A new product cloud from Avery Dennison is aiming to change the way that brands manage their supply chains. With a focus on digital product identities and the centralization of this information, the new Atma.io platform from Avery Dennison is capable of assigning and managing the unique digital identities of all physical products.
Many companies have already begun to invest in one form of digital tagging or another, with RFID and QR codes becoming more common within retail. These tags can be used to track a product from the point of manufacture, as each one is a unique record that can store information such as the date it was made, the factory that manufactured it, and the exact materials that were used. This can be helpful for managing supply chains and also providing authentication, for both customs and consumers.
But many of these product tracking systems do not integrate within a larger cloud, or can only work for a specific format of digital identity. Atma.io syncs all of these different formats within its cloud, using a singular digital ID that can be encoded into a variety of use cases, such as RFID, depending on the brand’s preference.
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“It’s the expression of our Intelligent Labels vision: A platform that connects physical and digital worlds by assigning unique digital IDs to everyday items,” said Francisco Melo, VP and general manager at Avery Dennison Smartrac. “With Atma.io, Avery Dennison is now able to bridge both worlds by coupling our progressive family of digital triggers and labeling technologies with the power of data in our Atma.io platform.”
These digital IDs can also be used beyond the original point of sale, to assist with resale and recycling initiatives. Adidas is one of Avery Dennison’s first users of the Atma.io platform and the brand has focused on its applications for circularity and consumer-product interactions.
When a customer returns a product to Adidas, the brand is able to use the digital ID to confirm its authenticity but also to understand the item’s care and content information, so that it can be refurbished or recycled appropriately. From a consumer angle, authentication and care information is also useful, as is greater visibility into the provenance of the product; consumers have reported a growing interest in transparency and sustainability.
“Adidas integrated Atma.io’s connected product cloud into our Infinite Play initiative to scale our ability to buy-back products and give them a second life,” said David Quass, global director of brand sustainability at Adidas. “The program was the first of many use cases we will look to enable with Atma.io and Avery Dennison to achieve our connected product vision and our sustainability goals.”
As these kinds of technologies are adopted on a wider scale, they will also help to speed up the processing of product at resale sites such as Poshmark or TheRealReal. Secondhand and consumer-to-consumer selling is growing its market share, as shoppers look for more sustainable and affordable ways to buy. But shoppers still want to know that they’re buying a real label, not a fake; through digital IDs like Atma.io’s, this will become easier to prove.
