In today’s world, when offshore manufacturing is very common, and most of the products are available globally, supply chain visibility is the biggest challenge for any product manufacturing business. Implementing product serialization helps manufacturers in managing their supply chain efficiently.
In many countries, product serialization is mandatory for pharmaceutical products. There are specific guidelines to serialize the pharmaceutical products, and these guidelines may vary from country to country. Product serialization used to be an expensive process until a few years back. However, with new technologies like NeuroTags, it has become economical and highly efficient to setup and maintain (low CapEx and OpEx).
Nowadays due to smartphone penetration, serialization not only helps in supply chain visibility but also helps in consumer engagement and loyalty, and enables a lot many digital capabilities which were not possible before, thus making it very desirable to use it on almost every product in every industry, to increase consumer retention and repeat sales.
What is product serialization?
Product serialization is the process of assigning a unique identity to each saleable product item. This identity can be assigned by affixing a unique code on each product item, usually in the form of QR code or NFC or RFID, etc.
Once your products are serialized, you can identify each product item and track its journey with the help of its assigned code using a serialization software platform.
Benefits of product Serialization
Product serialization is the foundation to enable digital capabilities in physical products. Following are the key benefits of product serialization.
Supply chain visibility
The process of tracking products by batches has been around in many industries for a while now. But product serialization takes this process a step further, allowing brands to accurately track each product item through unique codes assigned to them.
Prevent diversion
Product Diversion happens when product stock intended to be sold in a particular distribution channel is shifted to another without the knowledge or permission of the primary vendor. Product diversion has become a major concern for many industries these days. Diversion can be effectively prevented with the help of Product serialization.
Consumer loyalty program and digital re-engagement marketing
Assigning unique identity to product items also opens a new channel for the brands for brand loyalty and marketing. Customers can participate in loyalty programs by scanning product codes and providing their contact information, independent of sales channels. Loyalty programs help in increasing consumer engagement and retention. As the engagement becomes very simple and intuitive, the conversion rate of these programs is very high. Some of our clients are seeing almost 76% loyalty participation.
Watch NeuroTags loyalty software video
Brands can also convey important marketing messages when customers scan the code, this helps in consumer education and influencing them to purchase your products over competitors at the time of decision making (such as when a consumer is comparing your’s and competing product in a retail store).
Efficient and quick product recall
Even after keeping quality control checks in place, it is not possible to completely avoid the situations when product recall becomes necessary. Any delay in product recall may cause irreparable damage to a brand’s reputation and revenue. Serialization can also help in quick product recalls. As with right serialization technology in place, brands know the exact status of their product items and in which distribution channel the products are. This information helps in quickly recalling the products and controlling the damage to the brand.
Anti-counterfeiting
Counterfeiting is rising at an alarming rate, and most of the brands are fighting with this problem. Counterfeiters sell low-quality knock-offs as original products and damage the brand image and hamper the revenue. Brands can fight the counterfeiting by serializing their products and utilizing a robust anti-counterfeiting technology. A robust anti-counterfeiting technology red flags any attempts of cloning the product codes and immediately notifies the brands.
Product performance assessment
Since product serialization makes each product uniquely identifiable, it also helps in assessing the product performance more accurately. If the serialization code is put in a format that even the end consumer can interact with the brand, then brands can trace the product journey until the end consumer. They can collect essential product data at each node of the supply chain and use it to assess the product performance.
Product demand forecast
With the help of product serialization, brands have a better estimate of the stock supplied in each distribution channel and how much has been sold. This information helps brands to forecast product demand, and they can procure the raw materials accordingly for the next manufacturing cycle.
Please contact us to know how NeuroTags technology helps brands in product serialization, we provide ready to use end to end solution integrated with SAP, Oracle and other CRMs.
