This section deals with a group of attributes that provide detailed information used to communicate with a contact associated with a product. A contact may represent a range of entities, for example a manufacturer, brand owner, importer, customer or consumer support. Contact information may include a telephone number, email address or web site address and is commonly found on the consumer unit package. In addition, some sellers send information that could appear on business documents, such as invoices and packing slips.

These attributes must be evaluated in conjunction with each other to understand a specific GTIN.

A variety Pack is a predefined pack of two or more trade items that are combined and sold together as a single trade item.

A trade item hierarchy consists of multiple GTINs linked together to represent a product's packaging hierarchy levels. Each level of the hierarchy is assigned a unique GTIN, and represents that specific unit, pack, case, or pallet.

The objective in this section is to understand how to set up trade items with different hierarchies – a simple hierarchy, a complex hierarchy, a hierarchy containing a variety pack and a hierarchy containing a display unit.

The GS1 GDM Attribute Implementation Guideline was developed around a common set of guiding principles.

■ Utilise the GS1 Style Guide when referring to styling principles.

■ Always use non-branded images.

■ Minimise the detail required to create clarity for users. Create the visual equivalent of a GS1 Attribute Definition for Business where appropriate.

While utilising this guideline (or other GS1 standards), users may encounter a situation where they are unable to find a specific attribute in the GDM or code value in a specific code list that meets the need of their product. To resolve this challenge, the first step is to look further into the GDD and GDSN standards, which contain all GS1 standard attributes and GS1-maintained code lists.