In an effort to track products throughout the entire supply and ownership chain and eventually into their end use, companies are adopting connected product tags and blockchain traceability technologies. These initiatives not only keep an ongoing record of material sourcing and product use, but also can be scanned at any point in their lifecycle to deliver care and repair instructions or to facilitate resale or proper recycling or disposal. This end-to-end approach opens the door to new business models and builds long-term relationships with customers by delivering ongoing value post-purchase.
Carrefour Bio is using blockchain technology with its products. Behind the initiative is consumers’ growing desire for transparency when it comes to the provenance of its organic products and the production methods used to make them. Each item has a QR code, which, after scanning, allows access to a range of information about the product life cycle, including its origin, date of harvest, any analysis results, obtained certificates and the path it has traveled.
With a multi-format network of over 13,000 stores in nearly 40 countries, the Carrefour Group is one of the world’s leading food retailers. By using blockchain technology in Carrefour’s organic products, the brand wants to pursue its goal of becoming a leader in the food transformation for all. Working alongside IBM, Carrefour has also been using blockchain technology for its TEX brand clothing to provide consumers with as much transparency as possible.
Blockchain systems store data securely and in a tamper-proof manner. The appeal of the technology is the potential it holds for replacing paper processes and disjointed data systems, as well as the fact that the enhanced data visibility from blockchain can more quickly resolve food safety issues for grocers as well as overcome inaccurate supply and demand predictions, manual errors, compliance violations, and even counterfeiting.
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This article originally appeared in the PSFK iQ report, The Grocery Store Playbook.