EPCIS and Core Business Vocabulary (CBV)
EPCIS is a GS1 standard that enables trading partners to share information about the physical movement and status of products as they travel throughout the supply chain – from business to business and ultimately to consumers. It helps answer the “what, where, when and why” questions to meet consumer and regulatory demands for accurate and detailed product information.
The goal of EPCIS is to enable disparate applications to create and share visibility event data, both within and across enterprises. This sharing is aimed at enabling users to gain a shared view of physical or digital objects within a relevant business context.
EPCIS is intended to be used in conjunction with the GS1 Core Business Vocabulary (CBV) standard. The CBV provides definitions of data values that may be used to populate the data structures defined in the EPCIS standard. The use of the standardized vocabulary provided by the CBV standard is critical to interoperability and critical to provide for querying of data by reducing the variation in how different businesses express common intent.
The EPCIS and Core Business Vocabulary Implementation Guideline provide an introduction to these standards and how to implement.
Standards
Artifacts
- EPCIS 1.2 Artifacts (individual files)
- EPCIS 1.2 Artifacts (zip file)
Application Standards
Implementation Guidelines

Who's using EPCIS
EPCIS is used by companies across the world to track everything from the origin and freshness of foods to the safety of pharmaceuticals.

METRO GROUP - Visibility from catch to customer
Find out more
- How EPCIS enables product visibility from source to shelves
- How EPCIS is improving the safety of healthcare supply chains
- Messaging Document: EPCIS - Improving traceability, security, and regulatory compliance
- Case Study: GS1 application standard for visibility in rail
- EPCIS: Enabling visibility with real time information on supply chain events
- EPCIS & CBV Legacy Version 1.1
- IoT (Internet of Things)
Any questions?
We can help you use EPCIS to improve your business operations and your customers’ experience.