How Traceability Data Combined with Serialization Can Enable Product Authentication, Anti-Counterfeiting & Gray Market Prevention
The situation of counterfeiting and distribute of gray sector channels today are not able to be downplayed. In fact, the struggles of brand names combating counterfeiters have only greater in latest situations and it carries on to be a issue not just impacting income but also resulting in irreparable problems to belief in between the customer and the manufacturer.
Technological know-how about anti-counterfeit steps and solution authentication has developed significantly too around the previous number of years with various alternative companies supplying progressive options, intelligent packaging, watermarks, holograms, unique ink markers and technological know-how centered alternatives for brands to just take the combat to counterfeiters. Just about every of these approaches have their execs and cons and there isn’t a best one dimensions fits all remedy which addresses every variety of product at a perfect cost stage.
A person of the most robust solution authentication systems we have encountered at Qliktag revolves around the use of hugely specialized NFC Tags like the NXP 424 DNA NFC Tags and HID Worldwide Dependable NFC Tag which make a random exceptional crucial just about every time they are tapped with a smartphone substantially like banking FOBs or “One Time Passwords” or OTPs. When mixed with serialization and registration of these tags inside of a system like the Qliktag Platform, it enables an unbreakable, sturdy method for authenticating a products which is around difficult to replicate by counterfeiters. However, there is a expense to the tags which requires to be absorbed into the charge of the product or service and whilst it probably tens of cents for each product, for many product groups exactly where the margins are razor slim, that further expense may well even now be prohibitive. It may well be the ideal remedy for luxurious products, cosmetics, prescription drugs, customer durables and larger margin solutions but not for foods and beverage, clean make and lessen price / decrease margin goods.
In comparison, the marginal price tag of printing QR codes is negligible but QR codes (fundamentally encoded with a world-wide-web backlink or identifier) on their very own really don’t offer considerably in terms of anti-counterfeiting and they’re very uncomplicated for counterfeiters to replicate.
That reported, serialization of merchandise blended with traceability information, source chain info and staying ready to deliver that degree of info to the purchaser at the exact level of thought / sale by way of a serialized QR code on the packaging CAN enable buyers with an helpful way to authenticate a product or service and steer clear of counterfeit or gray marketplace items.
Most models have access to facts on their provide chain internally and know what points their merchandise traverse via to get to the consumer. They also know the authorized stores, channel partners and retail locations by means of which their product or service is marketed. By way of a system like the Qliktag System, that information and facts can be recorded in opposition to or digitally carried with a batch, pallet, cargo or personal serial item and created available to the purchaser on pack by way of a serialized QR code. The shopper can then look at that info, find out where the model supposed that particular merchandise to be bought and which licensed retail site it was supposed for. They can evaluate it in opposition to where they have uncovered the item and then make an knowledgeable determination to either purchase figuring out it is in the proper place or suspect it as a counterfeit or becoming resold through an unauthorized channel.
For example, if I picked up a pair of sneakers in Walmart in Bellevue, Washington Point out and could ensure from the brand name this specific pair of sneakers was approved for sale by Walmart in Bellevue, then I can believe in it came from the brand and is most most likely authentic. If I ordered a pair of shoes from Amazon and figured out it was intended for sale in Ecco Footwear Keep, Hoan Kiem, Hanoi, Vietnam, then as a purchaser, I know this pair of footwear is outside the house the brand name licensed channel and is possibly gray market place or counterfeit.
Inside of the Qliktag System you can go a couple of methods further and enable the interaction to gather knowledge about the location of the scan, prompt the buyer to report suspected counterfeit, set off notifications on particular events and far more. However, the critical is combining traceability knowledge, manufacturer approved retail site data and making this info accessible to the buyer on pack via serialized QR codes can be efficient.
The QR codes can still be replicated by a counterfeiter but they would have to then copy every single single serialized QR code (which could be thousands and thousands) and also know the place each specific person pack is destined for. This is extremely unlikely and generates a amount of trouble difficult for counterfeiters to replicate. The goal locale can be current in the technique dynamically shortly just after producing or they can be up to date dynamically via a traceability log as the merchandise moves via scan details by way of the approved offer chain community when the closing approved sale position is regarded and up-to-date against that product.
Although counterfeiting stays a significant obstacle for brand names globally, as the technological know-how force all over serialization, merchandise traceability and offer chain information and facts devices carries on to acquire momentum, it gives the means for models and individuals to unite in the struggle from counterfeits and gray marketplace gamers.
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