The development of the e-commerce market, mobile applications, and other new technologies supporting purchasing and communication processes with customers has made rapid access to reliable and up-to-date product information increasingly important for consumers and trading partners. As numerous market studies show, over 60% of purchasing decisions are made by customers spontaneously during a store visit. Is it possible to stimulate or support the processes of making such decisions in any way?
In the Internet age, yes!
In response to this demand, the Institute of Logistics and Warehousing – the national GS1 Poland organization, has launched the MOJE GS1 project. From a technical perspective, the idea behind MOJE GS1 is based on providing users of the GS1 system with a user-friendly tool for the electronic management of Company Identification Numbers. But MOJE GS1 is also an opportunity to launch and make available to the entire market a reference and reliable master database regarding product descriptions and the relationships between EAN/GTIN numbers and data about them.
According to research conducted by GS1 Poland, over 50% of companies keep their number registers in paper form, while another 30% use spreadsheets or other local applications. Is this a safe practice? No! Data stored in this way is exposed to destruction, loss, lack of proper supervision over assigned numbers, incorrect data validation, or errors in calculating check digits.
MOJE GS1 solves these problems while additionally protecting users against data loss associated with staff turnover or technical failures through an appropriate data maintenance system. Additionally, the MOJE GS1 application environment allows for printing barcode labels, importing and exporting owned data, adding photos, website addresses, and – which is particularly important for the market – PKWiU (Polish Classification of Goods and Services) numbers. MOJE GS1 also allows for downloading invoices in electronic form. A wide range of services and new channels for promoting your products will also be launched soon.
It is worth mentioning the pilot MOBIT application (application available for download from http://www.mobit.gs1.pl/) designed for mobile phones, thanks to which a customer can receive extensive information about products within seconds by scanning a code, check opinions and data about them posted on the Internet, or finally get advice and instructions (as a pilot in the case of KAMIS SA products, the customer receives access to recipes and culinary tips).
Therefore, MOJE GS1 is also an opportunity to launch and make available to the entire market a reference and reliable master database regarding product descriptions and the relationships between EAN/GTIN numbers and product names.
The article comes from the magazine “Logistyka” 2/2011.