India is a consumer driven economy with consumers dictating demands for accurate, complete & authentic product information and easy accessibility of product across channels.
Brands are competing with each other to provide this and enable consumers make informed purchase decisions. This information, if standardised and consistent across channels, also leads to seamless omni-channel consumer experience. However, the challenge lies in capturing product attribute information in a standardised, consistent and complete manner. Information captured through digital means is not what e-tailing websites are looking at. Correctly captured product information is something that compels consumers to buy it while depicting an honest and accurate picture about that product. Everything, right from product images to product dimensions and capturing of product attributes should follow the prescribed standards. Here, it is interesting to know that the GS1’s standards for imaging, dimensioning and capturing product attributes are de-facto retailing standards and are used by national as well as international e-commerce websites. In case, you would like to learn more about these standards, there are various online resources available. You may also visit GS1 General Specifications. However, the best and the easiest way to ensure that information on products comply with GS1 standards is to avail of their e-Cataloguing & Imaging Service. It not only captures the product attributes and digital images in a manner compliant with GS1 Product Image Specification Standard & GS1 Package Measurement Rules, but also ensures that the same is available to various buyers in their native file formats. With this, gone are the days when you had to fill up the information of the same product multiple times to make sure that it is filled as per the various available buyers’ formats. With GS1 India’s e-Cataloguing Service, all the product information is available in an online tool called DataKart, from which, it is available for download in various file formats. Also, manufacturers can share their product information with multiple buyers (retailers and e-tailers) using their DataKart account as well. To know more, click at www.gs1india.org/datakart. This mitigates the possibility of getting your product information rejected by the e-commerce websites. Also, the same can be instantly put to use for product promotions through the web, showcased in in-store displays, and given a platform on social media. Standardisation of product information is also necessary since consumers today create various touchpoints with the products while reaching to purchase decision. Today’s shopper’s journey can begin on a social media website where a product is discovered, proceed to a store to get a look-and-feel of the product, and end on an ecommerce website. Along these touch-points, the customer is constantly clued into the product information, using it as a point of insight and comparison to help him make up his mind. Hence, it is important that information on all these, and many more, mediums should portray a consistent and complementary product story. Additionally, well defined product information opens more sales channels in terms of other e-tailing websites and drives consumers to make definitive purchase decisions. Hence, in this ever-evolving online retailing, consistent and standardised product information enables brands to enhance the market reach of their products by listing at various online retailing platforms.
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In India, healthcare is largely inaccessible in the country and has humongous cost attached to it. Even after various health insurance companies in the fray to secure health, one ends up paying large sums of money because of high premiums. This is a result of inflated treatment costs in the medical bills and fake bills presented by patients, many times by tweaking the hospital names. On the other hand, insurance companies had no way to cross check the physical presence of hospitals in the absence of a national registry of hospitals.
But not anymore. ROHINI — Registry of Hospitals in Network of Insurance (ROHINI), is an online national hospital repository based on Global Location Number(GLN), launched by the Indian Insurance Bureau (IIB), under IRDAI, with the aim to ensure faster claim settlement and establish a check on insurance claims by bringing in visibility to hospital identity. Under ROHINI, all private hospitals and day-care centres are identified with a 13-digit globally unique GS1 identifier (GLN — Global Location Number) linked with its geo-coded address. This prevents duplicate listing of the same facility by tweaking in the hospital name. This expedites insurance claims processing time by enabling insurance companies to verify hospital identity. With ROHINI, IIB addresses a serious concern of the health insurance sector: fraud. As per the reports, as many as 30 percent of all health claims are found to be fraudulent. Further, research shows that this fraud does not only arise from patients, but also is induced by hospitals and employees in the value chain, who try to file claims in the name of hospitals which do not exist or by making tweaks in the hospital name. Reports also showed that the problem is even worse in States, where governments run mass health insurance schemes. ROHINI also aims to solve this by offering global standards based registry of Indian hospitals that can be verified by all insurance stakeholders. For this reason, it has been rightly called the ‘Aadhaar of Hospitals’. Realising the benefit of unique identification of hospital locations, IRDAI has mandated that only hospitals listed under ROHINI can provide the facility of cashless hospitalisation. Despite this, there are many hospitals in the country that are out of ROHINI’s ambit. These are majorly those hospitals that do not offer cashless insurance treatment but let patients run from pillar to post to get the reimbursement for their hospitalisation claims. Another advantage for hospitals listed under ROHINI is that they can directly register under the Prime Minister Modi’s Ayushman Bharat National Health Protection Scheme (AB-NHPS), which aims to facilitate healthcare services to over half a billion people in India. This enables ROHINI listed hospitals to serve thousands of patients falling under the scheme. This offers a huge potential for private hospitals to increase footfalls of patients. In future, data captured through ROHINI can be used by insurance companies, hospitals, and the government to run successful healthcare schemes by analysing data of claim patterns, cost of treatment, etc. Also, information like services at each hospital, treatments offered, hospitalisation required for each treatment, and its cost can enable consumers/patients get visibility and make informed decisions. When a consumer walks into a retail outlet or search online to purchase a product, s(he) ignores the most important aspect of the product – its barcode number, which is printed on product labels.
These labels also comprise of some details pertaining to the product – like manufacturing date, expiry date (if it’s a consumable), batch number along with the retail product price. Barcode numbers starting with prefix ‘890’ consists of a GS1 Global Trade Item Number (GTIN) which is a global standard widely used in the retail sector. The barcode number is linked to an external tool which holds additional information about the product that the label presents. Simply put, these barcodes link back all the information about the product all through the chain—when it was manufactured, the batch it was manufactured in, the date, the time, its packaging details, etc. In India, the platform which acts as a national repository to accurate & authentic product information is called DataKart. Information on retail products is directly populated by brand owners, and hence trusted information. It is used by brand owners to manage information on new product introductions, updates/changes, and share the same, at one go, with several retailers and shopping portals, over the lifecycle of products. This includes information on product attributes, such as brand name, ingredients, product image, MRP, net content, dimensions, Regulatory information like FSSAI license numbers and their validity, etc. This initiative of GS1 India has a direct consumer benefit through the mobile application called – Smart Consumer App by Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Government of India, in collaboration with GS1 India is working to empower consumers with reliable product information regarding their purchase choices. By simply scanning a 890 product barcode using the Smart Consumer mobile app on their smartphone, digital product information can be accessed by consumers to instantly learn purchase-relevant details like the product’s name, date of manufacture, MRP, net content, along with manufacturer details, consumer care details. The consumers can download the consumer app by government from Google Play store or Apple store. Once installed, consumers can start validating digital product information for consumers by scanning its barcode. All data in Smart Consumer app is directly populated by brand owners through DataKart. The app helps to validate/authenticate information on products and its Regulatory licenses along with their validity. The app also provides consumers with the ability to make better informed purchase decisions, especially when buying through online shopping portals, through the access to complete and trusted information on retail products, as it is directly provided by brand owners. They can also use the Smart Consumer app to give feedback on products directly to their manufacturers, and to report complaints, if any, with the manufacturer and Regulatory bodies. Considering the pace at which the retail sector in India is expanding and changing, Industry is pushing for a nationwide adoption and implementation of these standards for products being sold in India, which could have a big impact on the sector. Reference Link :- https://gs1indiacontent.blogspot.com/2019/12/scan-product-barcodes-starting-with-890.html GS1 is a global standards organisation that develops and maintains standards to improve efficiency, safety and visibility of supply chains across the globe. GS1 standards enable businesses to uniquely identify, accurately capture and seamlessly share information on products, logistics units, locations, entities, documents and services across supply and demand chains.
Most commonly, these standards are used in assigning barcode numbers to consumer items. They also enable several applications, such as product authentication, POS checkout, online selling, stock availability, track & trace, product recall, real-time stocks monitoring, and more. GS1 standards are open, neutral and technology agnostic, enabling companies of all sizes and complexities to use — send and receive data in the supply chain, and hence, gain visibility and exchange information. By the use of global GS1 standards across the supply chain, organisations can significantly cut down on administrative costs and paperwork. Today, GS1 standards are used across 25 sectors, including retail, FMCG, healthcare, transport & logistics, railways, and more. Retail & FMCG: GS1 standards:
GS1 standards are today revolutionizing healthcare services, by ensuring exceptional care and maintaining patient safety through:
Reference link :- https://gs1indiacontent.blogspot.com/2019/12/global-supply-chain-standards-increase.html Today, the collection of reliable, up-to-date information on retail products is a challenge for retailers, online shopping websites and app providers. This is especially because there is no standard format/no fixed product attributes that are required by each retail sector player. This is despite the fact that this accurate and trusted product information is vital to managing daily retail operations like merchandise ordering, supplies receipts, planogramming, FIFO management, stock monitoring, new product introductions, promotions, etc.
Need for detailed, updated information The information required to manage day-to-day retail operations includes detailed product attribute information, such as its net weight, gross weight, dimensions, price, action and deactivation dates, description, etc., along with product images. For small brand owners, a more streamlined approach to collecting and mentioning product information can help them list their products faster with multiple retailers/e-tailers to sell across the country. This also includes filling the complete and accurate information on their products in several different buyer/retail format, which have different character limits, structure, mandatory attributes, format, etc. Doing is job manually is only difficult but also restricts the reach when it comes to filling the same information only one, but also on every change in the product. This also demand significant time and efforts from brand owners. Moreover, since doing this manually demands time, it diminished the possibilities of updating retailers’/e-tailers’ item masters/database in real time. DataKart: Addressing the challenges GS1 India’s DataKart is addressing the challenges surrounding increasing the reach of your products by listing them with multiple retailers/e-tailers. DataKart is a web-based platform that enable brand owners to connect with retailers and e-tailers for sharing access up-to-date, complete and accurate retailed product data. As a product data repository on Indian retail products, it features the details of each attribute (ingredient, product image, MRP, net content, dimensions and other aspects). Brand owners can use DataKart to share accurate, trusted, and updated SKU data within a consistent, structured, and standardised manner, in real time. Moreover, what’s interesting is they just need to upload their information and changes on their products once, and it automatically gets populated with multiple retailers and e-tailers, in their required file formats, on a single click. Brand owners can also use DataKart for efficiently assigning and managing barcode numbers (GTINs-EAN/UPC) on their products, generating barcode images for printing on product packaging, and storing/viewing all information on their products and barcodes, from a single place. In other words, DataKart also provides a single web-based window for all your product and barcode information, for all your teams, irrespective of their geographical location. Added business benefit Since most retailers and e-tailers are using DataKart to access product and supplier information, it allows brand owners to promote their products/new launches to new retailers and e-tailers directly. Today, several B2B, B2G, B2C businesses are enjoying unprecedented efficiencies through DataKart. These include faster product listing, optimised planogramming, efficient tracking and warehouse management. It also facilitates compliance with statutory labelling and marking guidelines, license and certificate validation, and facilitating consumer access to additional product information. As of April 2019, DataKart had listed over 7.5 million retailed products from around 14,000 manufacturers. The data uploaded is verified via validity checks based on globally accepted GS1 standards, before it can be accessed by buyers. This ensures that shoppers (both b2b and b2c) get accurate, updated information about products and their attributes. Recourse Link:- https://gs1indiacontent.blogspot.com/2019/12/national-product-data-repository.html India's pharmaceutical industry today enjoys global eminence for producing the largest volume of generic drugs in the world, meeting over half of the global demand for vaccines and almost 25% demand of medicines for the United Kingdom. Indian drug companies are recognised globally for their operations across the world.
Despite this critical role that Indian pharmaceutical industry is playing in global healthcare, it becomes a target of various counterfeit and verification of pharmaceuticals allegations from across the world, from time and again. As per a study done in 2014 by one of India’s trade bodies, around 25 per cent of India’s drugs are fake, counterfeit or substandard. According to a report released in April’19 by the office of the United States Trade Representative, 20% of pharma products in India are counterfeit. As per a report published by the Institute of Medicine (IOM), “To Err is Human”, 44,000 to 98,000 deaths occur annually due to medical errors, out of which 7000 deaths per year can be traced to medication errors. This report also recommended three important strategies to avoid medical errors —preventing, recognizing, and mitigating harm from error. The first strategy (recognizing and implementing actions to prevent error) has the greatest potential effect, just as in preventive efforts. This includes having systems in place that can detect the possible harms and mitigate them from reaching the patients. Traceability is also one such preventive system that prevent fake drugs from entering into the supply chain. This report also recommended barcoding of medications as a solution for accurate drug identification. What is traceability? According to GS1 – a global organisation that develops standards for identification and barcoding, traceability (in healthcare or drug traceability) is defined as a process that enables you to see the movement of prescription drugs or medical devices across the supply chain. You can trace backwards to identify the history of the transfers and locations of a product, from the point of manufacture onwards. And you can track forwards to see the intended route of the product towards the point of care.” A strong track & trace system across supply chain trading partners can help address the menace of drug counterfeits. This requires adoption of global traceability standards for drugs by pharmaceutical companies, at different product packaging levels. DAVA - track & trace project of DGFT for medicines exported out of India To sustain confidence in the medicines produced in India, the Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) issued a notice outlining the creation of a track and trace system, way back in 2011. This system enables traceability of pharmaceutical consignments exported from India, to stop counterfeit drugs entering into at any points in the supply chain. The DGFT's notice mandates exporting pharma companies to mark their export consignments with GS1 barcodes at various packaging levels. This information, along with product hierarchy (parent-child relationship) must be uploaded onto the Drug Authentication and Verification Application (DAVA) web portal, before the consignment is released for customs authorities to scan the barcodes on consignments and cross check the information. Over 380 large and medium-sized pharma companies today upload their daily production data to DAVA. Regulators and patients alike can authenticate Indian pharmaceuticals and drugs anywhere in the world using DAVA by simply scanning the barcoded labels on packaging. DAVA has also been recognised by the Asia-Pacific Council for Trade Facilitation and Electronic Business (AFACT), under the United Nations Centre for Trade Facilitation and Electronic Business (UN/CEFACT), who awarded it the e-ASIA Award as the best trade facilitation system in the region. Reference Link :- https://gs1indiacontent.blogspot.com/2019/11/traceability-in-indian-pharmaceuticals.html The EPC (Electronic Product Code) is a unique number assigned to a specific product/item, which acts as a key to database to unlock information about that product.
These numbers are similar to a Global Trade Item Number (GTIN), which is encoded in barcodes, except for the fact that it is unique for each specific unit of a product. EPC number is encoded in a microchip of a Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tags. Radio waves are used to capture the unique ID at extremely high rates and at distances further than 10 meters, without line-of-sight contact. RFIDs are leveraged to boost supply chain visibility and increase inventory accuracy. As per market research, integration of sensors and cloud-based technologies in RFID tags offer lucrative growth opportunities to market players across Industry segments, including supply chain management, airline baggage handling, industrial logistics, pharmaceuticals and healthcare, brand protection, libraries, media management, and others. Another interesting example of the use of EPC/RFID tag is Indian Railways to manage and identify the location of its assets — wagons, coaches and locomotives. For unique identification of its rolling stock, Indian Railways uses EPC/RFID tags designed by the Centre for Railway Information Systems (CRIS) encoded with GS1’s GIAI-202 standard. Partially implemented system has benefited the railways tremendously which is why once the system is fully implemented, it will be crucial for the visibility of each vehicle that runs in the Indian Railways in near real time. This system will also help Indian Railways in predicting maintenance work schedules, freight traction and coach maintenance. GS1 EPC-RFID standards are also being used to facilitate the Electronic Toll Collection system in India, under the name of FASTags. The ETC is meant to provide a faster, efficient and seamless travel on the State and national highways. Similarly, in healthcare, the EPC/RFID tags can be used to monitor the movement of prescription drugs or medical devices, across the supply chain. This traceability, enables trading partners to share information about the whereabouts of the products in the supply chain. The tracking helps eliminate counterfeit products as well as ensures patient safety. Resource Link :- https://gs1indiacontent.blogspot.com/2019/11/epc-rfid-technology-and-industries.html Back in May 2015, Indian food safety authorities outlawed the production and sale of an instant noodle product, manufactured by a leading global brand, for high level of MSG.
As the ban surfaced, the company struggled to recall affected instant noodle packs from its supply chain spread across the country. The company was unable to access as much as 35–40% of the total stock as thousands of outlets selling the product are outside the company’s direct reach or network. Recalling a faulty product proved difficult, especially from the rural areas. As a result, the only retort available to the company was to destroy the whole stock, wherever found in the supply chain. Trucks of material were destroyed, leading to huge losses in cost and reputation. Brand owners need to be always prepared for the uncalled situations like the above. The sheer preparedness will not only save huge costs by exactly targeting the stock that needs to be recalled but also save the brand image, portraying it as responsible organisation working towards consumer safety. The preparedness in this case is an effective recall mechanism with proper guidelines and strategies. Let’s understand what it entails. Either mandated by the Regulator or voluntarily initiated by the brand owner, product recall is a process of recovering products/consignments batch-wise from your supply chains, spanning the whole market. An effective recall system is based on visibility to the whole of the supply chain and needs seamless data flow among supply chain partners with unambiguous and unique identification of products, consignments, locations, parties, and documents. Standards-based solution to recalls The objective of a product recall system is to encourage speedy, transparent, localized product withdrawals from the whole of supply chain whenever required. This requires implementation of global supply chain standards — GTS (Global Traceability Standard). The Global Traceability Standard functions as a blueprint for all supply chain partners that enables them to share product/consignment information at each checkpoint in a manner that enables complete supply chain visibility. The GS1 GTS is intended for use across end-to-end supply chains and is relevant to all events that span the lifecycle of a traceable object, including:
The need for unique identification At the heart of a traceability system is the identification of traceable objects, which is encoded in the form of barcodes. A traceable object is a physical or digital object for which there is a need to retrieve information about its history, application, or location. Examples of traceable objects include products (e.g., consumer goods, medicines, electronic devices), logistic units (e.g., palletised goods, parcels) and assets (e.g., trucks, vessels, trains, forklifts). For the physical identification of traceable objects, generally three main levels of identification can be distinguished:
The objectives of the traceability system and the supply chain itself are key criteria to determine the right level of identification. Companies will often apply a combination of identification levels. Once, this unique identification system is in place, along with the digital infrastructure required by GTS, using which each supply chain stakeholder has transparency, recalls becomes efficient and effective. Many a times it happens that you enter a showroom looking for some product and come across one that doesn’t bear the price tag. You seek the help of the staff there who immediately checks their inventory with sensors and do the needful. It’s then that you take the help of the Datkart.
Datakart is the product data repository. Data cartas the name suggests is the storehouse carrying all the data on the consumer product including their features like image, content, price, size, etc. It is a barcode generator for every product under its purview. It allows the brand owners to communicate the trusted brand information to the retailers. Since the launch of Datakart in 2016, it has modernized the product data conversation between the owners, retailers and the customers. Presently, it masses information on approx. 80 lakh consumer products from approx. 14,000 companies. Benefits of Datakart This service started by GS1 helps the manufacturers to share the accurate updated SKU data in a stable and methodical mode. It is a single source of reliable data of the product.. Datakart will always include a Barcode called GTIN that gives a number to the product along with the photograph of the product. It avoids confusion among the retailers as many companies sometimes have similar product in appearance but the hidden details are very well established with Datakart.The traders are in no time able to seek the most sorted information about the product. It therefore saves time and effort as once the data about the product is uploaded; it is accessible to every stakeholder throughout the supply chain. It improves product sales owing to the easy search of the commodity just through a code thereby avoiding any discrepancy in the demand and supply of the product. Retailers and online traders are satisfied with this facility as they get a prompt alert about the latest product launch by the brand owners. E-catalogue With huge competition in the market, many owners are regularly updating and re launching their products with improved quality. Maintaining a catalogue in this regard sometimes becomes a cumbersome process. GS1 India's e-Cataloguing & Imaging service is a great relief in this regard. As stated by GS1, it is a 'one-stop solution' to meet various product cataloguing and imaging required for selling products through online portals or offline stores. This e- catalogue is a trusted worldwide service following GS1 Product Image Specification Standards & GS1 Package Measurement Rules. So, all this e- catalogue information is found in one Datakart that is available to everyone in the loop. Looking at the advantages of Datakart, many companies are availing this opportunity on a day to day basis. Over 125 companies including Heinz, Parle Products, S.C. Johnson Products, Studds Accessories, Panasonic Appliances, Surya Roshini, Hamdard, UshaShriram Enterprises, Bikanervala Foods, MTR Foods, etc, have accessed to Datakart’s premium features making their products popular worldwide sell through shopping websites or through big retail stores. An up gradation to this is the launch of Smart Consumer app (free for Android and iOS) by the Department of Consumer Affairs and GS1 India that allows a customer to know about the product by scanning a code through their smartphone. Hence, all those brand owners who want to increase their product visibility to a wider consumer should go for this facility. Reference Link Here:- https://gs1indiacontent.blogspot.com/2019/07/datakart-for-industry-by-industry.html If you are a manufacturer and want to popularise your goods orif you have just started the business and are looking for beginning a relation with your customers, the easy way out is, get a barcode for your products. Barcode for products has nowadays become a common practice used by many companies. It not only dilutes the complexity of the process but also gives an identity to your merchandise. In fact it has become essential to get your products registered for barcode to enable a smart shopping for the users. These barcodes are used across the logistics carrying the information about that product.
Barcoding - Online Barcodes of numerous types are offered to cater to the needs of the different companies. Consider the example of garment industry where the barcodes are generally in form of SKU codes. These codes help in ascertaining the colour, size, brand, warranty of the merchandise, thereby speeding up the documentation and keeping the inventory in place. It has also revolutionised the marketing of commodities via online platform. Through the codes, products are given digital character that ensures a virtual communication between the consumer and the brands. Also, putting a code to your commodity makes its presence easily noticeable electronically by augmenting the search engine. So, better apply for barcode beforehand to enhance the worldwide personality of your product. Why Register with GS1? Registration of barcodes has now been made easily accessible for the product owners through GS1 India.As an associate to GS1 Global, GS1 India is the only authorised body that can issue barcodes for your stocks in India. With an experience of more than 20 years in this field of barcoding, it has set standards with retailers, manufacturers and suppliers for over a million companies sweeping 25 different Industrial sectors.In a way, GS1 India ease the process by empowering important applications such as product authentication, track & trace, product recall, real-time stocks monitoring, online selling and more. GS1 Barcode almost negates the human error effectively by regulating the possibility of every mistake of any kind regarding the stocks.It displays fewer faults in recognising the product, in other words barcode establishes full accuracy in providing correct data about the product. It allows less dealing with the products physically permitting very low chances of wastage. Another big advantage of pursuing GS1 India is its speciality in Datakart. It is a storehouse of information on Indian retailed products containing details of every feature of the product. Brand owners collect the data directly into DataKartthat is retrieved by multiple retailers for managing their product item. Datamatrix is a 2 – dimensional code that is being used to encode product and serial number information on different items. It allows brand owners to efficiently assign and manage barcode numbers (GTINs-EAN/UPC), besides generating barcode images following GS1 standards. GS1 hence helps industries to adopt these ethics to augment their competence and productivity. Registering with GS1 We have very well answered the question as to why GS1 India is needed for your products. The next question naturally comes is how one can do this? You can avail numerous facilities of GS1 India. They are professionals in working with supervising each product with their best understanding. To refer to their facilities, please follow their website or click the link below. Reference Link here:- https://gs1indiacontent.blogspot.com/2019/07/register-with-gs1-india-for-better.html |