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US: Extended Packaging is a reality for consumers, say Global Brands and Retailers

Extended Packaging defines how consumers can get product information on their mobile phones by scanning a barcode on product packaging. A group of over 60 people from global brands and retailers including Nestlé, Kraft, L’Oréal, Coca-Cola, Walmart, METRO Group and Carrefour shared their experience of how businesses are piloting and implementing Extended Packaging today, giving further evidence that the market is ready for mass rollouts and anticipating significant of growth in this area in 2010.

A group of over 60 people from global brands and retailers including Nestlé, Kraft, L’Oréal, Coca-Cola, Walmart, METRO Group and Carrefour, solution providers and staff from local GS1 offices met in Paris last week to build the future of mobile commerce together.

Extended Packaging defines how consumers can get product information on their mobile phones by scanning a barcode on product packaging. Participants shared their experience of how businesses are piloting and implementing Extended Packaging today, giving further evidence that the market is ready for mass rollouts and anticipating significant of growth in this area in 2010.

* Carrefour is preparing a service that will launch in January 2010 to give consumers access to additional information about a selection of products through their mobile phones.
* Franprix (owned by the Casino supermarket group) launched a live mobile application giving consumers access to information to help them choose wine during the busy September Wine Festival season. Over two thirds of consumers interviewed found the service useful.
* Nokia has run successful pilots involving wine, jeans and DVDs. An overwhelming majority of consumers said they would re-use these services if available on a wider scale.


“Extended Packaging is a reality for consumers. It’s our job to make sure the services we offer reach the widest audience. That’s only possible with the right standards in place,” commented Vanderlei Roque dos Santos (Nestlé), co-chair of the GS1 MobileCom group.

The main conclusion of this meeting was that finding a way to link standard GS1 barcodes with trusted data about products is the clear next step for this group. This will make Extended Packaging even more compelling for businesses and consumers. The GS1 MobileCom group has already begun work on this area which will benefit all stakeholders by allowing trusted information to be available in an open format and give rise to a range of value added services for consumers.

In addition, the group defined the scope of a project on global standards for mobile coupons and finalised the content of a White Paper that provides recommendations on how retail stores can interact with mobile phones to be published in December.

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