As commercial complexity intensifies, the accuracy, consistency, and speed of product data exchange are more critical than ever. The Global Data Synchronization Network (GDSN) is an important backbone of this process, enabling brands, retailers, and distributors to share validated, compliant product information across markets and channels.
In many ways, GDSN data is a ‘universal language’ for businesses to communicate about products across their lifecycle. It’s used across markets and relied heavily by small producers and huge multinational enterprises alike, for operations from manufacturing to warehousing and shipping to marketing and e-commerce.
GDSN standards ensure that every product detail, from nutritional facts to regulatory attributes, to critical supply chain information, is ready for both physical shelves and digital platforms. But conforming to those standards and managing data at scale is a perennial challenge, especially with legacy data pools that haven’t kept up. The GDSN is over 20 years old, and not all technologies and solutions built to use and harness its data have adapted to the mounting demands of modern commerce over that period. That lag has left brands dependent on those solutions less agile and dependent on manual, error-prone processes.
The Challenges and Shortcomings of Legacy Data Pools
GDSN data is stored, shared, and accessed through large, managed data pools. As commerce accelerates and marketplace complexity grows, some legacy data pools have struggled to keep up.
Legacy data pools were originally designed for simpler times—basic SKUs, limited compliance, and manual processes. Today’s commerce demands:
- Complex hierarchies and product variations
- Adapting to varied regulatory mandates and retailer-specific rules
- Validated data structured for easy discovery by AI and consumers alike
- Real-time responsiveness to market shifts and opportunities
- Complex, enriched product content beyond basic data fields; from item descriptions to imagery to rich media to user-generated content like ratings and reviews
Legacy systems often struggle with scale, manual rework, fragmented systems, and high rejection rates, leading to delays and inefficiency. Retailers expect high accuracy, but legacy GDSN data pools too often deliver outdated or incomplete item records that cause rejections, cleanups, and delays. Brands face endless rejection cycles, duplicate submissions, and costly errors that erode trust and delay speed-to-market.
Additionally, the fragmentation of GDSN data across various pools presents challenges for parties across the supply chain and commerce lifecycle. If a supplier brand manages their content in one data pool, but needs to share it with a retailer or distributor that used another, there could be complications and delays depending on the ability of those data pools to exchange data.
Building a Future-Proof Commerce Data Pool for the GDSN of Tomorrow
To meet the evolving demands of global commerce, a future-proof data pool must go far beyond basic GDSN compliance. Today’s trading ecosystem is defined by rapid change, diverse product content, and the need for seamless collaboration across brands, retailers, and supply chain partners. The next-generation data pool must be engineered for:
Usability and Flexibility
A modern data pool should offer intuitive interfaces and robust APIs that make onboarding, managing, and publishing product data simple for all participants—regardless of technical expertise or organization size. Too often, GDSN data management requires niche, highly-specialized expertise that can be hard to find and access, especially for the many smaller organizations and lean teams that depend on it around the world. It needs to be accessible to everyone, through user-friendly interfaces and intuitive integrations. Flexible architecture is essential to support varied regulatory requirements, retailer-specific rules, and emerging data standards, ensuring that brands and retailers can adapt quickly as commerce evolves.
Content Scalability
While GDSN data provides an essential foundation for product content, commerce today is driven by so much more. A future-ready data pool must be able to manage and syndicate a wide array of content types—including digital assets, rich media, user-generated content (UGC), and enhanced product information—within a unified ecosystem. This scalability empowers organizations to deliver compelling product experiences across every channel, while maintaining consistency and compliance.
Rigorous Data Validation
A future-proof data pool must enforce strict data validation. Legacy pools often allow incomplete or noncompliant item records to be uploaded and shared, leading to high rejection rates by recipients and low publication success. By proactively validating submissions against hundreds of quality checks, a modern data pool ensures only accurate, complete data is published, reducing errors and accelerating speed-to-market.
Publication Success Rates
High publication success rates are a hallmark of an effective data pool. Achieving this requires advanced validation, automation, and proactive error resolution to minimize rejections and manual rework. Even some long-established data pools have successful publication rates of 70% or less; imagine how disruptive it is to a business to not be able to successfully share data 30% of the time! The most valuable data pools leverage AI-driven governance and real-time feedback to ensure that data is accurate, complete, and ready for activation.
Better Together: A United Commerce Data Pool
Syndigo’s acquisition of 1WorldSync unified the world’s two largest GDSN data pools into a single uncontested powerhouse of product data. Now, 44% of the world’s GLNs (Global Location Numbers—an identifier for each unique manufacturer, retailer, distributor, factory, supply chain firm, and so on registered to the GDSN) including 97% of all US GLNs are registered to this combined data pool.
The combined Syndigo + 1WorldSync solution is engineered to simplify GDSN execution and deliver measurable business benefits:
- Rigorous validations and rulesets deliver the highest GDSN publication success rates in the industry at 90%, for better speed and less frustration
- Global reach with local expertise, regulatory precision, and the world’s largest network of retailers and brands for scaling into any market
- Seamless compliance, connectivity, and intelligence for frictionless product data activation
- Easy creation and activation of other critical product content like core product information, rich media, and User-Generated Content (UGC) to orchestrate the entire product experience from one interface.
This isn’t just a bigger data pool: it’s a smarter, more reliable foundation for commerce, built for scale, trust, and the future of AI-driven retail. Brands and retailers can now manage one unified instance with localized rule sets, eliminating costly churn and accelerating speed-to-market.
The Strategic Foundation for Winning in Commerce
The unified commerce data pool is more than a technical upgrade—it’s a strategic advantage. By simplifying execution, accelerating speed-to-market, and enabling global scale, Syndigo empowers organizations to focus on growth, innovation, and customer experience.
