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~ Lorna Leaver ~

COLUMN

THE NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS

No, not the Tim Burton movie – sharing product data. Anyone that works in e-commerce knows the
importance of product data and the challenge that comes with getting hold of it. Having a complete, accurate
record for your entire range on time is like a lottery win – possible but very unlikely. Add in the pressure of
getting it ready for the peak Christmas trading period, and well, frankly, you’ll need an early glass of eggnog!

t is time to standardise enrich the shopper experience. As of September 2020, all
Bringing in standards to help you identify, capture and Vendor Central sellers who do not provide these additional
Ishare product information has been the mission of GS1 attributes are liable to incur chargebacks.
for the last 40 years, and still is. The ideas are, if we all work
in the same way for non-value-added tasks, it makes life Vendor Central sellers are now able to sign up to a GDSN
easier for all involved. data pool, if you want to share the additional attributes via
this method. Most established brands will already have a
These standards can be applied to people, products, places and GDSN connection. You can check here if you have one:
parties (the business entity kind, not the disco kind). http://gdsnpartysearch.gs1.org/

If you do not already have an established GDSN connec-
tion and are looking for a solution that will also allow you to
share data with major UK retailers, such as Tesco, Sainsbury’s,
Waitrose & Partners and Ocado, as well as Amazon, GS1 UK
can help you get up and running quickly with our Amazon
extension for product DNA – the UK retail industry’s data-
sharing platform. ••

Sharing is always the tricky bit, and for anyone who has
shopped online and seen a missing image or a dimension that
looked suspiciously smaller will understand the implications
of that. The customer isn’t going to buy it without the relevant
information available.

Online marketplaces have product catalogues in the millions,
which equates to huge volumes of data. Managing and
maintaining all this data is a massive headache and can lead
to significant revenue losses if mistakes are made.

So, how is GS1 helping to make this process easier?
At GS1, we have something called the Global Data Syn-
chronisation Network or GDSN – more interesting than it
sounds, I promise. This is where any company, in any market,
can share high-quality product information seamlessly with
partners or customers.

Recently, Amazon signed up to the GDSN data pool with
the aim of capturing 60 additional product attributes to help
FOR MORE INFORMATION ON HOW STANDARDS CAN HELP YOUR BUSINESS IDENTIFY, CAPTURE AND SHARE ADDITIONAL PRODUCT ATTRIBUTES WITH AMAZON, PLEASE
GET IN TOUCH WITH THE GS1 UK BY EMAILING [email protected]

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