Certilogo participates in Sole24Ore Luxury Summit 2023

Implementing genuinely sustainable circular models with the Secure by Design™ Digital Product Passport.

Certilogo joined market leaders and top experts from Italy and abroad today, Wednesday, May 10th, at the 14th edition of the traditional Luxury Summit. Held by Il Sole 24 Ore in Milan, the hybrid streamed and in-person event was dedicated to the luxury of tomorrow, as brands, journalists and business leaders from the world of fashion and luxury came together to discuss the effect of conscious consumerism and the sustainability of luxury brands.

In his interview with IlSole24Ore journalist Chiara Beghelli, Certilogo Ceo and founder Michele Casucci drew attention to the theme of the Digital Product Passport, and stressed the importance of brands paying great care to their security. Underestimating the importance of secure authentication would undermine their efforts and create conditions for counterfeiters to produce more convincing fakes while exposing them to the risk of non-compliance with impending EU and US producer responsibility regulations.  

Casucci also noted that developing a perfect digital passport is a complex process that will take time for most brands. Recommending that brands look beyond the communication of green credentials, to other authentication-based circularity services that consumers are eager to receive. Casucci called these low-hanging fruit, which can be faster to implement and have the potential to drive even more significant results by leveraging greater consumer engagement to reduce environmental impact.

Brands face the risk that a cloned digital product identity can be used to create fake product passports that will more easily fool consumers. Even implementations based on blockchain and NFC with One Time Passwords (OTP) are not without risk. While blockchain can secure digital data in the cloud, it cannot secure the physical product ID attached to the product that is subject to being cloned. While the focus of NFC with OTP results in building a ‘walled garden’ of brand services accessible only by authentic products, it means brands effectively become blind to what is going on out in the real world.

Casucci invited brands to adopt a Secure by Design™ approach to digitsation, which accounts for the needs and behaviors of all stakeholders, including the brand, the consumer, and counterfeiters. Certilogo’s approach uses AI and proprietary algorithms to recognise and manage fake and cloned IDs, making it easier for brands to intercept fakes and shut down illicit activity. Only by adopting this approach can brands manage the delicate consumer use case of fake purchases, recover lost sales, and demonstrate to their consumers and the market that they are genuinely serious about sustainability.

Casucci also revealed some early findings from a soon-to-be-published consumer survey. With a new consumer connection every four seconds, Certilogo capitalises on its market leadership position, to gather insights and feedback from consumers as they connect with products digitised on its platform. Already at the moment of purchase, one-third of the over 1,000 consumers surveyed expect to resell their purchase at some point in the future, favoring it over recycling, donating or swapping, as the method of managing its end-of-life.

Casucci said: “A product's ability to be easily resold is an important factor in the purchase decision, and authentication is fundamental in this regard. In fact, 85% of consumers consider it very, or extremely important that a product’s authenticity can be verified when buying both new and used products.” He went on to quantify the value of authentication to consumers: “Over half of the shoppers of pre-loved fashion apply a psychological ‘discount’ of more than 40% to a product's true second-hand value if it can’t demonstrate its authenticity, to account for the risk of buying a counterfeit.”

Products with authentication will undoubtedly prove more desirable to consumers. By offering a greater incentive for resellers to recoup greater value, and by creating the trust that reassures buyers, product authentication will be key to accelerating the resale market and improving circularity by extending the life of the product.

“Connected products will be resold multiple times over, and each time represents an opportunity for the brand to be part of that currently untapped consumer experience, to build greater loyalty and further monetise the product,” said Casucci.

Casucci concluded by advising brands that setting digital product authentication in place as a first and foundational pillar of their sustainability strategy, means it can be released rapidly and deliver value from day one, as their Digital Product Passport journey evolves. Brands can use authentication to inform positive consumer behaviour that creates new business value, which will create a win, win, win situation for themselves, the consumer and the planet, through a new generation of products that really can make a difference.