The Retailer Autumn 2017_v1

Business

Business

We need to talk about product data

Jim Dickson Head of Retail Grocery GS1 UK

“it’s estimated the uk grocery sector is being hit by £200m in costs and lost sales each year due to poor product data’’

AS RETAILERS STRUGGLE WITH POOR PRODUCT DATA, IT’S TIME FOR THE INDUSTRY TO TACKLE IT HEAD-ON.

Essentially, Digital DNA will provide a single industry product data catalogue for the grocery sector, where suppliers put data in using a harmonised data model and retailers take data out in a way that suits them, when it suits them. The data will be independently quality assessed to ensure everyone is confident in it and importantly, the data will be royalty-free – owned by the suppliers. This will be transformational as it will reset the fundamentals of product data sharing between retailers and suppliers by providing one way of introducing new products and one way of making changes to products, using just one language to describe those products.

shoppers so they can make safe and confident purchasing decisions – based on health, wellbeing or lifestyle choices.

We all know that shopping habits are changing, driven by different lifestyles and technology. Today, customers are buying their groceries more frequently and in smaller amounts. Larger shopping trips have been replaced by online deliveries and click-and-collect. Many customers have become concerned about health, wellbeing and the environment, and have specific dietary and allergen needs. This means customers expect ever more information about the products they buy to be readily available, both in-store and online. And of course, they expect this information to be complete, correct and consistent across the channels they use. For many years the sector has had a problem with managing product data. It’s often inconsistent, inaccurate or incomplete, and multiple versions of the same data create unnecessary headaches. These inefficiencies are often hidden in duplicate processes and manual checks. It’s estimated the UK grocery sector is being hit by £200m in costs and lost sales each year due to poor product data. This impacts the bottom line but also the speed and efficiency of moving products through the supply chain. The problem is only going to get worse as the number of required product attributes keeps growing. And as more shopping channels open up, brands are having to deal with more trading partners, requiring more data, in different formats. A TRANSFORMATIONAL SOLUTION FOR THE INDUSTRY, BY THE INDUSTRY Grocery retailers and brands are rightly concerned about product data and it became clear this was a universal issue when the GS1 UK Retail Grocery Advisory Board first met to discuss common problems they faced. This group of prominent retailers and brands quickly recognised the need for an industry-wide solution to solve the product data problem. Using countries such as Sweden, the Netherlands and Australia as inspiration, where the issues were addressed many years ago, here in the UK we initiated the Digital DNA programme. This industry-wide project, led by retailers and brands, has the ultimate goal of enabling everyone across the sector to share the same high-quality product data. But this is presenting enormous challenges to the grocery sector, with retailers and brands alike struggling to keep up.

And in the long-term, retailers and brands in the grocery sector won’t be the only ones to benefit. A similar model could be implemented for other sectors across retail, ensuring they can also benefit from a single and unified product data catalogue. “Currently brands provide product information in multiple ways to different retailers and this adds both cost and complexity.” Gianluca Branda, Associate Director, Product Supply for P&G Northern Europe PROGRESS TO DATE We’ve been working on Digital DNA for the past year and over the summer 12 leading retailers and brands, including Tesco, Unilever and Waitrose, signed up to the Digital DNA Industry Charter making a commitment to move to a single industry solution to manage and exchange product data. Digital DNA is being tested today by some of the companies involved in the programme. The full service will be available for industry in 2018, uniquely offering business-to-business and business-to-consumer data exchange through a single service, available to companies of all sizes. Essentially, Digital DNA is a game changer for the grocery sector. And through better management of product data, retailers and brands can spend more time on what really matters – delivering innovation, growth and excellent customer service.

“As an industry, it is essential that we work together to solve the problem of providing quality product data to all our customers.” Mark Watson, Director of Planning and Supply Chain, Ocado

THE BENEFITS FOR RETAILERS AND BRANDS • Digital DNA will develop a common language for high quality, validated data that has been agreed by the industry, built on GS1 industry standards • There’ll no longer be a need for constant checks as a single source of image, product and logistics data will be used throughout the supply chain, from the brand to the retailer and to the shopper • Digital DNA will increase confidence among retailers that the product data being provided is accurate and consistent, while suppliers can choose their preferred way of putting data in and controlling who can securely take it out • Digital DNA is designed to avoid data being locked in to one vendor and the data usage rights will be agreed by the industry, so no-one will be trapped by other’s commercial agendas. The governance and funding is also being managed by the industry, ensuring a fair deal for all We believe Digital DNA will provide value for everyone as it’s run by the industry, for the industry and managed through GS1 UK – a neutral, not-for-profit standards organisation. IT’S ALL ABOUT THE SHOPPER It’s not just the retailers and brands that will benefit as Digital DNA will provide complete and accurate information for

JIM DICKSON // jim.dickson@gs1uk.org // gs1uk.org/digitaldna

18 | autumn 2017 |

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