It often starts with one line in an email from a retail chain, a DIY chain or a hospital purchasing department: "From now on, please supply your product data via GDSN." What is GDSN exactly, what does your customer expect, and where do you begin when your product data is spread across your ERP, spreadsheets and supplier files? In short, you need five things: GTINs for every packaging level you trade, access to a certified data pool, the data model of your sector, a complete packaging hierarchy and a GPC brick per item.

What is GDSN and what is your customer asking for?

The GTIN (Global Trade Item Number) is the unique product number under the GS1 standards, which we covered in the growing pressure on wholesalers to organise their GS1 data. Here we focus on the practical side: what a GDSN request asks of you.

GDSN, the Global Data Synchronisation Network, is the GS1 network through which trading partners exchange product data. It consists of certified data pools, linked through the GS1 Global Registry. As a supplier, you load your data into one data pool, such as GS1 Data Source in the Netherlands, and your customer receives it through the data pool they use. Your customer takes out a subscription to your data in their own data pool. Because each item is described according to an agreed data model, they can read the data in a structured way instead of retyping it.

GPC, the Global Product Classification, is the worldwide GS1 classification, made up of four levels: segment, family, class and brick. In GDSN a brick code, the most detailed level, is mandatory for every item. Technical wholesalers often also use ETIM, a classification for technical products, but GDSN asks for GPC.

What do you need to put in place for GDSN?

Supplying GDSN data comes down to five things. Most wholesalers already have some of them in place.

  • GTINs for every item and every packaging level you trade. For third-party brands, you collect the GTINs from the brand owner, because a wholesaler may not renumber an item that already has one. As a rule, you only take out a GS1 licence and assign GTINs yourself for your own brand, private label or items you change (for example by altering the packaging) in such a way that the GTIN Management Standard requires a new GTIN. The GS1 rules on who numbers trade items spell this out.
  • Access to a certified data pool, with your own GLN as sender. The GLN (Global Location Number) is the GS1 number that identifies your organisation. In the Netherlands the data pool can be GS1 Data Source, where as a wholesaler you need a supplier subscription to publish. Ask your customer which data model and target market (the country the data is meant for) they expect.
  • The data model of your sector. Each sector has agreed which attributes are mandatory, with validation rules on top. The model for DIY, garden and pet differs from the one for food or healthcare.
  • The packaging hierarchy. Every level you trade, such as the single item, the box and the pallet, is a trade item in its own right, with its own GTIN, dimensions and gross weight, and the number of units of the level below that it contains.
  • A GPC brick per item. In GS1 Data Source, the brick determines which attributes you need to fill in for an item.

An example: a technical wholesaler and a DIY chain

Take a technical wholesaler selling fixings and hand tools. The example is made up, but many wholesalers will recognise it. A DIY chain wants to list part of the range and asks for GDSN data per item: net content, dimensions and weight per packaging level, and a GPC brick.

The ERP holds item numbers, descriptions, prices and, for most third-party brands, the GTIN of the single item. The GTINs, dimensions and gross weights of the box of 12 and the pallet are missing. No item has a GPC brick. And the own-brand line of screws has no GTINs at all, because nobody ever asked for them.

So the work splits in two. For the third-party brands, the wholesaler first checks whether the brand owner already publishes its items in GDSN. If so, it can subscribe to that data through GS1 Data Source and republish it to the DIY chain under its own GLN with a supplier subscription. Otherwise, it requests the missing GTINs and packaging data from the brand owners. For its own brand, it takes out a GS1 licence, assigns a GTIN to every level and measures and weighs the packaging itself.

Five steps to your first submission

  • Audit what you have. Compare your current data with the mandatory attributes of the data model, item by item. That shows you where the gaps are.
  • Prioritise. Start with the items your customer wants to list first. Your whole range does not need to be complete straight away.
  • Get your GTINs in order. First ask whether your suppliers already publish their items in GDSN. If they do, you can subscribe to their data through GS1 Data Source and republish it to your customer under your own GLN with a supplier subscription. Otherwise, collect the GTINs from your suppliers, check them for every packaging level, and assign your own only where you are the brand owner.
  • Set up the data model. Decide which attributes you manage centrally and how they map to the data model of your sector, so you stop improvising for every request.
  • Make a first submission. Load a small batch of items into the data pool, work through the validation messages and only then scale up.

From step four onwards, a PIM (product information management system) pays off. In PLGGR |⁠ PIM you manage GTINs, attributes and media in one place, set up to match the agreements your buyers use. AI proposes a classification down to GS1 level, and you check it and decide. If your ERP remains the source for item numbers and prices, PLGGR |⁠ HUB connects your systems so the data moves between them. That gives you one source for your product data, from which you prepare the data for this customer and the next one. We are also a GS1 partner.

What you put in place now, you will use again

A GDSN request is rarely the only demand on your product data. The EU packaging regulation, the PPWR, has applied since 12 August 2026, and most of the follow-up requirements, such as those on empty space and reusable transport packaging, apply from 2030. The EU is also introducing the digital product passport (DPP) product group by product group under the ESPR, the EU ecodesign regulation. The packaging hierarchy with dimensions and weights that you record for GDSN is a good starting point for the packaging data the PPWR asks for, such as empty space in transport packaging. The DPP rests on the same foundation as GDSN: products you can identify unambiguously and product data you can rely on. What you put in order for one customer will serve you again there.

Has a customer asked you for GDSN data? Get in touch through our contact form and we can talk through how to manage your product data from one source.