IoT and serialized codes will help Crown Holdings track goods from factory to larder cupboard.
Consumer goods could soon sport a seriliazed code to help consumers and manufacturers track items and get product information from the cloud.
A partnership between metal packaging products vendor Crown Holdings and smart products firm Evrything, could see real-time, connected digital intelligence embedded into billions of everyday consumer packaged goods (CPG).
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Smart packaging, thanks to IoT
As part of this collaboration in smart packaging for CPG products, Crown will print serialized codes that can be scanned by smartphones on products packaged in beverage, food and aerosol cans and specialty packaging tins at the point of manufacture.
These ‘digital triggers’ are integrated with the Evrything IoT Smart Products Platform, giving each physical package a unique software identity and data profile in the cloud. The combination of smart packaging powered by smart software in the cloud makes billions of packaged goods more intelligent, more interactive, more trackable and more valuable to CPG companies and their customers, according to the firms.
According to the two firms, products manufactured with software capabilities in the cloud that can power new applications and analytics and allow brands to optimize their supply chains by improving product traceability, and create a new channel for consumer engagement.
The codes could allow access to product information, such as data about product nutrition, ingredients, and manufacturing processes while distribution miles travelled can deliver total transparency to consumers about where a product came from and how it was made.
Brands can follow products through the supply chain, capturing analytics for inventory management and parallel trade control.
Daniel Abramowicz, Crown’s chief technology officer (CTO), said the partnership would enable brands to “generate new digital value from their products by enhancing their packaging with a rich portfolio of functionality and applications.”
“As we build out an ecosystem of strategic packaging and labeling partners across different material types and industries, we are creating a standard where all brands across food, beverage, apparel, health and beauty, personal care and home care can exploit the real-time, connected intelligence built into their product packaging,” said Niall Murphy, Founder and chief executive officer of Evrything.
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Offline marketing
Rowena Perrott, general manager at Boxtopia told Internet of Business that consumers have more access to the internet and digital technologies than ever before.
“Therefore, offline marketing initiatives that do not consider digitalisation within their strategy could be perceived as outdated,” she said.
“Giving consumers the ability to further engage with a product through QR codes gives consumers more value to the product they purchase, due to the extension of available digital content. For businesses, this is also a major opportunity. Incorporating such technology within product packaging can allow marketers to gather data concerning their offline marketing initiatives. This can give marketer’s an informed insight into the performance of a product’s packaging and valuable data to refine marketing initiatives.”
She added that customers can also serve as a post-purchase engagement strategy for businesses.
“Applying such technology to product packaging can allow businesses to improve their relationship marketing initiatives, to re-automate consumer purchases.”
Related: 10 billion apparel connected in ‘world’s largest Internet of Things deployment’