Businesses worldwide are adapting to meet the new demand for shipped goods and products. This was already a steady trend and was only accelerated by a global pandemic. Strong consumer interest in product origin has also influenced new policies and approaches among the world’s brands and governments. The toolset required to create opportunities in this environment is connected packaging. So it’s no surprise that the research firm Meticulous Research estimates that the connected packaging market will reach $43.3 billion by 2027. With an eye to that demand and our complementary expertise, Scantrust, a connected packaging software and services platform, has partnered with Sourcemap, a supply chain mapping software provider. Together, these firms bring secure, verified supply chain transparency to brands and consumers. Companies looking to take advantage of this technology begin with unique and secured QR codes, NFC, and RFID tags where the project requires, and end with a detailed picture that brings granular clarity to the brands and offers engaging stories about products consumers.
Who is Sourcemap?
Sourcemap’s state-of-the-art technology brings visibility into supply chains and makes end-to-end supply chain due diligence possible. Sourcemap clients include several of the world’s industry leaders in food, agriculture, apparel, and more. Sourcemap’s supply chain mapping works by combining top-down supplier discovery, supply chain benchmarking, and bottom-up digitization for all transactions along the supply chain. Their experience and capabilities in these processes have made Sourcemap the trusted toolkit for their clients to map supply chains down to the raw materials and verify the chain of custody every step of the way.
How do companies benefit from this collaboration?
As a natural ally for Scantrust, Sourcemap saw an opportunity to combine two of the most prominent leaders in the supply chain technology space for a one-stop traceability solution. Scantrust QR codes on product packaging are already used by AB Inbev, Unilever, Syngenta, Exxon Mobil, LVMH, Dupont, Abbott laboratories, and Lockcon, among others. The agricultural, energy and lubricants, and nutrition industries are all represented in Scantrust’s client list. For their part, Scantrust offers brand protection, supply chain awareness, and robust customer experiences via interactions with goods and products – the delivery method for those benefits often comes through the convenience and universal familiarity made available and possible by QR codes. When adding the Sourcemap supply chain mapping layer to Scantrust, you add a verified supply chain story that explains how brands are openly taking steps to protect them and provide them with the best possible product. Perhaps most interestingly, while this is the right thing to do, it also draws out new revenue opportunities for brands. While Scantrust provides the technology to bring products online and make authenticity verification possible, the Sourcemap verified story layer also helps with customs compliance, anti-counterfeiting through verified traceability and product IDs, and of course, as an answer to consumer demands for more information about products.
What will companies gain from working with Scantrust and Sourcemap?
Companies taking advantage of this partnership will build rich data sets on consumer behavior: these are new insights interactions contributing to a more detailed understanding of what consumers want, something that can, at minimum, be implemented in marketing efforts but that provide the necessary back end data for grey market and counterfeit alerts. The Scantrust connected packaging platform is amplified across the broad Sourcemap supply chain mapping software. From the unique content based on location and time of interaction to enterprise tasks where clients can centrally manage logistics roles and product detail updates. This partnership ultimately gives our customers more value and more possibilities to continue to adapt successfully to the market.
“Leading consumer goods companies that have mapped their supply chains on Sourcemap are looking for a secure way to connect consumers to the brand story at the point of sale. Scantrust is a natural partner to Sourcemap’s verified chain of custody approach to the consumer via QR codes on the packaging itself,” said Leonardo Bonanni, Founder, and CEO of Sourcemap.
“The trends we’ve seen accelerating around consumer expectations for environmental sustainability, traceability, trust and consumer engagement will not reverse, they will only continue to accelerate,” noted our founder and CEO, Nathan Anderson. “Forward thinking brands are pivoting to connected packaging solutions like our own for communicating their products’ stories and to build trust with those narratives. Sourcemap extends this value by enabling reliable and authentic supply chain claims to be easily accessible. The deep integrations across our solutions will rapidly increase the time to value for projects focused on product transparency and consumer trust.”
About Sourcemap
Sourcemap is a pioneer of supply chain transparency and traceability software that spun out of MIT research that began in 2008. Major traders, manufacturers, and brands have adopted Sourcemap’s full-suite solution for assurance on the raw materials-to-finished goods supply chain, including ongoing monitoring for production, quality, sustainability, and risks such as deforestation and forced labor. Find more at www.sourcemap.com or by emailing info@sourcemap.com.
See for yourself how Scantrust works by scheduling a demonstration at www.scantrust.com/request-a-demo or otherwise contact us via the site or Linkedin to inquire how using supply chain mapping and connected packaging can help your company adapt and thrive.