GERMANY. Key decision makers in the global travel retail market gathered yesterday in Hamburg to share insights and updates on the pooling of master product data across the industry. These projects have been started by a number of operators – and are well advanced in some cases.
Five travel retailers – Gebr Heinemann, Dufry, DFS Group, Lagardère Travel Retail and Kappé International – held the second strategy meeting of the Travel Retail Data Innovation Group (TRDIG) where some 180 participants attended. They included representatives of more than 90 suppliers from all product categories, data pooling service providers such as 1WorldSync and Alkemics, and the global standardisation organisation GS1.
The meeting examined ways of accelerating the global exchange of master data in the duty free and travel retail channel and followed the first TRDIG meeting held in Hamburg in June 2018 which attracted around 100 participants. As reported, the vision behind the collaboration was to “define a standard and global platform for data exchange in travel retail”.
Heinemann (which began the initiative in 2017) and partners encouraged more brands and retailers to participate in an attempt to create efficiencies in the streamlining and sharing of product data in the market.
At the end of that meeting, decision makers, master data experts and IT managers added their signatures to a large ‘commitment wall’ – a symbolic gesture of their intent to connect to the TRDIG data pool by 2019 and to use it for master data exchange.
This year’s meeting moved that commitment forward by engaging all parties to shape and promote the standard together as a community. “The data pool is now live. Numerous suppliers from across all categories are connected and contribute their master data into the pool. Some suppliers are already exchanging master data exclusively via the data pool,” noted Gebr Heinemann Director Fulfilment Inken Callsen.
She added: “Our target is to integrate more than 80% of our perfume and cosmetics (P&C) and of our liquor, tobacco, confectionery and fine food (LTCF) assortment, as well as include the first suppliers in the categories of fashion and accessories and watches and jewellery (FAWJ) to the data pool by the end of the year.”
Lagardère Travel Retail Supply Chain Director Sophie Boasson said: “Lagardère is in the process of establishing the data exchange via the pool with eight suppliers. When we first heard about the project from Gebr Heinemann, we immediately identified a huge potential, both for the brands and the retailers, as we had a similar project launched at that time.”
Insights from working groups
On stage at the TRDIG Strategy Meeting 2019, key travel retail players as well as industry representatives explained their current project status and emphasised the advantages that result from the data pool.
Small working groups have also been formed to examine the development of initial solution approaches for pending topics such as pricing, non-sellable materials and digital assets, among others.
“We are looking forward to transforming these topics into specific measures during workshops that we and the other retailers will host in the upcoming months. This builds a solid foundation for the digital future of the entire travel retail industry,” said Dufry Global Head of Master Data Alessia Poveromo.
Ambitious goals going forward
Over the course of 2020, the TRDIG expects all suppliers for whom the automated master data exchange is appropriate, to exclusively use data pooling. Callsen was delighted to see the dedication shown by the participants and commented: “Our joint project continues to gain momentum and everyone is really keen to get involved. We will promote our vision for the standardised and automated exchange of master data across the industry.
“Our common goal is to prove that we in travel retail have a different mindset to other industries because we understand that collaboration in this aspect of the business is not a competition but a real advantage for the whole market. The more partners we have in the global data pool, the better.”
A more detailed report on yesterday’s TRDIG event will appear soon.
