Skip to main content

Empowering Consumers Through The Smart Consumer App


With the rapid growth of e-commerce over the last couple of years, detailed & accurate product information becomes more crucial since consumers are solely dependent on what they see online, to make purchase decisions.

Additional product information in terms of what is mentioned on the product label, such as food ingredients, consistency, life, calories, recipes and much more, becomes inaccessible, if not provided in the product description of e-commerce websites.

This is why a national repository of product information plays a critical role in storing and sharing trusted product information consistently, completely and accurately.

India’s national repository of product information is DataKart, which feeds into Smart Consumer mobile app that empowers billions of consumers with digital access to trusted product data and enable them to check the accuracy of product information mentioned on the product label.

The Smart Consumer mobile app is developed by GS1 India, a global supply chain standards organization. It lets consumers scan product barcodes using their mobile phones, to access complete product information before making purchase decisions. Besides product information, the app also provides information about the consumer care details of the company, and an option to file complaints or share product feedback directly with brand owners.

Smart Consumer app
also enables consumers to validate product information on licenses, including FSSAI, AGMARK, BIS, etc.

Additionally, regulatory compliance authority on food — FSSAI & AGMARK, recently directed food companies to upload their product information on the Smart Consumer mobile app, along with their license numbers and expiry dates.

Please note that only product barcode numbers starting with 890 could be scanned using the app since these are unique product IDs, provided by global supply chain standards organization — GS1 India.

To know about how this app works
, click on https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XE9w7VNne3o

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Learn About the Benefits of Having GS1 Barcode Numbers On Your Product

 Having spent a lot of years visiting retail stores and outlets, we all must have witnessed a barcode on the packaging of the product that displays a specific pattern of stripes. What we also do notice is that these lines are composed of some numbers or codes which are framed to be scanned by optical readers. Since the lines correspond to a list of numbers, it gets easy to look up any product with a barcode simply by matching those numbers to an entry which is made in a database at the check-out of a retail store. It is interesting to note here that barcodes also play a key role in supply chains, enabling parties like retailers, manufacturers, transport providers, etc., to automatically identify and track products as they move from manufacturing units to the consumer, and hence enable product recalls, detect counterfeits, etc.. What is a genuine barcode number? As we understand the many benefits of barcode numbers, it is important to know that not all barcode numbers can provide these

Scan product barcodes starting with 890 using Smart Consumer app and get additional product information before purchase

When a consumer walks into a retail outlet or search online to purchase a product, s(he) ignores the most important aspect of the product — its barcode number, which is printed on product labels. These labels also comprise of some details pertaining to the product — like manufacturing date, expiry date (if it’s a consumable), batch number along with the retail product price. Barcode numbers starting with prefix ‘890’ consists of a GS1 Global Trade Item Number (GTIN) which is a global standard widely used in the retail sector. The barcode number is linked to an external tool which holds additional information about the product that the label presents. Simply put, these barcodes link back all the information about the product all through the chain — when it was manufactured, the batch it was manufactured in, the date, the time, its packaging details, etc. In India, the platform which acts as a national repository to accurate & authentic product information is called DataKart

TRACEABILITY - WHAT, WHY AND HOW

With technological advancement and cut-throat competition in the market, gaining consumer confidence and maintaining real-time product visibility in the supply chain is difficult. Product traceability becomes an important business requirement in today’s context, primarily, because the consumers are increasingly getting conscious of what products they are buying and consuming, and hence would like to validate products through traceability. Besides, there were various trade and consumer safety related reasons that have led to the realization of critical need of a strong and effective traceability solution in supply chain management. For instance, back in early 2006-07, there was a large-scale concern about Samsung mobile phones getting blasted due to battery issues. This caused the manufacturer to identify the problem, stop production and recall all mobile sets already in the market. Traceability in such situations provides an effective system to easily recall products .