UPC Assignment and maintenance (Saks Fifth Avenue Vendor Program)
UPC Assignment and maintenance guides follow the industry-standard barcode and numbering system that is the foundation of collaborative vendor partnership, providing the vendor and retailer with a common language for all communication. The benefit for choosing to use UPC/EAN is that this foundational data can be used across multiple retailers. To obtain a GS1 certified prefix, please visit the GS1 website
As an alternative, Saks Fifth Avenue offers vendors to use Saks’s Internal (Lead 4) UPCs as a replacement for UPC/EAN at no cost. The Saks Internal UPC is in the industry standard, UPC-A format and therefore can be used in lieu of UPC/EANs. This solution is best for those companies new to the industry who might not be ready to make the investment into UPCs. Saks internal UPCs will be provided on the Purchase Order and will also be made available to ticket and EDI outsource companies upon request.
Vendors must choose either to be a UPC/EAN based vendor or a Saks Internal (Lead 4) UPC vendor. This will determine which barcode will be on your product and used in the EDI documents.
UPC Assignment and maintenance guides
The following steps will ensure that your company is positioned for successful UPC partnerships with Saks Fifth Avenue:
- Ensure style information is consistent across media: line lists, tickets, packing slips, etc.
- Assign your UPC/EAN numbers at the product ID/color/size level. These numbers should be unique to the merchandise.
- Industry standard requires a waiting period of 30-months for fashion merchandise and 48-months for non-fashion merchandise. Saks recommends that you do not reuse UPCs, EANs, or style numbers.
- Gifts with purchase (GWP) and purchase with purchase (PWP) must be assigned and ticketed with UPC codes.
- No cost/no retail items need to be assigned a UPC code
UPC LISTS FOR MERCHANTS
The requirement and best proactive is for vendors to provide an accurate UPC or EAN listing via the OpenText Active Catalogue.
- The Catalogue is populated before market so merchants can write their orders following market appointments
- The Catalogue must include UPC or EAN, meaningful style description and ID, selection code, NRF Color, Size Codes.
- Ensure that the specific product ID/color/size on the OpenText Active Catalogue matches the information that is used on all other materials including the UPC ticket and the merchandise it is affixed to, buyer materials, and shipping information.