Track & Trace in the Consumer Goods Industry
Counterfeit Protection with serialization and traceability
A large number of companies around the world from various industries are suffering from product piracy. Online retail makes it particularly difficult for manufacturers and authorities to find, track down and have counterfeit products from countries such as China removed from E-Commerce platforms. The end-user often does not spot that the product is counterfeit at first glance.
Thus, the customer is subjected to poor quality or even exposed to banned ingredients. Simultaneously, companies have to deal with significant sales losses and damage to their reputation. International counterfeiting operations no longer solely focus on brand names and luxury items because pharmaceutical products, cosmetics, automotive parts, toys, electronic products, and many other goods are increasingly being counterfeited.
This is why IT solutions for the serialization and tracking of goods are especially relevant for the consumer goods industry and the pharmaceutical sector. Four factors primarily drive this development:
- Preventing counterfeiting
- Regulatory standards
- Proof of product origin
- Inventory management
Counterfeit products represent a high risk and lost sales potential for brand manufacturers of consumer goods. The latest studies (such as EUIPO) show that the fashion sector alone loses around €23 billion annually in the EU alone. That makes preventing counterfeiting a valuable tool in avoiding these losses, especially in fashion and other highly targeted sectors such as cosmetics, electronics, spirits, replacement parts, and luxury goods.
New regulatory standards are introduced for an ever-increasing number of sectors within the consumer goods industry to increase consumer safety and prevent counterfeiting altogether. The pharmaceutical and tobacco sectors are particular examples of this, but the food industry also sees a growing number of new regulatory standards.
In addition to the regulatory standards, it is also crucial for consumer goods manufacturers to know the products' exact origin and contents from manufacturing to the end-user. The traceability of products is also becoming incredibly important in the food industry. In particular, because the tracking is used to fulfill the burden of proof for obligations. That also means that recall processes can be carried out efficiently.
The ability to track individual products along the entire supply chain also allows inventory to be managed efficiently across the various distribution levels. Track & Trace also enables the significant potential of returns to be leveraged and potentially counterfeit products to be identified during the return process.
Arvato Systems Is a Seasoned Partner with Experience in Implementing Track & Trace
In the healthcare segment, our serialization experts cover the entire end-to-end process chain with our own serialization solutions. Our portfolio contains solutions for companies ranging from SMEs to global companies. Arvato Systems has also been selected as a National Blueprint Service Provider by the European Medicines Verification Organization (EMVO). This allows us to provide the 28 EU countries as well as other non-EU states with a proven method to quickly, securely, and cost-efficiently implement all aspects of the EU Falsified Medicines Directive in the pharmaceutical industry. Our National Verification Systems have already been successfully put into operation in 17 EU states.
Find out how we use the expertise gained by our international teams from numerous projects to equip companies to meet the requirements in the area of medication protection with the Arvato CSDB serialization solution.