The situation of counterfeiting and unfold of gray current market channels these days simply cannot be downplayed. In actuality, the struggles of models combating counterfeiters have only amplified in modern occasions and it continues to be a challenge not just impacting profits but also creating irreparable problems to trust in between the client and the manufacturer.
Technological innovation all around anti-counterfeit measures and product or service authentication has progressed appreciably way too above the earlier handful of many years with numerous resolution providers providing modern answers, intelligent packaging, watermarks, holograms, specific ink markers and technological know-how centered options for manufacturers to get the combat to counterfeiters. Each of these techniques have their professionals and negatives and there is not a best a person dimension fits all reply which addresses each individual kind of product or service at a great cost stage.
One particular of the most strong products authentication technologies we have encountered at Qliktag revolves about the use of remarkably specialized NFC Tags like the NXP 424 DNA NFC Tags and HID Global Trusted NFC Tag which produce a random exclusive key just about every time they are tapped with a smartphone a great deal like banking FOBs or “One Time Passwords” or OTPs. When mixed with serialization and registration of these tags within a platform like the Qliktag System, it permits an unbreakable, robust system for authenticating a solution which is in the vicinity of unachievable to replicate by counterfeiters.  However, there is a expense to the tags which requires to be absorbed into the price of the item and although it maybe tens of cents for every item, for many merchandise classes wherever the margins are razor slender, that added value might continue to be prohibitive. It may well be the ideal answer for luxurious items, cosmetics, prescribed drugs, buyer durables and greater margin solutions but not for foodstuff and beverage, clean deliver and lessen price / decreased margin products and solutions.
In comparison, the marginal value of printing QR codes is negligible but QR codes (basically encoded with a world-wide-web link or identifier) on their personal really do not offer you a great deal in conditions of anti-counterfeiting and they’re incredibly simple for counterfeiters to replicate.
That claimed, serialization of merchandise blended with traceability information, source chain information and facts and getting able to provide that degree of info to the customer at the specific position of thing to consider / sale by way of a serialized QR code on the packaging CAN enable buyers with an productive way to authenticate a product and stay clear of counterfeit or grey marketplace products.
Most models have accessibility to facts on their offer chain internally and know what factors their items traverse by to get to the buyer. They also know the authorized shops, channel associates and retail destinations via which their product or service is marketed. As a result of a platform like the Qliktag Platform, that data can be recorded towards or digitally carried with a batch, pallet, shipment or personal serial merchandise and built offered to the buyer on pack by means of a serialized QR code. The customer can then seem at that data, find out wherever the brand name supposed that distinct product to be offered and which authorized retail place it was intended for. They can evaluate it in opposition to the place they have found the products and then make an knowledgeable choice to both invest in realizing it is in the correct position or suspect it as a counterfeit or staying resold through an unauthorized channel.
For illustration, if I picked up a pair of shoes in Walmart in Bellevue, Washington Condition and could confirm from the brand this precise pair of footwear was licensed for sale via Walmart in Bellevue, then I can rely on it came from the manufacturer and is most very likely legitimate. If I procured a pair of shoes from Amazon and figured out it was supposed for sale in Ecco Footwear Shop, Hoan Kiem, Hanoi, Vietnam, then as a consumer, I know this pair of sneakers is outside the house the brand approved channel and is both gray marketplace or counterfeit.
Inside of the Qliktag System you can go a couple measures additional and allow the interaction to acquire information about the place of the scan, prompt the purchaser to report suspected counterfeit, result in notifications on selected occasions and a lot more. On the other hand, the important is combining traceability details, manufacturer approved retail location facts and earning this details available to the shopper on pack by way of serialized QR codes can be efficient.
The QR codes can still be replicated by a counterfeiter but they would have to then copy every one serialized QR code (which could be tens of millions) and also know exactly where every single precise particular person pack is destined for. This is remarkably not likely and makes a amount of problems tough for counterfeiters to replicate. The target area can be current in the method dynamically soon following production or they can be updated dynamically by way of a traceability log as the merchandise moves as a result of scan details by way of the authorized offer chain community when the last licensed sale issue is identified and up to date towards that product.
Although counterfeiting remains a significant obstacle for makes globally, as the technologies thrust close to serialization, merchandise traceability and offer chain info devices continues to get momentum, it provides the suggests for manufacturers and buyers to unite in the struggle against counterfeits and gray market players.
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