EVRYTHNG First To Support GS1® Digital Link Barcode Upgrade For Mass-Scale Global Product Digitization
Online Tool Set, Ecosystem of Supply Chain and Packaging Partners and Unique Patent Licensing Agreement with GS1 Makes Digital Activation of the 4 Trillion Consumer Products Manufactured Each Year with New Standard Available at Global Scale
NEW YORK and LONDON, Aug. 15, 2018 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- EVRYTHNG, the IoT platform that activates every consumer product to make it intelligent, interactive and trackable, today announced it is the first to commercially support the new GS1 Digital Link standard that 'upgrades' the ubiquitous barcode used by two million manufacturers to now make every product smartphone-interactive and web-connected.
As co-chair of the GS1 Standards Development Work Group that defined this new specification, EVRYTHNG has agreed with GS1 to provide any organization using GS1 product identifiers a royalty-free license to EVRYTHNG's patented technology which adds dynamic intelligence on top of the new standard.
"It was absolutely time for the ubiquitous 44 year-old barcode to be updated for the internet age," said Dominique Guinard, Co-founder and CTO, EVRYTHNG. "GS1 codes are already scanned over 5 billion times every day, the industry impact of this new standard is going to be huge with more than 2 billion iOS and Android smartphones already able to automatically interact with standard QR codes. The new GS1 Digital Link standard takes this one step further -- connecting every product to every consumer."
Creating a New Digital Ecosystem
EVRYTHNG has teamed with some of the world's largest packaging and supply chain companies including, WestRock and Crown in the food, beverage and household goods sectors, and Avery Dennison RBIS in the footwear and apparel market to produce products #BornDigital, with digital identities embedded as they are made, making it easy for brands and retailers to rapidly deploy digitized products at mass scale.
The new GS1 Digital Link standard works with a QR code or NFC tag on packs or labels. Now, every product can have its own digital identity and Web address, upgrading the traditional 1D barcode used on trillions of products for point-of-sale with the new ability to support smartphone interaction, supply chain tracking, authentication and many other applications.
"The GS1 Digital Link is a potentially game changing standard, literally linking every product to the Web and the digital ecosystem," said Sanjay Sarma, Vice President for Open Learning at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a member of the GS1 Board of Directors.
"In partnership with packaging and supply chain giants - Avery Dennison, WestRock, and Crown Packaging — we've created a new digital ecosystem that is able to digitally activate products at mass scale for consumer brands," said Niall Murphy, Co-founder and CEO, EVRYTHNG. "Consumer brands face tremendous challenges being disconnected from their end-customers and have limited visibility as their products move through the global supply chain. Digital activation with EVRYTHNG makes individual products interactive, intelligent and trackable on the Web, opening a new channel for trust and engagement between brands and their consumers, while providing full visibility into each product's lifecycle."
"The same technology that transformed how retail does inventory will transform the way brands connect with consumers. Today's consumers expect a shopping experience that meets them where they are—whether mobile, in-store or online. The new GS1 standard means every unique apparel item can be enhanced with our RFID technology and a QR code to support supply chain and direct-to-consumer applications at scale," said Bill Toney, Vice President Global RFID Market Development, Avery Dennison -- one of the world's largest providers of label, tag and supply solutions in the apparel and footwear industry.
For Consumer Product Brands
Competing supply chain technologies and retail channels have created a giant blind spot for brands: they don't always have a complete view of their products — geographically or in the product life-cycle. This new ecosystem allows consumer product brands to reclaim control of both the supply chain and the customer relationship.
"We'll be building a foundation to gather and apply data intelligence throughout each individual product's lifecycle to reduce costs, protect against lost revenue and ensure supply chain integrity," said Rahmyn Kress, Chief Digital Officer at Henkel. "EVRYTHNG and GS1 Digital Link will allow us to deliver direct to consumer applications at unprecedented scale. This is very important to Henkel's mission and commitment to our individual product lines and consumers."
"GS1 Digital Link will make it possible for consumers to connect with billions of apparel items for applications like product information, eCommerce and authentication, and at the same time support internal processes within the supply chain and point of sales to operate with efficiency," said Max Engstrom, Enterprise Architect, H&M.
"Most exciting, we enable major brand owners such as Henkel and H&M to connect with consumers," said EVRYTHNG's Niall Murphy. "Brands will now have real-time access to powerful data about what customers are buying, where, when and how they feel about their purchase."
Brands can use the EVRYTHNG QuickStart Online Tool today to create digital identities for their products. The tool generates a web address and an Active Digital Identity™ in the cloud for every product item.
Available immediately, you can learn more at: http://EVRYTHNG.com/GS1 and @EVRYTHNG
About EVRYTHNG
EVRYTHNG is the market leading internet of things platform for consumer product brands, providing an industrial scale product identity and data management platform in the cloud that powers the next generation of commerce. Consumer brands work with EVRYTHNG to unlock dynamic product lifecycle information to better control their supply chain, and to drive an ecosystem of product centric and direct-to-consumer applications.
SOURCE Evrythng
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