GS1 is a not-for-profit organisation that develops and maintains global standards for business communication. The best known of these standards is the barcode, a symbol printed on products that can be scanned electronically. GS1 barcodes are scanned more than six billion times every day.

GS1 has 112 local Member Organisations and 1.5 million user companies.

GS1 standards are designed to improve the efficiency, safety and visibility of supply chains across physical and digital channels in 25 sectors. They form a business language that identifies, captures and shares key information about products, locations, assets and more.

Background History
In 1969, the retail industry in the US was searching for a way to speed up the check-out process in shops. The Ad Hoc Committee for a Uniform Grocery Product Identification Code was established to find a solution.

In 1973, the Universal Product Code (U.P.C.) was selected by this group as the first single standard for unique product identification, and in 1974, the Uniform Code Council (UCC) was founded to administer the standard.On 26 June 1974, a pack of Wrigley’s chewing gum became the first ever product with a barcode to be scanned in a shop.

In 1976, the original 12-digit code was expanded to 13 digits, which opened the doors for the identification system to be used outside the U.S. In 1977, the European Article Numbering Association (EAN) was established in Brussels and with founding members from 12 countries.

In 1990, EAN and UCC signed a global cooperation agreement and expanded overall presence to 45 countries. In 1999, EAN and UCC launched the Auto-ID Centre to develop Electronic Product Code (EPC) enabling GS1 standards to be used for RFID.

In 2004, EAN and UCC launched the Global Data Synchronisation Network (GDSN), a global, internet-based initiative that enables trading partners to efficiently exchange product master data.

By 2005, the organisation was present in over 90 countries started to use the name GS1 on a worldwide basis.

Barcodes defined by GS1 standards are very common. They encode a product identification number that can be scanned electronically, making it easier for products to be tracked, processed, and stored.

Barcodes allow for greater safety, reliability, speed and efficiency of supply chains. They have a crucial role in the retail industry, moving beyond just faster checkout to improved inventory and delivery management and the opportunity to sell online on a global scale. In the UK alone, the introduction of the barcode in the retail industry has resulted in savings of 10.5 billion pounds per year.

Some of the barcodes that GS1 manages are: EAN/UPC (used mainly on consumer goods), GS1 Data Matrix (used mainly on healthcare products), GS1-128, GS1 DataBar, and GS1 QR Code.

GS1 Application Industries are:

Retail
Retail was the first industry that GS1 began working with and has remained their primary focus. Today, GS1 operates in four retail sub-sectors on a global level: Apparel, Fresh Foods, CPG/Grocery and General Merchandise.

Key focus areas in retail include sustainability, data quality, compliance with regulatory requirements, traceability of products from their origin through delivery, and upstream integration between manufacturers and suppliers.

As consumers continue to switch between in-store and e-commerce shopping channels, a consistent shopping experience, efficiency, safety and speed are expected. GS1 has developed standards that uniquely identify products for the benefit of consumers and for search engines, providing accurate and complete product information digitally.

Major e-commerce companies such as eBay, Amazon and Google Shopping require companies to use a GS1 number to sell on their websites.

Healthcare
GS1 operates also since many years in Healthcare with the primary objective to increase patient safety and drive supply chain efficiency.

Usage of GS1 standards in Healthcare support traceability of products from the manufacturer to the patient, contribute to detect counterfeit products, help to prevent medication errors, enable effective recalls and supports clinical processes.

Regulatory bodies across the world are mandating the implementation of GS1 standards for the above reasons as well for medicines as medical devices.

Other industries
GS1 operates in four other key industries globally: Transport & Logistics, Foodservice, Technical Industries and Humanitarian Logistics. GS1’s Member Organisations in over 100 countries around the world collectively focus on over 25 industry sectors.