What Is EPCIS? GS1 Supply-Chain Event Data Explained
EPCIS is the GS1 standard for capturing and sharing supply-chain events. Each event records what happened, to which items, where, when, and in what business step.
Updated 2026-10-01 · 5 min read
What EPCIS is
EPCIS (Electronic Product Code Information Services) is the GS1 standard for recording supply-chain events. It answers five questions for every event: what, when, where, why, and how.
It underpins track-and-trace regimes, including FDA DSCSA serialization in the United States.
The event types
An EPCIS document is a list of events. The four core types are ObjectEvent, AggregationEvent, TransformationEvent, and TransactionEvent.
- ObjectEvent — items were observed, for example received or shipped.
- AggregationEvent — items were packed into or unpacked from a container.
- TransformationEvent — inputs became outputs in a process.
- TransactionEvent — items were associated with a business transaction.
The core fields
Every event carries an event time, a recorded time, a location, a business step, a disposition, and the identifiers it concerns — typically SGTIN EPCs.
EPCIS 2.0 and JSON-LD
EPCIS 2.0 adds a JSON-LD representation alongside XML. That makes the data easier for web systems to consume, and it inherits JSON-LD’s behaviour of resolving a remote context — which a secure parser must not do blindly.
Try it on real data
Frequently Asked Questions
Electronic Product Code Information Services — the GS1 standard for supply-chain event data.
ObjectEvent, AggregationEvent, TransformationEvent, and TransactionEvent.
The version of EPCIS that adds a JSON-LD representation alongside XML, for web and AI systems.