CGF Members Work to Improve Product Data, Reducing Supply Chain Costs and Ensuring Consumer Trust

The Product Data Coalition aims to ensure that all products have a unique identification, all unique product IDs can be verified in real time, and all brand owners, retailers and platforms follow the same foundational Global Data Model by 2022. This is to be done in parallel to voluntarily testing of DataPorts technology to facilitate the use of new technologies and federated data sharing in the medium term. More specifically, the five projects cover:

1. Product ID Ubiquity: focusing on the global uptake of the GS1 Global Trade Item Number (GTIN) to ensure all physical products have a unique digital identifier.
2. Central ID Registry (Verified by GS1): enabling any retailer or marketplace to verify in real time that a given GTIN is valid and relates to a particular physical product.
3. Core Global Data Model (GDM): aligning brand owners, retailers and platforms on a consistent set of definitions for a core set of product attributes needed to list, order, store, move and sell a product, and as covered by the GS1 Global Data Model.
4. Data Quality Scorecard: building a related catalogue of global business validation rules to improve the quality of data being shared in machine-to-machine exchanges.
5. DataPorts: a new unique and compact IoT-based protocol enabling companies to build reliable and secure peer-to-peer-like communication networks. It allows for automated communication even among completely decentralised data storage and transformation/service landscapes.

By collaborating on digital connectivity, the projects will enable the industry to grow consumer trust at a time when COVID-19 is driving more and more shoppers online and societal trends and digital media are fuelling demand for greater transparency. They will also simplify product listing processes and reduce time-to market. This is a win-win for the CGF members involved and the other partners along the supply chain.

Ruediger Hagedorn, Director, End-to-End Value Chain, The Consumer Goods Forum, said, “Our members are at the core of efforts to improve our industry across a broad spectrum of areas. Topics like sustainability often take top-billing, but it’s important not to forget the importance of data and its significance in supporting sustainability, health and transparency efforts. Retailers and consumer brands both have a responsibility to ensure the product data being shared – with suppliers, partners and consumers – is accurate and efficient to find. Failure to meet this need will increase costs and reduce trust. The work of the Product Coalition is looking for tangible solutions that benefit all parties”.

Tom Rose, Head of International Operations, SPAR International, and Co-Chair of the Product Data Coalition, said, “As a retailer, it is important that our customers can trust the information they receive both in our stores and on our websites. It is vital that we have access to unique, accurate and complete product identification and attribution. This data must be validated by the manufacturers, enabling us to authenticate and verify the product details efficiently. Accurate and verifiable product data is critical to all retailers, and I encourage more retailers to get involved with this important CGF initiative that will transform how we work”.

Barron Witherspoon, Senior VP, Global Industry Affairs & Corporate Race Initiative, Procter & Gamble, and Co-Chair of the Product Data Coalition, said, “The Product Data Coalition has hit the ground running. These projects are important steps forward in reducing unnecessary costs throughout our supply chains, and at a time when many companies are feeling the impact of COVID-19. We need to do more to improve the quality of the product data that our partners and consumers have access to and these projects, with the support of GS1, will help us get there”.

Members of the Product Data Coalition of Action include: Aeon Co., Ltd., Ahold Delhaize, Ajinomoto, Barilla, Colgate-Palmolive, Danone, GlaxoSmithKline Consumer Healthcare, Heineken, Henkel, IGA, Jerónimo Martins, Johnson & Johnson, Kellogg Company, L’Oréal, Land O’Lakes, METRO AG, Migros Ticaret, Nestlé, PepsiCo, Savencia, The Coca-Cola Company, The J. M. Smucker Company, Procter & Gamble, Unilever and Walmart

If you are a retailer or consumer goods brand and want to learn more or get involved, please connect with the CGF’s Product Data Coalition at e2e@theconsumergoodsfourm.com. You can also learn more about the projects by visiting the Coalition’s website or downloading the Quick Start Guide.

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About Product Data Coalition

The Consumer Goods Forum (CGF)’s CEO-led Coalition of Action on Product Data aims to address weaknesses faced in today’s data exchange processes. To achieve this, the Coalition works to ensure that all products have a unique identification, all unique product IDs can be verified in real time, and all brand owners, retailers and platforms follow the same foundational Global Data Model by 2022. This is to be done in parallel to voluntarily testing DataPorts technology to facilitate use of new technologies and federated data sharing in the medium term. Members of the Coalition, and their partners, share a vision for an industry in which trading partners have access to real-time, accurate and independently-assured product data; consumers can get accurate, on demand answers to their questions on the products they buy and where they come from; and consumers can also be confident that companies will reliably use and safeguard their data. To learn more, visit www.tcgfvaluechain.com.

About The Consumer Goods Forum

The Consumer Goods Forum (“CGF”) is a global, parity-based industry network that is driven by its members to encourage the global adoption of practices and standards that serves the consumer goods industry worldwide. It brings together the CEOs and senior management of some 400 retailers, manufacturers, service providers, and other stakeholders across 70 countries, and it reflects the diversity of the industry in geography, size, product category and format. Its member companies have combined sales of EUR 3.5 trillion and directly employ nearly 10 million people, with a further 90 million related jobs estimated along the value chain. It is governed by its Board of Directors, which comprises 58 manufacturer and retailer CEOs. For more information, please visit: www.theconsumergoodsforum.com.

For more information, please contact:

Lee Green
Director, Communications
The Consumer Goods Forum
l.green@theconsumergoodsforum.com

Ruediger Hagedorn
Director, End-to-End Value Chain
The Consumer Goods Forum
e2e@theconsumergoodsforum.com