Enriching Product Information with GS1 Synkka Service

Product and ingredient information – including names, descriptions and images – can be enriched automatically, in case the product supplier has provided these to GS1’s Synkka service. Just by offering an appropriate GTIN as the identifier of a new stock item, both the stock item’s and all its catalog items' data is automatically enriched with GS1 data, and also kept up-to-date afterwards, in case the supplier decides to update their data.

GS1 and Synkka

GS1 is a non-profit international organization developing and maintaining standards, including barcodes and product information standards. One of these product information standards is GDSN, which also includes a protocol for product information distribution from product information suppliers to product information consumers; for example, Hartwall Plc is one supplier, while Commerce Cloud is one consumer.

The GDSN standard has been implemented as services in several different countries. In Finland, the service offering is called Synkka; for example, whenever Hartwall Plc decides to offer an update for their supplied product 7UP Free soft drink 0,5 l (GTIN 06413600156840), they push this update to Synkka, and Commerce Cloud will receive it from Synkka.

Currently product information enriching is supported only for products within the Finnish target market, due to GS1 Synkka operating primarily in Finland. There are similar GDSN-based services for other target markets, such as GS1 Validoo in Sweden; you are interested in product information enriching supported beyond the Finnish target market, please contact Solteq Commerce Cloud support about your requirements.

Creating GS1-Based Products and Ingredients

First, you must add a stock item with a valid GTIN, either with the Add Stock Item or Excel import functionality.

Add a stock item in the Back Office:

1. Select Stock from the Back Office menu and click Stock items.

2. In the Stock Items view, click + Add

3. Scan or enter a valid GTIN code into the Barcode field and click Search. If the GTIN was valid, you are redirected to the stock item editor view, with properties such as item name automatically enriched.

4. Input any other necessary values for the new stock item and then click Save.

Stock items can be created only for the smallest units in the GS1 product hierarchy, meaning that they cannot be created for packages that have other GTINs inside them. In GS1, these smallest hierarchy units have unit descriptor value BASE_UNIT_OR_EACH.

After you have added the stock item, you can create catalog items (products and ingredients) for it with different methods:

• adding new products or ingredients,

• using the +Create Selling Item function in the Stock Item view, or

• using the Excel import functionality.

Example: Create a new product in the Back Office:

1. Click Products in the back office menu.

2. Click +Add new.

3. Click Basic product.

4. Scroll down and click +Add New Identifier for the new product. The Identifier Type should be SKU and Value the GTIN of the product.

5. Once you have input the GTIN, the system checks whether to use GS1 data for enriching the product. Click Yes. After this, the new catalog item will have several properties – including name, description, image, nutrients and allergens – automatically enriched.

6. Enter any other necessary values for the new product, and then click Submit.

Enriched Properties