DIGITAL SOLUTIONS
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SECTION THREE
GS1 US Aims to Ramp up Retail Grocery Initiative in 2015
Seven months after launching its Retail Grocery Initiative, GS1 US begins 2015 with plans to move the program
forward with the increased help of product manufacturers, retailers and solution providers. This collaborative
industry effort aims to improve digital product information, supply chain visibility, and operational efficiencies.
It relies on adopting and implementing GS1 Standards, the most widely used supply chain standards in the world.
GS1 US, a member of the global information standards organization GS1, brings the industry stakeholders together to solve problems.
The major organizations involved in the initiative include such retailers such as Wegmans and Publix; CPGs (Coca-Cola and Kraft);
solution providers (Gladson and Clavis Insight); and trade associations (Grocery Manufacturers Association and Food Marketing Institute), among others.
“We anticipate this year to be a pivotal year in shaping the future of the retail grocery industry,” says Angela Fernandez, vice president of retail grocery and foodservice, GS1 US.
The Retail Grocery Initiative will focus on three areas:
Product Information and Images
“The need for expanded, product attributes is driven by consumer empowerment,” says Fernandez.” As a result, she said reliable data and images are needed when communicating and marketing in today’s mobile environment. The initiative will be focused on helping the industry better identify, capture and share the information that is important to both consumers and trading partners in a standardized, more efficient way.
“With shoppers traveling a digitally fueled path to purchase, brands and retailers face growing pressure to provide more detailed product information across a surging number of shopper touchpoints. More data means more complexity,” says Isabel DuPont, Senior Vice President of Content Production at Gladson.
“Likewise, accurate product data isn’t just a B2C problem,” she continues. “Throughout the supply chain, product data for cases, inner-packs and retail units determines how products are shipped, stored and placed on retailers’ shelves.”
One way manufacturers are responding is by partnering with third-party content providers that can offer standards-compliant, sustainable processes for creating, maintaining and distributing digital product information. In the past 12 months alone, Gladson added 1,000 new manufacturer customers, largely driven by their need to provide retailers and shoppers with up-to-date brand content for e-commerce and product catalogs.
Supply Chain Visibility
GS1 US officials stress the critical need for improved supply chain visibility to ensure the accurate identification of products as well as the delivery and tracking of safe foods and other products.
“Supply chain visibility removes barriers and siloes, swinging the door wide open to more process improvements, such as better inventory/category management, more accurate ordering, improved on shelf availability, improved shrink management and, ultimately, efficient and accurate traceability when required,” she said.
Operational Efficiencies
The initiative aims to reduce supply chain inefficiencies from decreasing total delivered costs (TDCs) to help companies remain competitive and successful. GS1 US is currently identifying the gaps and opportunities for operational efficiencies where leveraging the common language of GS1 Standards can lead to positive results.
There is industry consensus that a lack of confidence in data quality between trading partners in the retail grocery industry is making expected efficiencies unachievable. GS1 US is currently working with the initiative’s stakeholders on the launch of the GS1 US National Data Quality Program. The GS1 US Data Quality Discussion Group, with nearly 300 members representing 179 unique companies, first came together in 2013. These industry stakeholders agreed to focus on a clear mission - steering industry to adopt, implement and adhere to an industry-driven and defined data quality program to improve current business processes. The key to success in the realm of data quality for exchange between trading partners is creating and maintaining accurate and complete product information by leveraging GS1 Standards.
Clavis Insight, a provider of cloud-based eCommerce Intelligence and Data Quality Performance Management solutions, is participating in the initiative to keep track of data quality and data standards issues. Tom Golden, vice president of marketing at Clavis, believes that the dramatic growth of eCommerce has further increased the need for high quality data.
“High quality product information is foundational to collaborative commerce,” he said. “In a world of increased transparency, wrong product information erodes profits and consumers’ trust. And data quality is particularly important when it comes to issues such as nutrition information and product safety issues.”
Meanwhile, DuPoint of Gladson points out that the increased scale, velocity and demand for product content threatens to undermine manufacturers’ abilities to maintain it efficiently. As a result, the industry is taking steps to promote consistent, repeatable, GS1-compliant processes for the capture, audit and distribution of product information.
“The hope is that, as a result of this initiative, a growing number of retailers and manufacturers understand that product information management requires a qualitative approach with a level of expertise, technology and collaboration equal to the task,” she says.
Working with GS1, a group of leading consumer goods manufacturers, retailers and solution providers, including Gladson, came up with the best-practice process to improve data accuracy called the Data Quality Framework.
Such collaboration has taken center stage as companies realize that profitable growth can result by effectively leveraging the combined strength of their trading partner network. A study by the Boston Consulting Group and the Grocery Manufacturers Association says business-to-business collaboration is a major source of untapped value in the food industry, worth up to $21 billion industrywide. The GS1 US Retail Grocery Initiative aims to identify emerging industry challenges and facilitate collaboration to develop best practices for using GS1 Standards to address key issues and drive supply chain efficiencies, creating a more powerful, singular approach by the industry.
GS1 Standards have been used by the retail grocery industry for more than 40 years. In 1973, the grocery industry came together to agree on one way of doing business by adopting the U.P.C. barcode. GS1 US has been working with industry ever since to address business process needs and drive supply chain efficiencies.