Use GTINs
About GTINs
A Global Trade Item Number (GTIN) is the source of truth and used to identify trade items and products throughout the supply chain, primarily within barcodes. GTIN is a term used to describe multiple families of product identification numbers such as:
Universal Product Identifiers (UPC-E, UPC-A, GTIN-12): A 12-digit number used primarily in North America.
GTIN-14 (EAN/UCC-14 or ITF-14): A 14-digit number used to identify trade items at various packaging levels.
Data associated with a GTIN typically includes all of the details required to catalog a physical good including item name, image, description, brand, etc.
Manufacturers and brands register their product information to databases such as Gs1 to ensure that retail businesses have access to complete and accurate information about products for sale. Learn more about GTINs.
Before you begin
To use GTINs, you need access to the Square Dashboard, Square Point of Sale app, or Square Retail POS app.
Once a GTIN is associated with an item, you can add the item to your customer’s cart by scanning the barcode with a compatible barcode scanner or your iOS device’s camera. Learn how to add items to a cart by scanning a GTIN.
Manually add a GTIN
Once a GTIN has been associated with an item or item variation, you can take the same actions on the associated items that you normally would — including monitoring the item’s progress through reporting, tracking and adjusting inventory, and creating/printing labels with a GTIN barcode.
- Sign in to your Square Dashboard and go to Items & services (or Items & menus or Items & inventory) > Items > Item library.
- Select an existing item or click Create an item.
- Under Variations, enter the GTIN information into the applicable sections.
- Enter all remaining item details and click Save.
You can add GTINs from the Square POS app with retail or standard mode enabled or from the Square Retail POS app on your mobile device, Square Terminal and Square Register.
- Open your point of sale app.
- Tap ≡ More > Items > All Items.
- Select an existing item or tap Create Item.
- Under Price and inventory, enter the GTIN.
- Enter all remaining item details and tap Save.