Compliance with National and International Regulations Made Easy with GS1 Barcodes

Barcode numbers or unique product codes give an identity to your products, whether you are selling them online or through retain channels. But the benefits of having barcodes are not just confined to having an identity or ease of selling. The benefits are multipronged. One such important benefit of identifying your products with GS1 barcodes is compliance with several government regulations.

Compliance with national and international regulations

Various national and international regulations currently require/endorse the need for GS1 barcode numbers on products. Some of these include:

  • DGFT Public Notice No. 52 2015/2020 mandates use of GS1 barcodes on exported medicines to facilitate track & trace and authentication
  • Delhi Excise department uses barcodes on liquor for authentication
  • Ministry of Health & Family Welfare’s Medical Devices Rules 2017, states global trade item number (GTIN) for medical devices
  • U.S. FDA Regulation for Unique Device Identifier (UDI) for medical devices
  • EU Regulations on medical devices and on in-vitro diagnostics
  • Other regulations, including the Russian Federation law which will be in full force as of January 1, 2020; the EU Falsified Medicines Directive (FMD) which went into full force on February 9, 2018; the Drug Supply Chain Security Act (DSCSA) where serialization mandate went into effect on November 27, 2018

Connect with consumers using Smart Consumer app

With GS1 barcode numbers on your products, you can upload your product information on GS1’s DataKart service, which feeds data to the Smart Consumer mobile app. Consumers can access this product data while scanning the product barcode using the Smart Consumer mobile app. This helps them to get the complete product information of the product, which may not be readable/available on the packaging of products including cosmetics, personal care, etc. This helps a consumer to make better purchasing decision and consume with awareness.

Further, as a part of Digital India and consumer empowerment initiatives, regulatory bodies such as FSSAI and AGMARK have directed brand owners to publish their product data on Smart Consumer app, to make it accessible to consumers.

Please note that GS1 India is the only authorised body to sell and issue GS1 barcode numbers (numbers starting with 890) in the country. Buying your barcode numbers from an authentic source – GS1 India – benefits your business in multiple ways, including compliance with regulatory requirements, improved search results, automated data capture and more.

Why is Reliable & Updated Product Data Critical for Omni-Channel Retail

At this year’s ‘Thanksgiving Day’ and ‘Black Friday’ in the U.S., on-line shopping overshot sales through retail stores, reversing the shopping trend of earlier years.

With rapid proliferation of online shopping portals and expected expansion of modern retail trade market share from 10% to over 25% in the next few years, providing a seamless shopping experience to consumers becomes imperative.

It needs to be kept in mind that today’s hyper-connected consumer researches thoroughly for a product, both off-line and on-line before deciding to buy.

At the core of delivering a seamless, consistent experience across retail channels to the consumer is ready access to detailed information on retailed products which is accurate, complete, reliable and enables shoppers to make purchase decisions with ease.

Retailers/etailers struggle to get this right most often, with several instances of incomplete information or wrong depiction of products resulting in loss of consumer confidence.

Brand owners/suppliers too struggle with uploading their product information multiple times in proprietary buyer formats, resulting in frequent mismatches and gaps.  This is particularly true since retail products undergo frequent changes with new products that are being introduced and phasing out of earlier products.

The need of the hour is therefore a platform which allows for seamless exchange and updation of information on products between trading partners in a uniform, structured and consistent manner, without requiring multiple data uploads.

This will significantly reduce current dependence of etailers, in particular, to crowd-sourced data that is usually highly unreliable, inaccurate and even malicious, at times.

GS1 India’s ‘DataKart’, created in response to Industry needs and with their active collaboration, fills this gap. This enables brand owners and retailers/etailers to exchange and update product information with accuracy, in real time, with no involvement of any third party.

Operative since 2016, DataKart currently hosts information on over 7 million retailed products across all categories with rich attribute information related to product images, label information etc.

ShopClues to Improve Their Google Shopping Ads and Their Product Item Master

Unicorn e-commerce platform, ShopClues, is the latest to subscribe to GS1 India’s DataKart service.

Several compelling reasons have prompted ShopClues to subscribe to DataKart such as:

Access to GTIN (EAN code) for each product to meet Google’s requirements

Most e-commerce platforms rely on Google to advertise and sell their products online. In order to do this, advertisers have to submit GTINs as part of their Google Shopping feed. While most brand owners assign unique GTINs to their products, sellers don’t always have the latest/right information, making it a time-consuming process for ShopClues to source the information. ShopClues can now source latest product GTIN information, along with its associated product attributes directly from DataKart, streamlining the process.

Reduce customer confusion while shopping online

Online shoppers solely depend on product descriptions, specifications and images to make purchase decisions. Conflicting or slightly different descriptions about a product can confuse them.

ShopClues has identified that by using the standardised and detailed product description and specifications, available through DataKart, they can ensure consistent information is visible to shoppers, even when sold by different sellers, thereby increasing the probability of sale. Sourcing product data from DataKart will also ensure the data is accurate, trusted and timely as the information is provided directly from brand owners themselves.

Reduce product listing time for sellers

ShopClues also envisions the time sellers take to list products on their platform will reduce due to DataKart. Today, sellers input product descriptions and specifications for each product. Now that product information will be sourced directly from brands (not sellers) through DataKart, sellers will not be required to input the data again at their end, which would speed the product listing process.

Build an accurate item master

Another advantage ShopClues expects from their DataKart subscription is the ease to maintain a unique item master/product catalogue by considerably removing duplicate product entries.

With access to accurate product data, other benefits, such as responding faster to shopper search query online (by matching queries to product catalogues) to recommending similar products based on shopper preferences, are possible.

Upload FSSAI License Number and Take A Step Towards Smart Labelling

FSSAI recently sent a letter to Industry asking them to publish FSSAI license numbers along with other product attributes for all food products to the Smart Consumer mobile app, developed by the Department of Consumer Affairs, Government of India.

To share detailed information on this requirement and to assist Industry in its compliance, GS1 India conducted a series of webinars over the last several weeks. Through these webinars, steps/actions companies need to take in order to make their product information visible to consumers through the Smart Consumer mobile app, were shared.

The app draws FSSAI information along with other core product information from GS1 India’s DataKart service, which allows brand owners to upload, store and share accurate product information and images in a standardised and structured manner.

The advantages for brands in sharing product information through the Smart Consumer app are:

  • Easily share product information that may be difficult to read on the product package due to limited space
  • Give consumers access to more information that could ever fit on a package label
  • Meet all labelling and marking regulatory requirements

This initiative is a step towards furthering the vision of Digital India by utilising alternative means (other than product label) such as Smart Labels, to share required regulatory compliance information with consumers, which could be beneficial to both brands and consumers.

Over 125 Companies Sign Up for DataKart Premium Services

Companies of all sizes across product categories are seeing tremendous value from DataKart’s premium features which allows them to share detailed product information with retailers, online shopping sites, and consumers.

Over 125 companies, which include Cargill India, Heinz, Parle Products, S.C. Johnson Products, Studds Accessories, Panasonic Appliances, Surya Roshini, Hamdard, Usha Shriram Enterprises, Bikanerwala Foods, MTR Foods, Pro Nature Organic Foods, Spicejet Merchandise, Thermocool Home Appliances, Mysore Sangam Agarbatti Works, Dalmia Continental, Duncans Tea, Bliss Chocolates, and Debon Herbals, among others have subscribed to DataKart’s premium features.

With their premium subscription, these brand owners can share standardised, structured product data seamlessly and in real-time with their trading partners. Potential benefits they are expecting to gain from this include:

  • Speed go-to-market time with faster listing of new product introductions and promotions
  • Share structured product data with kirana stores across the country through integration of DataKart with POS applications
  • Save time and effort by entering each product’s information only once and sharing it with multiple retailers/online shopping sites at one go in their required formats
  • Improve fill rates and increase product sales by eliminating ordering and dispatch mismatches through matching of retailer article codes with EAN codes
  • Receive instant acknowledgements from retailers/online shopping sites on product changes, promotions and new product introductions
  • Reduce time spent in updating product data for retailers on an ongoing basis
  • Become GST compliant by mapping product EAN code with its corresponding Harmonised System (HS) code

Consumers are Increasingly Using Smart Consumer Mobile App to View Product Details, According to Report

The Smart Consumer mobile app of the Department of Consumer Affairs, Government of India was launched last year, to enable consumers to digitally access product information on their smartphones and to connect consumers directly with brand owners.

The app receives its regular feed of product data from DataKart. A product’s information is displayed every time its barcode is scanned using the app.

Usage reports of the Smart Consumer mobile app show, over 12000 products have been scanned by consumers across India to view product details.

While consumers successfully viewed product details of brands that have uploaded their product information to DataKart, those that have not, are missing out on the opportunity to directly promote their products to consumers.

Don’t miss out on this opportunity to maximise your product’s visibility and grow your business. Upload and publish your product information from DataKart to the Smart Consumer mobile app today.

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