GTIN Requirement

Owned by Darren Stretch
Last updated: Oct 06, 2020
4 min read

From April 29th 2016 Fruugo will require ALL retailers to provide Global Trade Item Numbers (GTINs are product identifiers, such as EANs and UPCs) for all products unless a product is classified as an ‘exception’ (see below for more info on exceptions).

Why GTINs are now mandatory

We have made several changes to Fruugo in recent months to improve the shopping experience for customers including;

  •     Expanding our category tree (taxonomy) from 2,000 to 6,000
  •     Adding attributes to search filters
  •     Redesigning the main menu

GTINs are the next major step for Fruugo in helping shoppers find exactly what they are looking for. By providing this information we anticipate you will experience an increase in order volumes.

Furthermore, although the number of returning customers is steadily increasing we work in partnership with several advertising platforms in order to bring your products to the global market. These channels are an important way of bringing traffic to Fruugo and GTINs are soon to be mandatory on many of these platforms across several of our operating countries.

GTINs are now mandatory on Amazon and eBay therefore if you also sell on these platforms then you simply need to change your Fruugo feed to supply us with the same information, however if this is not the case then there are a number of ways you can obtain GTINs:

  •     Manufacturers and distributors will already have this information stored and will be able to provide you with it upon request
  •     EAN-Search website http://www.ean-search.org/
  •     Obtain the GTINs from the barcode on the packaging or on the casing.  It will be a number between 8-14 digits, for example 12 digits for UPCs which is for American products or 13 digits for EAN (Europe), JAN (Japan) or ISBN (Books)
  •     Purchase GTINs from GS1: GS1 Website

Adding GTINs to your product feed

To provide Fruugo with your product GTINs they must be added to your product data feed. The field in our feed specification to accommodate GTINs is called EAN (CSV) and <EAN> (XML). Although it is called EAN it is a universal field for all Product Identifiers and is not limited to only including EANs.

Integration Partners

If you supply your product data feed via one of our integration partners, such as Plentymarkets; Linnworks; VisualSoft; Vilkas; ChannelPilot; Channable; or Feed Manager, we would recommend contacting their Support Team directly to discuss adding the GTIN information to your product feed.

It may be that you already store your product GTINs within their system and the feed export needs updating to include these within your feed. Alternatively you may need to add the GTIN information to their system in order for it to be included in the feed export.

A common problem experienced by retailers who already provide this information is the incorrect formatting of the column when submitting the feed. You MUST ensure that you format the column to being a number (with 0 decimal places) so that it displays in full rather than for example 1.05+12, which is what often happens and causes whole feeds to be disapproved.

Fruugo CSV Feed

If you provide us with a CSV feed, the EAN field header can be added as a new field anywhere within the CSV structure. We would recommend adding it after the SkuId field to ensure all product identifiers are together. Please note: The field headers are case sensitive so it must be provided as EAN (rather than ean or Ean).

Once the GTINs have been added to the EAN field you should make the updated file available on your feed URL or upload the file if you are updating via our FTP server. Our system will automatically process the new file on the next scheduled update.

Fruugo XML Feed

If you provide us with a XML feed, the <EAN> tag is a singular element can be added anywhere within the <Product> outside of the <Description> or <Price> elements. We would recommend adding it after the <SkuId> field to ensure all product identifiers are together. Please note: The field headers are case sensitive so it must be provided as <EAN> (rather than <ean> or <Ean>).

Once the GTINs have been added to the <EAN> tag you should make the updated file available on your feed URL. Our system will automatically process the new file on the next scheduled update.

Exceptions

Fruugo does not require a GTIN for:

  •     Personalised products for example, a football shirt with a custom printed name
  •     Custom made goods
  •     Unbranded or generic goods
  •     ‘Own brand’ or house brand goods that can only be bought new from that brand’s stores
  •     Multipacks
  •     Bundles - for example, a charger that is compatible with a phone and is sold as part of pack together.

In order for these types of products, which don’t require a GTIN, to be live on Fruugo (an exception, as detailed above) simply set the value of the EAN field to EXCEP.