GLN
The Global Location Number (GLN) is the GS1 identifier for a location or party — a legal entity such as a company, a physical place such as a warehouse, factory or a specific dock door, or a functional role such as a bill-to or ship-to point. It is a 13-digit number that means the same location to every trading partner.
GLNs replace free-text names and addresses in electronic messages: an order or despatch advice can carry the GLN of the buyer, the seller, the ship-to and the ship-from, removing ambiguity about who and where. In logistics they precisely identify origins, destinations and handling points.
A GLN gives every party and place one unambiguous identity across all partners and systems, so electronic orders, deliveries and invoices route to exactly the right entity and location without matching names and addresses by hand. It is the who-and-where counterpart to the what of the GTIN.
What can a GLN identify?
A legal party (a company), a physical location (a warehouse, plant or dock door), or a functional role (such as a ship-to or invoice-to point) — anything that needs a unique, shared identity in supply-chain messages.