Look at any product page on this site and under the price you will find a small row of codes: an SKU, an MPN and — where one exists — a GTIN. Most shoppers skip past them. They are there for two reasons: so that you can verify exactly what you are buying, and so that shopping engines can match our listing to Microsoft's product rather than to a vague description.
SKU — our internal reference
The SKU (stock-keeping unit) is a code we assign. ZW-OFF-HB24-PC, for example, reads as ZED WEBTECH · Office · Home & Business 2024 · PC. It appears on your order, on your receipt and in our stock system, so when you phone us and read it out we know immediately which licence you mean. SKUs are unique to us; another shop will use different ones for the same product.
MPN — Microsoft's part number
The MPN (manufacturer part number) is Microsoft's own identifier for a specific product in a specific channel. Windows 11 Pro as a download licence is FQC-10572; Office Home & Business 2024 as a download licence is EP2-06610. Distributors, resellers and Microsoft's own price lists all use these codes, which makes the MPN the most reliable way to confirm that two listings are for the same thing.
A different part number does not always mean a different product — Microsoft issues separate numbers for the boxed USB edition, the download edition and some regional variants — but the same part number always means the same product.
GTIN — the barcode
The GTIN (Global Trade Item Number) is the number behind a retail barcode: a 12-digit UPC in North America or a 13-digit EAN elsewhere. GTINs are issued through GS1 to the brand owner, so only Microsoft can create one for a Microsoft product. Where Microsoft has published a GTIN for a download licence, we show it. Where it has not — Office LTSC Professional Plus, for instance, is sold through volume channels with no barcode — we show the MPN alone rather than inventing a number.
Why we are strict about this
Shopping platforms match listings to catalogue entries by GTIN and MPN. A made-up barcode either fails to match or, worse, matches the wrong product and misleads a buyer. Google's merchant policies treat incorrect identifiers as a reason to remove a listing, and we agree with them: the codes on our pages are either Microsoft's or clearly ours.
How to use them
- Comparing prices? Match on MPN: it ignores marketing names and catches the download-vs-box difference.
- Checking a listing elsewhere? If the seller shows no part number and no barcode and calls the product "global" or "lifetime", read our guide to spotting grey-market keys first.
- Writing a purchase order? Quote our SKU and the MPN together; accounts departments like both.
Every identifier on the site is also published in our Google Merchant Center feeds, so the product you see in a shopping result is the product you land on.
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