A customer viewing a product online makes a decision without contact with the packaging. Therefore, the information visible before purchase cannot be an accidental summary of warehouse data. A company needs a controlled set of information about the product, entities and safety, and must then transfer it correctly to the shop or marketplace.
The reference point for a distance selling offer is Art. 19 GPSR. This article focuses on controlling the information required in the offer, not on the technical handling of a specific marketplace. A separate article on Allegro describes preparing data for sales channels.
First the product record, then the offer
Creating an offer should not begin with an empty form in a sales channel. First, the specific product and variant must be identified, its identification, manufacturer and responsible person in the Union confirmed, and then the applicable warnings and safety information gathered.
A marketplace may name fields differently from your own system. A single source of data allows them to be mapped to multiple channels without rewriting and guessing. A change to approved information should trigger a review of active offers, instead of leaving old data until it is accidentally discovered.
Information worth preparing
A controlled offer record should include:
- an unambiguous product name, model and identifier,
- photographs allowing the product and its markings to be recognised,
- the manufacturer's name and contact details,
- the details of the responsible person in the EU, if required,
- warnings and safety information specific to the product,
- the language of the information appropriate to the sales market,
- an indication of the variant to which the data relates,
- the date and source of each piece of information,
- approval status for publication,
- a list of channels using the given version.
Not all elements have to be presented in an identical way. It is important that the data required before purchase is easily accessible, legible and linked to the correct offer.
The manufacturer and the responsible person are not the same field
A common mistake is to enter one address in all places. The manufacturer describes the entity producing the product or offering it under its own name or brand. The responsible person in the EU performs a specific role for the product and must be established in the Union. In a specific chain, this may be a Union manufacturer, importer, authorised representative or another appropriate entity meeting the conditions.
Before publication, the basis for using the data, the scope of products and the currency of the relationship should be checked. An address found on a similar product or in an old offer is not a sufficient source.
Warnings must relate to the variant being sold
A general sentence “use in accordance with the intended purpose” does not replace information arising from actual hazards. Warnings should correspond to the design, users, foreseeable use and the results of the risk assessment. Texts from a competitor's offer should not be copied.
In the system, it is worth linking each warning to the source, version of the analysis and market. When the text changes, the previous version remains in the history together with a list of offers that used it. This makes it possible to demonstrate what the customer saw on a given day.
Variants and bundle offers
A single offer may allow a colour, size or configuration to be selected. If variants have different safety data, manufacturers or bundle components, a common description may be insufficient. The company should determine which information is common and which changes after the variant is selected.
Bundles require additional attention. A bundle offer should preserve the traceability of its components and not conceal warnings concerning a specific component. The bundle's internal SKU should be linked to the product records of the component products.
Language and target market
Information prepared for Poland should not automatically be used in other countries. Before launching a market, the applicable language requirements and method of presentation should be checked. A translation should have a controlled version, author or supplier, date and link to the source text.
Machine translation can help as a working aid, but without verification it should not become an approved safety instruction. A change to the source text should mark the language versions as requiring review.
Pre-publication checks
A practical check may have several gates:
1. The correct product and variant have been indicated. 2. The manufacturer and responsible entity have confirmed sources. 3. The warnings correspond to the approved version of the safety information. 4. The language matches the market. 5. The photographs do not show another model or marking. 6. The offer has an owner and a review date. 7. The offer identifier in the sales channel has been recorded.
Missing data should stop publication or refer it for a conscious decision by the responsible person. It is not worth turning omissions into empty fields that formally pass form validation.
Updating an existing offer
A change in the product record should indicate the affected channels. This may concern a new warning, the manufacturer's address, a photograph of the marking or a new variant. After the update, evidence must be kept of when the channel accepted the change and what content was visible afterwards.
If a channel does not support direct integration, a controlled task list can still be maintained. An operator manually updates the offer, records the date and link, and a second person verifies the result. Automation is not a prerequisite for an orderly process.
What to do after a product is withdrawn
Ending sales does not always mean removing all traces. The company should retain the offer history, identifiers, information versions and deactivation date. In corrective action, this data helps establish how many recipients could have bought a specific variant and what message they received before purchase.
Most common mistakes
- copying data from a similar offer,
- using the shop's name instead of the manufacturer's details,
- failing to distinguish between the manufacturer and the responsible person,
- one warning for all variants,
- publishing an unverified translation,
- changing the system without updating the channels,
- no history of content visible to the customer,
- treating the marketplace form status as confirmation of conformity.
GPSR / PPWR helps to prepare a controlled data source and a list of gaps before publication. It does not publish or assess every offer automatically. Final responsibility for the correctness of the data remains with the business and the persons approving the material.