Connected product powered resale: 12 benefits of Digital IDs

While solving the issue of product authentication, connected products can also help overcome other important obstacles and challenges to empower more economically and environmentally sustainable resale models.

The benefits of resale for brands touch on many aspects, from reputation to revenue. However, setting up a resale programme may not be straightforward. In particular, resale platforms involve complex challenges, such as product authentication, tracking, content creation and, last but not least, uploading listings and processing individual products. Performing these tasks manually involves an unsustainable and unscalable workload. Therefore, brands have a need for systems that automate, simplify and speed up processes. This also applies to user activities: the less effort required of them, the more they will use the platform.

What solutions can brands adopt? One is digital IDs.

Benefits of Digital IDs 

Digital IDs enable instant product recognition, which empowers the pre-assessment, and pre-processing of products, allowing them to be directed to appropriate channels based on price, condition, and location.

Moreover, digital IDs facilitate the easy sharing of product information and content along the value chain, which can make listing products as simple as a push of a button, and the creation of more appealing and easier-to-shop product listings that integrate the brand's original product information. AI software can leverage product data to determine optimal pricing and enhance supply and demand control.

Unlike new product sales, each resale item is unique. Digital IDs can be used to associate products with sellers and buyers, ensuring a transparent history of provenance and ownership, and allowing tracking of the product throughout the entire sales journey.

Data sharing and interoperability with outsourced services streamlines processes and enables integration with other circular services, such as assisting in sorting and processing products for upcycling or recycling when unsuitable for resale.

Finally, digital IDs are fundamental for authentication, which establishes a strong connection with consumers, fosters engagement, helps promote responsible consumption, delivers awareness of circularity services, and ultimately drives resale success.

12 key improvements that connected products can bring a resale programme 

Digital IDs are a building block of connected products, that is, those products with the ability to connect to the Internet to make all the activities we have seen above easier.

Within a resale program, connected products can make all the difference. Let's see how!

1. More awareness: turning the product into a communications channel makes consumers aware of available resale services.

2. Fast authentication: fast, robust and cost-effective product authentication for everyone, anywhere, builds trust and saves time and money across the entire circular ecosystem.

3. Personalised storytelling: products can easily create an understanding of the durability and other benefits that make the product suited for resale.

4. User-friendly experience: a good UX makes product listing as simple as the click of a button, while sales can be managed directly from the product itself.

5. Item level traceability: item-level lifecycle management and tracking to provide transparent traceability builds trust and robust logistics.

6. Channel management: connected products allow for pre-sorting and directing of items to the most optimal resale channel. Item-level data can be shared easily across all channels.

7. Compliance: connected products reduce exposure to legal issues or reputational damage, by supporting consumer protection and extended producer responsibility regulation.

8. Processes optimisation: manual product processing is reduced, and inventory management and the production of content are easier with product recognition.

9. Counterfeit goods reduction: brands can fight counterfeiting by intercepting, recognising and managing cases of illicit products.

10. Seamless integration: a single product can be easily integrated with other business models and operations, such as customer care, rental and regeneration.

11. Pricing automation: products can instantly convey the best channel to adopt to obtain the most optimal price, while authentication ensures products retain the greatest possible value.

12. More trust: authentication, transparent storytelling about the product's lifecycle, access to ratings and reviews, and buyer and seller profiles increase trust in buying pre-loved products.

Learn more about the benefits of connected products or contact us for a demo.