What is the difference between GPC Brick Attributes and GDS Trade Item Attributes?

Modified on Fri, 30 Aug at 3:04 PM

In the Product Description world, Attribute is a term reflecting the data elements of a data model.

An attribute is a specification feature or characteristic that describes recognisably the physical, compositional, or structural properties of a particular product (single product attribute) or a product group (Brick Attribute).

Classification (Brick) Attribute (GPC)

For each Brick, the associated Brick Attributes and Brick Attribute Values describe the Brick to provide granularity.

What are the components of the Brick Attributes?

Brick Attribute – a question with regards to the Brick.
Brick Attribute Value – a pick list

For example:

If Organic (Is the product group claiming to be organic or not?).

‘Yes’ (the product group is claiming to be organic),
‘No’ (the product group is not claiming to be organic) or
‘Unidentified’ (It cannot be determined as to whether the product group is claiming to be organic or not.)

Trade Item Data Model (GDS)

Use the specified attributes relating to a single product as a communication template for trading partners. The goal is to build data sets for all kind of products.

The single product attribute is a characteristic of the product that is used to describe the commercial offer to the retailer. Trade Item Data Model establishes a framework that is applicable to any parties within supply chain i.e. supplier, retailers, exchange, etc across the globe, to communicate the necessary data elements relating to an item, thus supporting the core business requirements in the global trading environment.

The Trade Item data model has ‘placeholders / fields’ for communicating the relevant classification schema (properties) that relates to the product concerned. However the schema is a separate entity to that of the item model, the relationship is that the product’s Brick and subsequent Brick attributes are communicated in this framework.