Special Considerations for Retailers

What Does ISBN-13 Mean for Retailers?
Impact of the ISBN-13 Transition on Existing Systems
BISG Resources for Retailers

What Does ISBN-13 Mean for Retailers?

The ISBN-13 transition requires retailers (along with all other segments of the book industry) to use 13-digit product identifiers when transacting business with publishers and wholesalers.

Every retailer's system needs to accommodate 13-digit identification numbers. Some retailers may need to implement a systems change in order to accommodate this.

Retailers in all markets should discuss the ISBN-13 transition with their store POS systems vendors and/or in-house IT personnel to ensure they can handle 13-digit ISBNs.

All information printed by publishers and wholesalers which currently references an ISBN-10 are being changed to reflect the new ISBN-13 (i.e. catalogs, price sheets, new title cards, invoices, etc.). Retailers need to be able to communicate with trading partners using ISBN-13 (i.e. place and receive orders).

Internal systems must be converted so that retail staff is able to store and search for titles using ISBN-13.

Impact of the ISBN-13 Transition on Existing Systems

The ISBN generally serves as the key to records within most retailer systems. The ISBN-13 transition will make it necessary to ensure that, in all instances and applications in which the ISBN is used, the system can accommodate the new ISBN-13.

Note: You should be in contact with your computer systems vendor to be sure these issues are addressed and to understand how they will impact business practices.

Many computer systems having a fixed length field for the ISBN (i.e. 10 characters) will have to be upgraded. Similarly, the old Book Industry Standards and Communications (BISAC) fixed length formats for electronic ordering and order acknowledgements will not accommodate the longer, revised ISBN and must be replaced.

To accommodate these larger identifiers, retailers (and their systems vendors) may have to expand fields in their databases and reports. If that is the case, GS1 (formally the UCC) and BISG recommend expanding those fields to accommodate at least 14-digits to accommodate future industry use of EAN.UCC-14 packaging level identifiers. [See Communication and GTIN considerations for more information about EAN.UCC-14 identifiers].

Although expansion to at least 14 digits is recommended, retailers may one day wish to include in their title records other identifiers now coming on line such as the ISTC (International Standard Textual Work Code) or the DOI (Digital Object Identifier), both of which are of variable length.

For example, technologies such as RFID (Radio Frequency Identification), the possible further expansion of the capability of the ISBN numbering system to include various versions of e-books and excerpts of full works, and other changes in the future mean it cannot be assumed that identifiers for the book industry will not eventually have to expand beyond 14 digits.

It is usually preferable to make a single change to a system that will accommodate possible future expansion than to have to repeat the process again in the future.
Therefore, retailers who need to expand the product identifier field in their current systems would do well to increase the length to accommodate numbers beyond 14 digits.

BISG resources for Retailers

The Book Industry Study Group (BISG), the organization that is overseeing the conversion to ISBN-13 in the U.S., provided much of the information you find here. More BISG resources for retailers can be found here.