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GTIN, MPN, SKU and brand: why identifiers matter for AI Shopping

Identifiers help systems determine which exact product is offered and reduce incorrect matching between similar items.

What you should know

GTIN is useful when a valid global identifier exists.

MPN, SKU and brand add identity and variant context.

Where ecommerce stores go wrong

Stores sometimes reuse one SKU across variants or put internal codes in GTIN fields.

Missing brand also weakens matching.

What you can improve

Use genuine identifiers, keep them variant-specific when appropriate and keep values consistent across pages, structured data and feeds.

What Merqivio does

Merqivio checks publicly accessible product pages and machine-readable signals. No passwords are required and nothing is changed on your store. A readiness score does not guarantee inclusion or ranking in an external AI shopping platform.

OpenAI product feed specifications · Google Product structured data guidance
Merqivio checks publicly accessible product pages and machine-readable signals. No passwords are required and nothing is changed on your store. A readiness score does not guarantee inclusion or ranking in an external AI shopping platform.

EU LAW UPDATE · 06-09-2026

Scanners updated for the latest EU rules

Latest legal review: 6 September 2026. Merqivio revalidated relevant scan criteria against EUR-Lex and official European Commission sources.

AI Shopping: current AI Act timeline

AI Shopping Readiness keeps Article 50 transparency active since 2 August 2026 and does not prematurely fail delayed high-risk obligations. Ordinary AI-generated product copy is not automatically failed.

EUR-Lex · AI rules

What this means

Merqivio distinguishes publicly demonstrable website issues, future duties and requirements that need product, supplier or internal business evidence. This avoids both missed risks and false failures. A scan is an automated risk assessment, not legal advice.

NEW MERQIVIO RESEARCH

We studied 100 European webshops

50 large retailers and 50 small/local shops. See where the strongest compliance signals appear and how we validated them.

View study & method →