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Your First Product

This guide walks you through registering a brand, creating a trade item with a valid GTIN, and seeing your product resolve as a live GS1 Digital Link.

Step 1: Create a Brand

Every trade item in GTIN1 belongs to a brand. Brands represent the consumer-facing identity of your products and are scoped to a single organization.

  1. Go to your organization dashboard and click Brands in the sidebar.
  2. Click Create Brand.
  3. Fill in the brand details:
Field Required Description
Name Yes The brand name as it appears to consumers
Website No Your brand's website URL
Description No A brief description of the brand
  1. Click Create Brand.

After creation, you can edit the brand to add social media links (Instagram, Facebook, X/Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, TikTok, Pinterest, Threads) and upload a brand logo. These appear on public product pages associated with the brand.

Step 2: Create a Trade Item

A trade item is a product identified by a GTIN. Once registered, it becomes resolvable as a GS1 Digital Link.

  1. From your organization dashboard, click Trade Items in the sidebar.
  2. Click Create Trade Item.
  3. Fill in the form:
Field Required Description
Brand Yes Select the brand this product belongs to
GTIN Yes The product's Global Trade Item Number
Name No Consumer-facing product name
Description No Public product description (supports rich text)
Product No Optional product grouping
FTL Item No Designate as a Food Traceability List item (FSMA 204)
  1. Click Create Trade Item.

GTIN Validation

GTIN1 accepts GTINs in any standard length and normalizes them to 14-digit GTIN-14 format:

Input format Example Stored as (GTIN-14)
GTIN-8 12345670 00000012345670
GTIN-12 (UPC-A) 012345678905 00012345678905
GTIN-13 (EAN-13) 4006381333931 04006381333931
GTIN-14 00012345678905 00012345678905

The check digit (the last digit of every GTIN) is validated automatically using the standard GS1 algorithm. If the check digit is incorrect, the form will show an error with the expected value.

Check digit validation

GTIN1 rejects GTINs with invalid check digits. If you receive an error, verify your GTIN against the GS1 Check Digit Calculator.

Authoritative Ownership

The first organization to register a given GTIN in GTIN1 is marked as the authoritative owner. This means their product data takes priority in Digital Link resolution. If another organization registers the same GTIN, their record is created as non-authoritative.

Step 3: Upload Product Images

After creating a trade item, you can add images from the trade item detail page.

  1. Navigate to the trade item and click Features in the sidebar.
  2. Under Images, click Create.
  3. Upload an image file (JPEG, PNG, GIF, WebP, SVG, or BMP).
  4. Optionally set a title, description, and priority (lower numbers appear first).
  5. Mark one image as Primary - this becomes the main product image shown on the public page and in structured data.

GTIN1 automatically generates optimized thumbnails in AVIF and WebP formats at 300x300 (thumbnail) and 1200x1200 (display) sizes.

Step 4: Enrich Your Product

Beyond the basic name and description, you can add detailed product information from the Features section of each trade item. Available feature types include:

Feature Description
Ingredients List of ingredients with allergen flags, percentages, and country of origin
Nutrition Facts Nutrient name, value, and % Daily Value
Recipes Preparation instructions, cook times, and serving sizes
Certifications Third-party certifications with validity dates
Manuals Links to product documentation and user guides
Firmware Software/firmware versions with downloadable files
Merchant Links Where to buy the product (retailer names and URLs)
Safety Notices Warnings and safety information with severity levels
Recalls Recall status, summary, and public notice links
App Links Companion app store links (iOS, Android, web)
Accessories Related accessories and compatible products
Replacement Parts Available replacement parts
Consumables Consumable components with lifespan and requirements

Usage Instructions

The trade item edit page includes a Usage Instructions field that supports rich text (HTML). Use this for directions, dosage information, or any instructions the consumer needs.

Step 5: View the Public Product Page

Every trade item has a public page at:

https://gtin1.com/catalog/ti/{slug}/

The slug is an automatically generated identifier. You can find the direct link on the trade item detail page in your organization dashboard.

The public page shows the product name, brand, description, images, ingredients, nutrition facts, and any other features you have added.

Step 6: View the JSON-LD Representation

GTIN1 automatically generates schema.org structured data for every trade item. This JSON-LD is embedded in the public product page and is also available directly for machine consumers.

The structured data includes:

{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@type": "Product",
  "name": "Organic Extra Virgin Olive Oil",
  "gtin14": "00012345678905",
  "brand": {
    "@type": "Brand",
    "name": "Salsa Gonzales"
  },
  "description": "Cold-pressed from organic Arbequina olives.",
  "image": "https://gtin1.com/media/orgs/acme/trade-items/00012345678905/images/aBcDeFgHiJkLmNoPqRsTu.jpg",
  "url": "https://gtin1.com/catalog/ti/abc123xyz789/",
  "category": "Cooking Oils"
}

Fields are included only when they have values. Empty fields are omitted to keep the output clean and valid.

Once your trade item is created, it is immediately resolvable as a GS1 Digital Link at:

https://gtin1.com/01/{your-14-digit-gtin}

For example:

https://gtin1.com/01/00012345678905

Content Negotiation

The resolver returns different responses based on what the client requests:

When a browser or user scans the link, the resolver redirects to the product page:

curl -IL 'https://gtin1.com/01/00012345678905' \
  -H 'accept: text/html'

Machine clients requesting JSON receive product data:

curl 'https://gtin1.com/01/00012345678905' \
  -H 'accept: application/json'

GS1-conformant clients can request the full linkset:

curl 'https://gtin1.com/01/00012345678905' \
  -H 'accept: application/linkset+json'

QR Code Shortcut

You can generate an SVG QR code for any GTIN directly from the resolver by appending ?qr or ?fmt=svg:

https://gtin1.com/01/00012345678905?qr

Application Identifiers

The Digital Link URI supports additional GS1 Application Identifiers for batch and serial tracking:

https://gtin1.com/01/00012345678905/10/LOT123
https://gtin1.com/01/00012345678905/10/LOT123/21/SERIAL456
https://gtin1.com/01/00012345678905/17/261231
AI Path segment Description
01 /01/{gtin} Global Trade Item Number
10 /10/{lot} Batch or lot number
21 /21/{serial} Serial number
17 /17/{expiry} Expiration date (YYMMDD)

Next Steps