GTIN, batch, serial, SSCC, GLN: GS1 terms often arrive as a pile of acronyms in a retailer's onboarding pack or a traceability project brief. Each one names a different thing, and once you see which thing, the jargon becomes manageable. This guide climbs the ladder from product type to individual unit, then out to shipments and places.
The identifier ladder
- GTIN“What product?”The product type — every bottle of the same 100 ml fragrance shares it.
- Batch / lot“Which production run?”Units made together, usually sharing a production date and expiry.
- Serial“Which exact unit?”Combined with the GTIN, one individual bottle.
- SSCC“Which logistic unit?”A specific carton or pallet as it moves through the supply chain.
- GLN“Which party or place?”A company, factory, warehouse, store or dock door.
Start with the question: what are you naming?
The identifier ladder above shows the idea. Each rung answers a narrower question about a product, and two more identifiers sit beside the ladder for things that move it or hold it.
| Identifier | Names | Example question it answers |
|---|---|---|
| GTIN | A product type | "Is this Ambre Nuit 100 ml?" |
| Batch / lot | A production run of that product | "Was it made in run L2609?" |
| Serial number (with GTIN) | One individual unit | "Is it bottle A7K29Q?" |
| SSCC | A logistic unit: a case, pallet or parcel | "Which pallet is this?" |
| GLN | A party or location | "Which warehouse received it?" |
The product ladder: GTIN, batch, serial
GTIN: the product type
The Global Trade Item Number identifies a product that is priced, ordered or invoiced. All identical units share one GTIN. It comes in 8, 12, 13 or 14 digits, and the brand owner assigns it from its licensed GS1 Company Prefix. See what is a GTIN? for the detail.
Batch or lot: the production run
A batch (or lot) number groups units made under the same conditions, typically one production run. It is set by the manufacturer, can contain letters as well as digits (up to 20 characters), and is printed on the line rather than in the fixed artwork. Batch is what you need for most recalls and for managing expiry dates.
Serial number: the individual unit
A serial number makes one unit distinguishable from every other unit of the same GTIN. It can also contain letters and digits, up to 20 characters. On its own a serial means little; GTIN plus serial is the unit's identity. Whether you need this rung is a business decision, discussed in batch-level vs unit-level identification.
Expiry date is not an identifier, but it often travels with batch and serial. It is a dated attribute of the batch, written as six digits, YYMMDD.
Beside the ladder: SSCC and GLN
SSCC: the thing being shipped
The Serial Shipping Container Code identifies a logistic unit, any combination of items packed together for transport or storage, such as a shipper case, a pallet or a parcel. It is always 18 digits: an extension digit (0–9, chosen by the company that builds the unit), the GS1 Company Prefix, a serial reference, and a check digit.
Each physical pallet gets its own SSCC, even if two pallets contain identical goods. The products inside keep their own GTINs. The record of which units sit inside which carton or pallet is called aggregation. The SSCC is covered fully in what is an SSCC?
GLN: the party or the place
The Global Location Number is a fixed 13-digit number. It can identify a legal entity (a company), a function (such as an accounts department), a physical location (a factory, warehouse or store), or a digital location. GLNs answer "who?" and "where?" in trading and traceability records. The details are in what is a GLN and where is it used?
Application Identifiers: labels inside the barcode
A single barcode often needs to carry several of these values. A GS1 DataMatrix on a perfume carton might hold the GTIN, batch, expiry and serial all at once. A scanner needs to know which digits are which.
That is the job of Application Identifiers (AIs). An AI is a short numeric prefix that says "the data after me is a GTIN" or "the data after me is a batch number". Think of them as column headings for data that is packed into a single line.
| AI | Means | Format |
|---|---|---|
| (01) | GTIN | 14 digits |
| (10) | Batch or lot | Up to 20 characters |
| (17) | Expiration date | 6 digits, YYMMDD |
| (21) | Serial number | Up to 20 characters |
| (00) | SSCC | 18 digits |
| (414) | GLN of a physical location | 13 digits |
You will meet other AIs too, but these six cover most packaging and logistics conversations.
A worked example
Maison Ardent prints this human-readable line under the GS1 DataMatrix on a carton of Ambre Nuit 100 ml:
(01)09501101530003(17)271231(10)L2609(21)A7K29Q
Read it AI by AI:
- (01) 09501101530003 is the GTIN, written as 14 digits with a leading zero;
- (17) 271231 means the product expires on 31 December 2027;
- (10) L2609 is batch L2609;
- (21) A7K29Q is serial A7K29Q.
The same four values can be written as a GS1 Digital Link, which uses the same AIs as path segments:
https://example.com/01/09501101530003/10/L2609/21/A7K29Q?17=271231
Two rules are worth knowing. In a Digital Link, batch must come before serial in the path; the order is fixed by the standard. Expiry goes in the query string after the ? because it describes the item rather than identifying it.
When the cartons are packed onto a pallet, the warehouse label carries (00) with that pallet's 18-digit SSCC. When the pallet arrives, the receiving warehouse can be identified in its records by a GLN, which appears as (414) when a location is encoded in a barcode.
Which identifiers does your business need?
Not every product needs every rung:
- Everyday retail goods usually need a GTIN only, carried in the familiar linear barcode.
- Products with expiry or recall exposure, such as food, cosmetics and many chemicals, benefit from batch and expiry in a 2D code.
- Products with counterfeit, warranty or loyalty programmes often add serial numbers so each unit can be recognised.
- Anyone shipping to distributors or retailers at scale will meet SSCCs on pallet labels and GLNs in trading documents.
The decision starts from what your trading partners, any applicable regulation and your own goals require, not from what a barcode can hold. For the bigger picture of how these identities fit into the GS1 system, start with What is GS1?