Amazon Transparency, the product serialisation solution that effectively eliminates counterfeits, is now interoperable with brands’ own product serialisation systems.
Interoperability enables brands that already have their own product serialisation on products or packaging to benefit from Transparency’s protections easier, faster, and without requiring any changes to their existing manufacturing and packaging processes.
Amazon vice president of worldwide selling partner services, Dharmesh Mehta said, “Amazon launched Transparency in 2016 as part of our ongoing mission to create the most trusted shopping experience. The key innovation behind Transparency has been a code that is unique to every individual product unit manufactured by a brand. Until now, to enrol in Transparency, these codes were represented as unique 2D Data Matrix barcodes that brands applied to the product or packaging of every unit manufactured.
“When a product enrolled in Transparency is listed for sale in Amazon’s store, it allows us to verify that the code is authentic before a product is shipped, ensuring only authentic products are delivered to customers. Over time, we added even more benefits for brands using Transparency, including the ability to track specific batches or lots to trace supply chain issues and the ability to provide customers with additional information post-purchase to drive deeper engagement.”
In 2020, more than 10,000 brands were enrolled in Transparency and today, more than 33,000 brands use Amazon Transparency, having verified more than 900 million product units across the supply chain, effectively eliminating the threat of counterfeiting.
“While we are proud of the progress thus far, we are constantly looking for ways to make it easier for more brands to benefit from Amazon Transparency,” Mehta said.
“We listened to feedback from brands that said they have already been applying their own unique serial numbers to their products and adding an Amazon-issued Transparency code created additional cost and complexity for their manufacturing operations.
“Inspired by that feedback, we are excited to launch interoperability for Amazon Transparency, allowing brands to have access to the same Transparency protections using existing, unique serial numbers. Brands will share the serial numbers for the products they wish to enrol in Transparency, and whenever a unit of that product is sold through Amazon’s store, Amazon will validate the serial number to verify the authenticity of the product—just like we do with the codes we have been issuing on our own.
“Interoperability empowers brands to enrol in the program with their own serial numbers, reducing the time to get started and avoiding additional operational complexities. Now, these brands can gain the protective benefits of Transparency as quickly as two weeks after enrollment, without needing to change any existing production processes.”
Amazon began piloting Transparency’s new interoperability features with a small number of brands, including Belkin, Logitech and Samsung. It is now available to brands that offer their products in Amazon’s stores in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, the UK, and the US.