 identification keys and additional data. GS1 Digital Link URI is not normally used as the address of a web page, rather, it should redirect to digital information about the identified product.
Important: GS1 Digital Link URI syntax order of elements follows a hierarchy, unlike GS1 element strings. For example, the primary key and key qualifier order for GTIN is GTIN > consumer product variant > batch/lot number > serial number.
As an example of using GS1 Digital Link URI syntax see Figure 7-12, which encodes:
https://example.com/01//10/ABC123/21/A?=&=&17=
https://example.com/01//10/ABC123/21/A?=&=&17=
Important: The key qualifiers follow the order of increasing granularity while the additional parameters in the query string can be in any order.
Some GS1 Application Identifiers allow special characters like "+", "/", "?" and "&", however these characters have special meanings within Web URIs and serve as structural delimiters e.g., "?" is a query string indicator, "#" is a fragment indicator etc. When these characters are used as literal characters with GS1 Application Identifiers in a GS1 Digital Link URI, they must be represented using percent encoding (see Section 2.1 of RFC [PercentEncoding]), as defined by the GS1 Digital Link URI standard and listed below:
For more information see the GS1 Digital Link URI Standard.
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