DISCUSSION
Will customers know everything about products with digital ID?
Written by RetailWire Staff
Sources: oldnavy.gap.com
A recent article in Fast Company forecasts a world in which products can tell customers anything and everything about themselves using a digital ID, readable via QR code or NFC tag that contains information about everywhere the product has been and lasts as long as the product does.
The technology is being developed as customers appear more conscious about the provenance of the products they buy.
Assigning digital IDs to products in every category, from jackets to t-shirts to furniture, could lead to the birth of new customer services and business models, according to Natasha Franck, founder and CEO of connected product company EON, as cited in the Fast Company article. In categories like fashion, Ms. Franck sees digital IDs allowing retailers to drive easy re-ordering, styling, care, repair and resale, monetizing at each step in a given product’s lifecycle.
Similar technology is already being deployed in grocery. Recently, global grocery chain Carrefour became the first grocer to utilize blockchain to provide additional information on its organic products in-store via QR code. Scanning a QR code brings customers information about the origin of the product and the pathway it has taken, its level of quality and its organic certification.
Questions remain about how much customers would actually utilize or benefit from this granular degree of information. While many U.S. enterprises have taken steps to improve their sustainable and ethical production profile — and have promoted themselves accordingly — there are examples of companies thriving while doing the exact opposite.
For instance, despite its notorious lack of supply chain transparency and sustainability initiatives, Chinese marketplace Shein remains at the top of the fast-fashion world according to High Snobiety. The warehouse-direct marketplace has generated $15.7 billion in sales and is pursuing a $100 billion valuation.
Privacy could also become an issue were brands to attach a digital ID to every product and track metrics about them. Customers may be uncomfortable about having personal data collected about them and appended to products they intended to eventually resell, and such data could theoretically be used in damaging ways by the new owners of used products.