​Introducing Verified by GS1: Elevating Trust in Product Information for Retailers, Spaza Shops and Regulators

In a first for South Africa, a new service, Verified by GS1, has been launched that will empower retailers, informal spaza shops and regulators with a reliable and verifiable source of product, company and location data. In a world driven by digital commerce, consumers, business partners, and government entities alike stand to benefit significantly from this innovative solution.

Verified by GS1 is a global, cloud-based platform designed to provide consumer packaged goods (CPG) retailers and marketplaces with brand-verified product data. This service is a response to the increasing demand for accurate and trustworthy product information, ensuring the unique identity of CPG products. This initiative promises better quality product information for consumers and will play a major role in combating and reducing the manufacture and sale of counterfeit consumer packaged goods.

In South Africa, GS1 South Africa holds the exclusive authorisation to provide Verified by GS1 services, acting as the single, trusted, and neutral registry. Verified by GS1 functions as an "ID card" for products, analogous to an identification document, driver's license, or passport for individuals. It authenticates the identity of a packaged product using seven key attributes, with the product information securely stored in the Verified by GS1 Registry, which the brand owner maintains.

By using Verified by GS1, consumers have access to essential product data and attributes used globally by online marketplaces, brand owners, and retailers, while businesses can address challenges such as product duplication, inaccurate data, and counterfeiting.

This service is poised to strengthen consumer confidence in product information, ensuring that the item a shopper expects is the item they receive. With a simple scan of the next-generation barcode using their smartphone cameras, consumers can access rich product information, reinforcing the commitment to providing consistent information across all channels.

Michele Francis Padayachee, Executive of Global Standards and Solutions at GS1 South Africa, emphasised the significance of this service: "Product data is essential to inform shopper purchase decisions, but today online retail is plagued with inaccurate and incomplete information. This often results in dissatisfied consumers and costly returns for retailers." She further highlighted that once Verified by GS1 attains global critical mass, brand owners will have a single source for retailers, marketplaces, and stakeholders to automatically verify the integrity of product listings.

Verified by GS1 was developed by GS1 in collaboration with numerous Consumer Goods Forum member companies, and GS1 organisations worldwide will work diligently with their communities to load data onto the GS1 Registry Platform throughout 2023 and 2024. For more information about Verified by GS1, please visit https://www.gs1.org/services/verified-by-gs1 and https://gs1za.org/solutions/verified/

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About GS1 South Africa

GS1 South Africa, a member of the global GS1 network, is a not-for-profit information standards organisation dedicated to fostering industry collaboration and enhancing supply chain visibility and efficiency through the use of GS1 Standards. These standards are the most widely used supply chain standards worldwide. Nearly 9000 businesses spanning 25 industries rely on GS1 South Africa to facilitate trading partner collaboration, optimise their supply chains, drive cost performance and revenue growth, and ensure regulatory compliance. These benefits are realised through solutions based on GS1's globally unique numbering and identification systems, barcodes, Electronic Product Code-based RFID, data synchronisation, and electronic information exchange. GS1 South Africa also manages a National Product Data Catalogue for major retailers and hospitals in the country. Learn more at https://gs1za.org/solutions/

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