GTIN
Global Trade Item Number
The number printed under the barcode on a product identifies that product anywhere in the world, to any shop, marketplace or warehouse that scans it. The same product in a different pack size has a different number, so a single tin, a gift set of three and a case of twelve each carry their own. That number is called a GTIN, short for global trade item number.
A SKU is your own code; a GTIN is the manufacturer's, shared by everyone who sells the product. You keep both: the SKU for running your business, the GTIN for talking to the outside world. EAN-13 and UPC are the usual barcodes that carry it, with 13 and 12 digits respectively.
Marketplaces and shopping feeds ask for a GTIN to match your listing to the right product, and some check that the number belongs to the brand. If you make your own products, get your numbers from GS1 in your country, and ask your marketplace what it accepts.
In practice
A tea brand sells a single tin, a gift set of three tins and a case of twelve gift sets. That is three trade items with three GTINs, even though the tea is the same. The tin's barcode finds the tin at the till; the case's barcode finds the case at the warehouse dock.
Ready to see BizBloqs on your own process?
Book a demo and we will walk your warehouse and order flow end to end — inbound, storage, picking, shipping, returns — and tell you honestly what BizBloqs would change.
Two questions about your own operation
How many of your articles sit in a pick location they empty less than once a month?
Part one: Laying out a warehouse does not start with the racking
After your last integration, how many systems hold a stock quantity for the same item? Name them.