10 Reasons to Choose DataKart for Your MDM Needs?

Master data management is basically the set of tools and solutions that helps businesses manage their data effectively and profitably. With a boon in digitization, data has become a backbone for business analytics that drives profitability. Effective MDM helps business owners get significant insights into the market and understand the trends. Managing data empowers business owners to identify, analyse and report the key drivers of their business and adopt new business strategies accordingly. It is a tool that helps access business risk and improves business resiliency for unseen events such as the COVID-19 pandemic. MDM is an intelligent business investment that gives an overall business perspective by helping with data analysis, management, information sharing, and governance.

Most of the supply chains today are omnichannel, consisting of multiple retailers and distributors. The big data generated through various nodes can be challenging to handle because of the complexities involved. The product data shared in those omnichannel supply chains is available and shared in different formats across the network. Business owners must ensure that the time-sensitive information such as price, availability, product shelf life, etc., available to other nodes of the supply chain is always up to date. They need to ensure that their system is compatible to handle the volume, variety, and velocity of the data. Organizations lacking in any of these factors may face data management challenges such as inaccurate product information, duplicity, data threats, and lack of trust in the supply chain. Hence, MDM has become a need for a sustainable business.

Let us look at what attributes one should look at while choosing MDM services for managing product data and how GS1 India comply with those attributes.

Cloud-based storage:

GS1 India’s DataKart is a national product information repository that helps in collecting and storing data in a central cloud-based repository systematically and consistently. DataKart also ensures transparency in the system while sharing the data with stakeholders. DataKart helps brings all the nodes of supply chain together by providing a single cloud-based data storage platform. The information thus stored and shared via DataKart is always up-to-date, accurate and reliable.

Effortless data sharing:

With DataKart, you can share product data effortlessly and avoid the need of repetitive manual sharing. GS1 India’s MDM solution ensures the data is shared one-to-one with retailers and at the right time. This eliminates the need of manual sharing of data through emails with multiple nodes of the supply chain, which can be error-prone. Hence, the data shared is always updated and accurate with no human error. DataKart allows information sharing in the desired formats such as pdf, jpg, excel, etc. for the ease of business. Thus, Brand owners do not have to worry about the quality of images/ videos and copyright issues.

Quality of Information:

Any missing information can cause the business owner a considerable loss, but DataKart ensures that product information shared is complete with all the attributes. Product GTINs are verified for accuracy through the GS1 service called GTIN Validation, which strengthen trust in product information for brand owners, data recipients, and ultimately consumers. GS1 India’s MDM also helps in errorless PO generation.

Security:

With GS1 India, you don’t have to worry about the safety of your data. GS1 ensures product data safety through its SSL-secure server. The product information is available only on need basis hence, only authorized person can access the information as per his/her needs. With its secured system, GS1 India ensures fail-safe operation, robust protection against disaster, long-term reliability, expandability, and scalability. GS1 India is an ISO 27001 certified organization.

Instant Notifications:

DatakKart not only help in maintaining product list and their attributes up to time but also send a timely update of the changes. It gives instant notifications on whether the product is active or not, any price change, and informs about promotional product listing.

Enhanced Transparency:

By providing a single data storage and sharing platform, GS1 India’s MDM helps improving transparency in the system. Its smart consumer mobile app helps to connect with consumers directly and get their feedback and reviews in real-time. With GS1’s MDM solution, brand owners can get closer to their customers to improve their products.

Cost-saving:

GS1 India’s DataKart helps save costs by improving the efficiency of supply chain and logistics operations. DataKart provides a single view of the product that enables business owners to build an efficient supply chain. It helps to recollect product information in standardized manner. This gives access to volumetric data and helps brand owners strategize plans and make decisions accurately. GS1’s MDM also helps to improve productivity by reducing order mismatch issues that may lead to significant loss to the business owners.

Increased Revenue:

GS1 India’s DataKart fosters automation which reduces the need for manhandling of the data. Automation enables faster PO generation, improved fill rate, lesser stock out scenarios, and greater on-shelf availability. Thus, it enhances the quality of service. GS1’s single storage source meets both online and offline channel requirements and reduces time-to-market.

Barcode management:

GS1 India is the only organization set up by the Ministry of Commerce, Government of India, to authorize barcodes. GS1 India not only helps in getting barcode for your products but also manages the information linked to its GTINs as the barcode gets scanned at various nodes in the supply chain. DataKart allows to store this information and use it whenever and wherever required.

GS1 is a non-profit organization set up by the Ministry of Commerce, Government of India. With over 13000 companies and 5.5 million products across 40 categories, GS1 India has gained trust from various organizations for its Master Data Management services. GS1 India’s Master data management service helps in seamless handling and sharing of data among all the stakeholders of the value chain. GS1 India is highly trusted for Master data management. With GS1 India’s MDM services, Brand owners have realized up to 15% time saving, overcame reconciliation issues, improved fill rates, and accelerated automation in their process. To know more, visit GS1 India.

GS1 DataKart – Your Single Point Solution to Data Sharing Problems

Data sharing problems are one of the latest additions to many business challenges faced by brand owners. With most organizations setting up their gears to find the perfect solution, they fail either to find the right solution or to implement them. But before we get into what these problems are and how you can tackle them with GS1 India’s DataKart, let us look at their origin and why these problems are raising eyebrows for brand owners. In 2021, an estimated 68% of Instagram users view photos directly from brands, and enormous amount of emails are exchanged every day to inform on the changes in product information. The problems in product data sharing are thus are inevitable and need intervention. 

GS1 India’s DataKart is a national product information repository for storing and sharing your product data in a systematic and structured manner. DataKart provides a platform to brand owners where they can upload their product data which is then validated by retailers and online marketplaces using GS1 repositories for completeness and accuracy.

With its highly efficient cloud storage and use of GS1 global standards, it can ease the difficulties faced while sharing data.

Since, there is no standard format for sharing data, and hence different brand owners and retailers use different means and formats for sharing and storing product information. Amazon, for example, has its own list of specifications for uploading product images. These specifications might not match those of other eCommerce websites. If you are a brand owner selling your product on multiple eCommerce platforms, then sharing your product images and other information might be troublesome and time-consuming for you.

DataKart helps this by compiling the product information in a standardised format and sharing the same with retailers and eCommerce websites in their native format. This not only saves time but also reduces errors while sharing data.

The emails are still the medium for data sharing in most organizations. It may be in the form of word doc or excel, or pdf. The chances of missing the email or missing product information shared over the email or recording the incorrect data in those files are much higher. DataKart nullifies this probability of error as well by sharing the data from system to system and minimises the human intervention.

The product information is also uploaded to GS1’s global data repository – Verified by GS1, to strengthen trust in better product information for brand owners, data recipients and ultimately consumers, thereby enhancing global visibility.

Besides providing an efficient data sharing environment, DataKart offers a responsive network to quickly share the product information changes so that the market-sensitive information such as product availability, price, offers, and discounts, etc., is always up to date. By ensuring single storage, DataKart avoids information mismatch between different supply chain nodes and eliminates the need for multiple manual sharing.

It further extends the visibility to product information through Smart Consumer mobile app, which is used by consumers to access digital product information and hence make informed purchase decision.

To know more about DataKart , visit GS1 India.

Most Common Product Management Challenges Faced by a Brand

Managing product information is not an easy task. Coping up with changing consumer demands, system complexities, and emerging technologies can be a struggle for product managers who have to share product information with various buyers while maintaining brand value and delivering what is deemed. Some of the major challenges faced during the product information management process are listed as below:

Compilation of information: 

Compiling product information can be a difficult task, especially when the product team has to coordinate with various departments to fetch information on various product attributes the same. This includes coordinating with the Regulatory department for licensing-related information, the packaging team for its barcode number, the quality team for nutritional and net content values, and so on. Since the large companies have different departments handling different pieces of information, who generally work in silos, it becomes a challenge to gather the complete information at one place from where it can be shared with buyers.

Adding further to this layer of complexities is the fact that product attributes keep changing to better serve the needs of consumers. Hence, the same exercise needs to be repeated several times in a product’s lifecycle.

Traditional information sharing systems: 

In most organizations, product information is shared over emails, in between the organization as well as buyers. The product data shared in Excel or Word files are usually lost across multiple versions saved in systems, or emails being ignored or not acted upon.

When the information flow is high, the probability of capturing time-sensitive information reduces greatly. Thus, the accuracy of the information cannot be guaranteed when there are multiple users of the same file.

Inability to share relevant product images: 

Often the product team, especially modern trade, and general trade teams share only mandatory product information which usually lacks product images. However, as omni-channel retailing is kicking in and even kiranas are selling through mobile apps. Product images are not only desired but have become essential.  

Managing and assigning product codes using Excel files: 

Management of product codes using excel files is tricky. It often leads to duplicate numbers being assigned to multiple products, especially because there are chances of getting the changes lost in multiple versions of the file. Moreover, this does not provide ready visibility to the number/codes assigned and remaining.

In case you are similar challenges, it is time to opt for the national product data repository. It can help you overcome the above challenges and provide an array of benefits. To know more, visit: www.gs1india.org/datakart

Why Use DataKart for Product Catalogue Management?

Today’s marketplace is volatile. Whether it is a brick-mortar store or an e-commerce platform, keeping track of your products’ changes is a challenging task for brand owners. A product catalogue is a tool that can help you here. This is not a new concept. We have all been using it for ages. The menu card we see in restaurants or for take-aways, or the listing brochure that store owners handle you when you enter a furniture store or electronic stores, the list of shoes, are all forms of product catalogues. With booming e-commerce, product catalogue has gone much beyond the listing. Instead, it is used as a tool to sell products, gather analytics about consumer behaviour and at times becomes the differentiator between your online store and your competitors’.

According to Gartner, a product catalogue is a marketing tool that contains all the information about the commercial product. It enables product marketing managers to define and map new product offerings such as the configuration of new products and services bundles, pricing, discounts, etc.

The product catalogue includes details such as product features, dimensions, descriptions, weight, color, availability, customer reviews, price, etc., that helps buyers to make a purchase decision. Product catalogues are also used by field marketers/ sales representatives to communicate product features to the customers, by customers to make buying decisions, by managers to record and manage the product display, and by partners to share product information with the end-users.

Product catalogue management refers to the process that enables brand owners/manufacturers to provide quality product data across the online marketplaces, retail stores, and distribution network. In the e-commerce space, product catalogue management is the strategic process of organizing, storing, retrieving, standardizing, publishing/ distributing, and performance tracking through multiple sale channels for increased sales. Consider the following statistical figures where consumers are studied for their buying behavior for the quality of product catalogue. Results show that 78% of the consumers show positive buying behavior when fed with a personalized product catalogue that suits their demands.

As evident from above, a product catalogue plays an important role in today’s market for driving sales. Some added advantages of having a quality and streamlined product catalogue are:

  1. A product catalogue helps to record technical information and features of multiple products in a suitable format for multiple users and parties.
  2. It talks about your brand and helps establish a better connection with potential customers.
  3. It eliminates the need to manually add data during the business cycle. It helps to enhance user experience with the associated images, ratings and reviews, feature comparison charts, etc.
  4. A product catalogue is a great tool for effective communication between the seller and the consumers. The sales agent can shift their focus to improve the conversion rate rather than running from one end to other for collecting the relevant data on a timely basis.  

However, creating a quality product catalogue comes with many challenges. Managing product catalogue shifts your focus to a lot of unproductive tasks like sending reminder emails to multiple sale channels, poking stakeholders again and again for data updates, setting up new excel sheets an infinite number of times, etc.

In the complex e-commerce world, a dynamic product catalogue requires continuous changes, real-time synchronization to reflect on price, discounts, sales, availability, etc. While generating a master product catalogue, the potential of error increases multifold if you are dealing with thousands of SKUs. This not only affects user experience but also affects entire operations.

Hence it is advisable to use trusted third-party platforms such as DataKart to manage your product catalogue. Let us take the example of a Ketchup bottle that you buy from the online grocery store. Its product catalogue contains information such as GTIN (EAN / UPC), Brand Name, Product Category, Product Description, Net Weight, Gross Weight, FSSAI License Number, Food Type, Storage Condition, Shelf Life, MRP, MRP Location, HSN Code, IGST, CGST, SGST, Country of Origin, Product Images, Nutritional Information, Ingredient Information pack dimensions, pack variant information, etc. All this information does not come from a single source. For example, GTIN (barcode number) has to be issued by the packaging team to ensure uniqueness, net weight is recorded at the manufacturing center, while product nutritional value comes from the R&D department. All internal teams can be integrated on DataKart to populate the department-specific product information.

DataKart is a single source of reliable product data. It helps brand owners to assign and manage unique barcode numbers with global GS1 standards. Managing the product catalogues has many varied benefits for internal as well as external stakeholders. This includes faster product listing, optimized planogramming, ability to send recall alerts, product data change notifications, compliance with statutory labelling/marking guidelines, license/certificate validation, and the need for additional product information to enable consumers to make informed purchase decisions.

GS1 India’s DataKart acts as a one-stop solution for brand owners to manage their product catalogue conveniently. By availing DataKart’s product data exchange services, you can meet various product cataloguing and imaging needs for selling products online, in stores, or both. Product images and information used in the DataKart catalogue need to be compliant with e-commerce guidelines. To help achieve this, GS1 India also offers an e-Cataloguing Service and ClickIt mobile app.

Just like an ideal Product Catalogue Management platform, DataKart helps you develop trust with quality information. With this, you can directly share your product catalogue with consumers through the Smart Consumer app.

Current business scenarios have accustomed B2C and B2B customers to online shopping and thus the demand and preference for detailed product catalogues have increased. DataKart helps to deal with multiple channels efficiently without making your system complex and time-consuming. Even if your business is spread across multiple locations, DataKart enables you to scale the product catalogue and fosters business growth.

DataKart: A Holistic Approach Towards Your Product Information Management

Do you remember the time when data management could simply be done with the help of an Excel sheet? It was when data was available on a smaller scale and businesses decisions were not analytics oriented. However, emerging technologies such as IoT, Artificial Intelligence, Machine learning, Cloud computing, etc., have facilitated large data collection, and analytics for business management. With product information management systems becoming a necessity, their advantages are making organizations top the charts of profitability and innovation. In this article, we will discuss Product Information Management and how GS1 India’s DataKart provides a holistic approach to mastering data management and exchange. However, before going into that, let us define Product Information Management.

Product Information Management (PIM) is a centralized cloud-based solution for collecting, storing, and managing product information. It is a source from where you can access all your product information and share it among others seamlessly and securely. Product Information Repository is the cloud storage where all the data, including price pertaining to the region, master data of the product, and its HSN codes, are stored. DataKart is the national product data repository for storing and sharing product master data. It is governed by GS1 global standards. GS1 India’s DataKart allows companies to maintain an accurate, and single source of truth, which can be shared in real-time. Ecommerce websites, retailers, data aggregating companies are using DataKart for accessing authentic and trusted information on products effortlessly. DataKart helps them access trusted product information, which is directly populated by brand owners. It also enables brand owners to connect to consumers directly through the Smart Consumer app, and gather relevant their feedback, in the form of reviews and ratings, informs them about regulatory certifications and quality standards, etc. PIM has become a need for e-commerce websites for managing large product portfolios and thousands of SKUs.

Over years, GS1 India has gained the industry’s trust with its services. DataKart helps in sharing product data as per the required file formats of retailers and e-tailers, and hence, the same information can be shared in multiple formats, multiple times, in a couple of clicks.

All the product information in DataKart is linked with the product’s unique barcode numbers – GTINs.

These unique codes also enable brand owners to collect, link, store and update product information as it moves through the supply chain. DataKart platform meets your B2B, B2C, and B2G business requirements. It also enables efficient and targeted traceability through DataKart Trace. DataKart MDM exchange service enables expediting product listing process, optimizing planogramming by providing information on product dimensions, providing alerts for product information change, enabling validation of license/certificate, ensuring compliance with statutory labelling/marking guidelines, and helping consumers make an informed purchase decision.

DataKart is a B2B platform for storing, managing, and sharing your product information. With its value-added services such as product catalogue management, product imaging and measurement, data synchronization, authentication and traceability services, it provides a holistic approach towards your Product Information Management.    

DataKart – A Cloud Computing-Based Product Data Repository

GS1 India’s DataKart is a repository for storing product information. It enables suppliers, brand owners/manufacturers and retailers to access, manage and share product master data.

DataKart uses cloud computing, which involves online storage and retrieval of product information. For those, who do not know, cloud computing is a set of services. This includes portfolio management, data storage, information sharing, database creation, multiple-party networking, and analytics. Cloud services are used worldwide for data storage and recovery, big data analytics, and drawing marketing and sales insights.

DataKart offers numerous opportunities for improving business operations. It enables brand owners to share SKU data with retailers/e-tailers in a consistent and structured manner. GS1 India’s traceability service also uses DataKart for real-time tracking of products in the supply chain. It empowers consumer apps like Smart Consumer and provides access to product data, the ability to authenticate, share with marketplaces. DataKart overcomes the challenges of traditional data sharing where the probability of missing out on information is much higher.

DataKart repository acts as a single source of information for brand owners, retailers/online marketplaces, solution providers, and consumer apps. Unlike traditional information sharing, DataKart offers automated sharing of information, leading to better accuracy and real-time delivery.

DataKart issues and manages barcode numbers for trade items and manages data on the repository. These codes provide a unique identity to products and enable manufacturers to trace them across the supply chain. DataKart stores product details – product ID, size, color, shelf life, etc., and facilitates third-party integration. It is a trusted database, populated directly by brand owners. DataKart eliminates multiple needs of compiling and sharing the data. DataKart automates the entire process of information sharing, saving a lot of time.

Prevent Incorrect Product Data with DataKart

Product data management can be a huge problem for manufacturers and resellers. It involves capturing and regularly updating the product data in their systems as well as sharing updates and information with their buyers. In today’s competitive world, the stakes are very high and there is no room for error in product delivery across the different stages of the supply chain. At the same time, the amount of data ingested via various business systems such as order management systems, POS systems, warehouse management systems, etc., is immense. The use of legacy software such as Excel is not optimal for managing such voluminous data and frequent changes that need to be updated and shared, leading to many versions of excel files being created with multiple stakeholders.

Most stakeholders in the supply chain realize the challenges and importance of data management. However, despite this knowledge, they are unable to formulate a data management strategy that ensures efficiency and promotes accuracy. 

The Reasons for Product Data Errors

The present-day brand owners, retailers, and aggregators are unable to manage data efficiently at various stages, leading to incorrect product data residing in various disparate systems. Below are some fundamental reasons that instigate bad data management:

  • Rising complexity and frequent changes in product data
  • Mismanagement of barcode numbers
  • Lack of structure and standardization of data
  • Lack of data collaboration in real-time

When errors start creeping in, they start impacting the performance. Moreover, the trust amongst different stakeholders is also impacted. When the trust is compromised, the entire business relationship falls apart. On the contrary, if these errors can be checked by maintaining a centralized repository for master data, this situation can be avoided completely.  

 

The Value of Common Data Management Platform

Majorpart of the problem lies in the fact that retailer or marketplace has to manage data for thousands of products from hundreds of suppliers, big and small alike, in a uniform format, despite the same being supplied in multiple formats. Not only this, at times, retailers also depend on crowd sourced information on the products. This is exactly where DataKart comes into the picture.

 

DataKart is a solution that intuitively fits into the vision of most manufacturers and retailers. For a retailer, it means no capital investment on an elaborate software development project. For manufacturers, it means the information it wants to convey will be communicated without any errors or mistakes, and more importantly, in real-time. It just takes a few clicks in sharing product information with multiple retailers/e-tailers in their native format.

 

GS1 India’s DataKart is a centralized repository that stores attributes of products sold in the Indian market. These attributes include information on but are not limited to – product variant, MRP, size, and weight, dimensions, product name, images, etc. 

 

One of the major USPs of DataKart is how it fits into the scheme of things. A manufacturer always wants his new products launches to be visible to every retailer. Earlier, this used to take weeks through the distributor network and they mostly had to depend on ads in media to popularise their new launches. However, the same could be done within a few clicks with DataKart. Also, the manufacturer is assured that every aspect of data is conveyed in the intended format without any errors. There could be absolutely no ambiguity or doubts about the information that is communicated.

 

In the same way, the retailer receiving the data has absolutely no doubt about the veracity of information it has received since the information is directly populated by brand owners and not received through distributors and wholesalers. . All you have to do is share information with multiple buyers, in their respective formats, at the click of few buttons.

How DataKart is Revolutionising Product Data Exchange Across Sectors

What is DataKart?

DataKart is a cloud-based online service from GS1 India.  GS1 India has launched DataKart service, a repository of retailed products, which has been developed based on industry needs for a single source of trusted, reliable and accurate information on products sold through retail stores and online shopping portals. It empowers users to make decisions based on the complete product information, which is mostly more than what is published on product labels.

DataKart is the national source of information on Indian retailed products with details of each attribute (ingredients, product images, MRP, net content, dimensions, etc.).  It enables brand owners to capture product information in an accurate, trusted, and updated manner, besides sharing the same with retailers in a consistent, structured, and standardised manner, in real time.

Why DataKart?

DataKart helps brand owners by enabling sharing of their products’ information with multiple retailers and online marketplaces in one go, in their respective native formats. Real-time product updates received through DataKart helps retailers and online marketplaces to keep the information updated at all times. This leads to huge savings in terms of time and resources and increased sales by reducing fill rate losses.

The retail sector would greatly benefit through better fill rates, on-shelf product availability, lesser mismatches between purchase orders and supplies receipts, faster product listings, new product introductions, better visual merchandising on retail shelves and consequent higher sales. DataKart helps resolve these issues.

DataKart benefits overeview

  • Product Catalogue Management: It includes 20 variables including but not limited to brand name, product category and description, net and gross weight, FSSAI License Number, MRP, product images, shelf life, and more;
  • Helping Retailers and Marketplaces: Seamless sharing of product data among brand owners and retailers / online marketplaces in native formats and templates for individual retailers. This can also be configured with their ERPs upon request
  • Generate and print barcode labels: Barcodes for labels can be generated and printed for products, cartons, and pallets;
  • Analytics: Generates detailed analytics reports with graphs, itemised lists, mapping, and more. Some of the reports DataKart generates include which retailer has viewed their product information/acted upon it, how many of their product information change notification is viewed, by whom all, etc.

DataKart – Holistic answer to product data challenges in retailing

DataKart would facilitate seamless mapping of harmonised system code of any product. Receiving product information through DataKart has enabled retailers to remove the dependency on third-party crowd sourced information. It helps them gain access to all the information on their products at a centralised location.   Retailers and online marketplaces using DataKart have also observed benefits of reduced time and enhanced efficiency in managing master data updates and listing new product introductions.

Write Your Retail Success Story with DataKart

Every successful brand has a story to tell. One thing that is unique in all these stories is the point at which that success is achieved. There can be many determining factors that trigger success such as a new partnership with a new client who brings in immense business prospects, a sudden change in market dynamics in your favor, or the development of a new product that outshines other products in a particular segment. These are some of the factors which seem to initiate brand success. However, this is the view from the outside. In reality, there is a lot that needs to be done by a brand owner to get to that stage where the elusive trigger for success can be found. None of the above-mentioned success story ‘factors’ could materialize if the basics are not done right.

The Value of Traditional Data Management Methods in 2022

Fundamentals, basics, principles, or standard practices, call them what you may, the value and relevance of these intangible things are timeless and essential for achieving business success. As a manufacturer, you need to fill up the excel sheets on time, send your faxes periodically and follow up on delivery updates and contracts with vendors through regular communication over the phone.

A retailer needs to collate information from multiple manufacturers. If the data is coming in a particular format, it needs to be accounted for and then managed in the same format. Or else, it has to be manually inputted into the native format used by the retailer. Both these methods are neither convenient nor very accurate.

So, does it mean that the hard yards simply have to be put in if one wants to grow as a retailer/manufacturer? Right?

Well, actually…right and wrong. Hard work is needed in a lot of different functions, but the part about Excel sheets, manual data entry, continuous faxes, regular phone communication for information checking and conversion of data format can be bypassed completely. For a manufacturer or brand owner, it is entirely possible to stay in sync with its sellers through a single-point interface such as DataKart. The same is true when we look at the process from a retailer’s point of view. A single-point platform for master data exchange can simplify things and allow you to perform basic responsibilities of sharing product data and changes in the iely manner, without any fuss.

Critical Challenges for Retailers in the Times of Covid-19

Succeeding as a retailer can be quite a challenge. Although a retailer is an integral part of the supply chain, its success in the supply chain depends on the goods made by several manufacturers. How well a retailer accounts for the products manufactured by different brand owners, displays them at the store, and then sells them through its Point of Sale (POS) systems directly influences its success.

The biggest challenges for retailers in the current market are:

  • Managing and addressing customer expectations
  • Building trust through quality and choices
  • Retaining customers and expanding the current customer base
  • Addressing customers’ queries through multiple channels

DataKart for Driving Retailer Success Story

DataKart is a platform that is powered by the globe’s biggest data network for a wide range of products’ information, including GDSN (Global Data Synchronization Network), GEPIR, etc. DataKart is a smart and robust platform that provides master data for almost every type of product for business transaction to happen smoothly. Not only it helps you forge better relations at the B2B level, but it also inspires confidence amongst consumers as it is accessible via GS1 India’s Smart Consumer mobile app. The sheer accuracy and real time data exchange that it brings into the entire supply chain makes it a reliable solution for solving present-day business challenges for retailers.

DataKart also offers great value to retailers in terms of keeping them alert about new items launched by different manufactures. It facilitates faster product listing and quicker receiving of the goods to the warehouse as all the information is made readily accessible in the native file format to the retailers.

At a time when every retailer is looking to build trust, there can be no compromise in the quality of master data available to them. In this regard, DataKart has absolutely no ambiguity and can be described as a single version of truth for all involved parties. All in all, it offers the perfect setup to create one’s very own retail success story.

DataKart: For Reducing Product Data Complexity

Product data complexity can be defined as a measure of its accessibility to the viewer. Accessibility does not simply mean ‘access’, but also how easily the data can be interpreted and used. In a supplier/retailer relationship, product data complexity is a two-way street. Even if you can manage complexity from one end, it does not automatically ensure that the other party involved in the relationship would be able to do the same. What is done by a manufacturer or brand owner needs to be transparent to the retailer or wholesaler who is selling the goods. The concept and its implication are the same for the service industry and even the technology domain, however, the management of complexity is done through different modes and mediums.

Key Areas to Focus on for Product Makers

Someone who is making a product is concerned about the following aspects of product data:

  • Every key attribute/feature of a product is constantly updated as per inventory changes
  • How quickly are the updates visible in product listing
  • Can the data be visualized properly for analytics
  • Data security
  • Is there a centralized repository of data that can be easily accessed via all concerned parties
  • Data should allow for universal and unique identification of every product in the inventory
  • A unique point of master data
  • Compliance with local/international rules and regulations

Key Areas of Focus for Sellers

When we look at product data from the perspective of a reseller or wholesaler, the following aspects need to be focused upon:

  • Data should provide information about the optimized arrangement of products at the store for maximum customer attention (planogramming)
  • Access to real-time data for making better sales decisions
  • Access to product availability data whenever new stock emerges
  • Information access in the seller’s native file formats
  • Easy-to-understand Point of Sale data for better future decision-making
  • A unique point of master data
  • Validation of license and certification pasted on the products

Convenience and Accuracy is the Mantra of Success

When it comes down to it, the ‘decision-making’ ability of a brand owner is what matters the most. It is the key decisions that you make, which eventually decide your fate in the cut-throat markets of today. So, if you are spending a major chunk of your time on just managing and making sense of vast and complex product datasets, then eventually you will delay the decisions and find yourself losing out to competitors.

With a convenient platform that provides updated information, you can always stay in the loop of what’s going on. The convenience of easy and anytime access has more value than you can imagine. Moreover, there has to be no doubt about the accuracy of data as tentativeness impacts decision-making. DataKart is a platform conceptualized by a non-profit organization, which makes it all the more compelling for brand owners who need correct information.

Single Unified Platform to Lower Complexity Further

Both manufacturers and brand owners have many responsibilities apart from just managing product data. For example, a manufacturer would need barcodes to improve product visibility and credibility. He would also need traceability services for enhanced counterfeit detection. The best way to achieve all these functionalities is by choosing a single-point partnership with GS1 India.

Need Help?

Chat Support