New service to address inaccurate data in grocery supply chain

Major new development sees Nielsen Brandbank extend expertise from business-to-consumer to business-to-business data

One of the biggest problems faced globally by the grocery industry as products are moved through the supply chain from manufacturers to retailers is to be addressed by the launch of a new service from Nielsen Brandbank.

The problem of inaccurate and inconsistent data between FMCG product manufacturers, distribution centres, wholesalers and retailers on cases of products – be it size, weight, hazardous information and tax codes – creates huge inefficiencies which end up costing all parties both time and money in getting the products on to shop shelves.

Nielsen Brandbank will solve this globally by extending its current service of collecting and distributing product content for consumer-facing ecommerce purposes to the ‘business-to-business’ logistical part of the global industry.

Mike Nickituk, Global MD at Nielsen Brandbank, explains, “Over the years, we’ve managed to pretty much eradicate inaccurate product data in the retailer to consumer-facing part of the industry by creating a highly accurate standardised system that is used by 98% of the sector. So, the logical step is to transfer this ability to the business-to-business part which is beset by all kinds of problems including an estimated 80% of product data being wrong.”

Nickituk says that the firm’s new “One Case One Place®” service will capture, manage and distribute information regarding all levels of the product hierarchy – be it a distribution case, a shelf-ready pack or single unit – in a standardised manner that can easily be accessed and shared globally from a central point by all supply chain parties from manufacturers to retailers, “something that cross-industry groups have tried but failed to achieve”.

“It’s about removing the burden from the various parties of how to collect and share product logistics information which not only reduces costs, time and inefficiencies but enables them to focus on what they do best,” concludes Nickituk.