Table of Contents
As the world shifts more towards online shopping and e-commerce, we’ve seen new trends take shape.
There is more demand for transparency, ethical manufacturing, and a desire to understand product origins in more detail.
Consumers aren’t just satisfied with knowing where the product is made anymore. They want to know how the products are made, the supply chain it follows, up to the point when it arrives at their doorstep.
To meet these demands, businesses have increasingly been looking at the latest technologies.
Blockchain and transparency have been a central part of the discussion because of its potential for supply chains and product fulfillment.
Blockchain is essential for building trust with consumers in a digital age, which is becoming increasingly crucial for brands.
It serves as a quick and effective way to show customers that product claims are genuine and ensure they can trust the products they purchase.
What is Blockchain Technology?
Blockchain is a decentralized, distributed ledger – or a record of events.
No one owns the information, and it’s spread out on multiple platforms.
It serves as a record of events across platforms without any outside influence or ownership.
It’s 100% authentic, so there is little worry about tampering or compromise because the information is distributed enough to be protected.
A ledger system for logistics, then, is a perfect fit.
Blockchain Technology in Supply Chains
As consumers become savvier, businesses have shifted gears towards decentralization and transparency.
As a result, blockchain for supply chain transparency offers a lot of potential.
Large companies like Walmart see how blockchain can benefit the supply chain, and smaller businesses are following suit.
But why does blockchain matter so much for supply chain transparency?
Well, it’s actually because of the way blockchain works.
Supply chains can be compromised, but blockchain reduces the risk of that.
And even if there is some kind of compromise or issue, blockchain makes it easy to trace back the source of the issue.
Using blockchain technology across the supply chain streamlines processes and reduces some of the worries that the supply chain poses, especially in this day and age.
Everything gets tracked back, and there’s always a record of each event in the supply chain.
Blockchain Technology and Packaging
Blockchain transparency isn’t just a transformation of the supply chain as we know it, but it also moves into other areas in the ecosystem.
For example, the way food is packaged, or rather, how it comes to be packaged, takes on new importance with blockchain in the supply chain.
Let’s take product information, for example.
For many products, information is a central part of the packaging.
That means the packaging needs to be functional for protection, look aesthetically pleasing while also giving shoppers necessary information about the product and how it’s made.
But blockchain reduces the necessity of that.
Supply chain transparency can be communicated through simple QR codes and other measures, with everything being fully traceable.
Blockchain enables a quick and simple digital process for accessing information rather than trying to fit boxes of information on the packaging.
This can apply to many types of products, but one of the main test cases for blockchain is food packaging.
Using the technology, businesses are making it easier to trace food items starting from farmers up to distributors and have a system of checks and balances in place.
When there are issues such as recalls, businesses can trace the issue easily in the supply chain using scannable codes.
Although blockchain adoption rates aren’t as high now…it’s only a matter of time, really.
As more businesses invest in the technology, suppliers are getting on board.
After all, the technology offers them a way to ensure trust and supply chain transparency and reduces the need for intermediaries along the way.
Over the next few years, expect blockchain to become the norm, not the exception.
Packaging companies are already looking at new ways to incorporate scannable imagery to accommodate the changes as we move into the next era of product packaging.
