GS1 and Icecat develop fashion database with Wehkamp, Bijenkorf, Tommy Hilfiger and Calvin Klein

GS1 officially started in the Netherlands a collaboration with Icecat and leading players in the fashion industry: Fashion Base. The goal is to create a product catalogue with product data for fashion e-commerce and retail, and can be easily shared between manufacturers and their channel partners. Inretail and Modint, industry organizations in retail non-food and fashion, support the initiative. Leading market parties such as De Bijenkorf, Wehkamp, ​​Just Brands, PVH (Hilfiger, Calvin Klein), Micro Fashion, Dobotex (including F1 and Puma), Van Winkel Fashion, Van Tilburg Fashion & Sport, Bestseller and Euretco, will start using the platform in the coming months.

The realization of GS1 Fashion Base started upon an agreement between GS1 and Product Information Management (PIM) and content provider Icecat. Global Sales Manager Koen Looijmans of Icecat has “great confidence in the combination of GS1 as an authority for international standards and Icecat as a provider of a flexible content platform that has proven itself worldwide”.

The project starts in the Netherlands, but it is ready to roll out internationally. Because of Icecat’s global network, and the platform’s compliance with international GS1 standards. Fashion Base will be ready to use within 4 months.

Increasing coverage

The idea is that GS1 Fashion Base will accelerate the adoption of GS1 EDI (electronic data interchange) in the fashion industry. Furthermore, GS1 introduced an improved EDI fashion message set in 2016. GS1 Fashion Base makes EDI more attractive, because the initiative ensures high coverage of the fashion assortments of (r)etailers.

GS1 Fashion Base powered by Icecat

The GS1 Fashion Base is based on an already existing Icecat PIM solution. This PIM platform enables suppliers and retailers, with a fast time-to-market, to create standardized product data. The underlying data model of GS1 Fashion Base is based on the classification model of GS1: Global Product Classification. In addition, the GS1 US data model for the fashion industry is adopted within the database. This model is being successfully used by more than 150 retailers and suppliers. Including Nike, PVH, Walmart, Neiman Marcus, Hudson Bay, Macy’s and Nordtrom.

There are various ways in which suppliers and retailers can supply or receive product data via Icecat (CSV, XML, JSON and JavaScript). Additionally, there will be a web interface available and add-ons for popular e-commerce environments. Such as Magento Commerce, Prestashop, Amazon, eBay, Google Shopping, Akeneo and SAP Hybris. This makes it easy for companies to share their product data with all of their partners.

About GS1 Netherlands

As an independent not-for-profit organization, GS1 develops international standards for identification of product data. GS1 has been bringing together supermarkets and drug stores, hardware stores, hospitals and clothing stores, their suppliers and logistics service providers for more than 40 years.

The power of GS1 Netherlands? The more than 18,000 Dutch companies that are members of GS1 Netherlands and use the GS1 standards. GS1 Netherlands is part of the worldwide GS1 organization. GS1 is active in 150 countries with a head office in 113 countries. 1.5 million participants worldwide are affiliated with GS1.