These days it seems like everyone is looking for a way to save the planet, making massive eco-friendly adjustments to their products and services and funding new green initiatives, and it’s an amazingly interesting bit of history to witness. But out of all the new environmentally-friendly products on the market and efforts for companies to reduce their carbon footprint, one of the most unique tools that companies have began implementing are smart labels. Who would have thought that waste could be reduced by simply changing the labels on our product packaging? Here’s everything you need to know about the new smart labelling trend that’s quickly gaining popularity.
What Are Smart Labels?
Smart labels are pretty much exactly what their name suggests: labels that contain additional information about the products they label, which can be accessed by scanning them and reading the information on a smart device, such as a cell phone.
There are currently several different types of smart labels on the market, and you’ll start to notice them more and more in the coming years.
If a jar of pickles at the supermarket has a smart label on it, you could scan the smart label with your smart phone and then find out where the ingredients came from, whether they’re organic or vegan, find out more about the product’s nutritional information, how the product was packaged and shipped, and more. You can find out if products are ethically, sustainably sourced, and what sort of impact the company is having on the environment, or any causes they support or oppose.
Access to this sort of information is something that consumers can currently find, but it requires a bit of investigation, which some people are so loathe to do that they skip it. But smart labels can change how you shop and which brands you use, potentially ensuring that you eat the freshest foods and buy high-quality goods.
They can also help out businesses by offering real-time inventory updates, and preventing theft. This is massively beneficial to not only save money, but keep businesses and their employees safe from theft. If someone robs a pharmacy full of drugs with smart labels on them, then it would be relatively easy to find the bottles and track the criminal using technology similar to the “Find My Phone” app.
What’s Contributing to the Popularity of Smart Labels?
High-speed internet is more readily available in areas around the world, so technology such as this is more easily utilized. Thirty years ago the types of technology that smart labels use were only dreamed of, so the massive progression of technology and its acceptance in recent years is the primary driving factor behind the popularity of smart labels.
There are a lot of benefits that smart labels provide that make the standard bar codes inferior by comparison, and product manufacturers, retailers and consumers are all taking notice. The information on smart labels is more accurate and reliable, and both the information on smart labels and the product itself can be traced via the smart label.
Because of their trace-ability, they make theft and inventory loss a thing of the past, which is better for both retailers, their employees and law-abiding consumers. It makes working at a retail store or drug store safer because traceable products are a deterrent against theft, lowering the risk and the number of armed robberies that retail stores and their employees frequently have to deal with.
Another reason that smart labels are dominating the market right now is contributed to the e-commerce boom. Because many retailers and entrepreneurs favour e-commerce shops or are utilizing online options, they’re quickly learning that smart labels can help them keep track of their inventory, shipping, and more. And the fact that most smart labels are cheaper than the silicon labels that are currently used makes them an even more attractive option to many retailers.
Which Companies Are Using Smart Labels?
Doing a quick internet search likely will result in learning about a few companies that have started using smart labels recently, but luckily for us all, the IMARC Group has published a report called “Smart Labels Market: Global Industry Trends, Share, Size and Growth Opportunity and Forecast 2022-2027”, which has provided a ton of information about this new technology. Here’s a look at some of the companies currently utilizing smart labels and they types of labels being used:
Companies Using Smart Labels:
- Avery Dennison Corporation
- CCL Industries Inc
- Checkpoint Systems Inc
- Intermec Inc
- Invengo Information Technology Co Ltd
- Muehlbauer Holding AG
- Sato Holdings Corporation
- Smartrac N.V.
- Thin Film Electronics ASA
- Zebra Technologies Corporation
Types of Smart Labels Being Used:
- Electronic Article Surveillance
- Electronic Shelf Label
- Near Field Communication
- RFID
- Sensing Label
Here’s a look at some of the technology that smart labels can use:
- Batteries
- Memory
- Microprocessors
- Transceivers
- More
Who’s Using Smart Labels?
It wouldn’t be incorrect to assume that product manufacturers primarily use smart labels, but there’s actually a vast cross-section of the retail industry that uses smart labels. Here are some of the various end-users using smart labels and the industries they work in:
- Aerospace
- Data Centres
- Food and Beverage
- Healthcare
- Libraries
- Logistics and Transportation
- Retail
- And More
Which Countries Have Started Using Smart Labels?
Believe it or not, smart label usage isn’t limited to just smart food labels, or just to the UK or to any one country in particular. The smart label trend is gaining popularity all around the world.
Some of the countries currently using smart label technology are Asia Pacific (which includes Australia, China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Korea), Europe (which includes France, Germany, Italy, Spain, United Kingdom, etc.), Latin America (which includes Brazil and Mexico, among others), the Middle East and Africa (including Iraq, Quatar, Saudi Arabia, and United Arab Emirates), and North America (which includes Canada and the United States).
Of course, this list is expected to grow in coming years due to the popularity and rising trend of smart labels and their growth opportunity and forecast trends.
Smart Label Financial Trends and Forecasts
It’s one thing to understand that smart labels are currently gaining popularity and becoming used on a more widespread basis, but its quite another to understand what this means for the smart label industry and its financial trends in the future. Luckily, there are financial experts who look into nearly every industry to predict their future, and smart labels are no different.
In 2020 financial experts predicted that smart labels would reach $8.4 billion by the end of 2021. They went on to predict that they’d grow to $18 billion by 2027. Smart labels have a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 13.57% between 2022-2027, which is quite impressive for new technology.
OliTec
One of the most well-recognized smart label companies is OliTec, which has created a specific type of smart labels that poses potentially vast improvements to environmental impact. Their smart labels detect temperature changes in products, which allows retailers and customers to determine their freshness.
If these labels are applied during the packaging phase of temperature-sensitive products, then people can see the various temperature changes that have occurred to the product throughout the manufacturing, shipping and retail phases and give consumers a better idea of the life cycle of the the product. Because of this, OliTec says that their labels are more accurate than the current “Best Before” dates on food products to determine their freshness.
Currently, OliTec is optimally used on products that have a 5-15 day shelf life at temperatures of 5 degrees Celsius. They’re currently working on labels that go beyond the 5-15 day threshold so that they’re more widely applicable to more products. They can be applied to nearly any product packaging because of their flat and flexible design, so they’re already pretty versatile.
They should ideally be applied to products during the packaging phase of manufacture so that product temperature can be accurately monitored throughout the life of the product. It can also be used at retail stores so that they can determine more accurate food rotation schedules and have a better understanding of when to throw out bad products. In fact, consumers could even use the labels for the same purposes to prevent avoid food-borne illnesses.
How Do OliTec Labels Impact the Environment?
You’re probably wondering how a label that can detect temperature has any impact on the environment, which is a fair question. Its impact has to do with food waste.
The company has stated that 1.9% of the world’s total greenhouse gases are produced by the airline industry, but between 8-10% of the world’s greenhouse gases are produced from food waste, which is a pretty shocking statistic. But they go on to say that if the food waste of the world were to be reduced by only 25%, it would basically be the same as removing the greenhouse gas emissions of the entire airline industry, which is such an impressive statement that it begs the question of why we’re not doing this already. Of course, getting people to waste less is difficult, but with smart label technology it could make cutting back on food waste a lot easier which means that it may be something that more consumers and companies will willingly take part in.
Even worse, they say that food waste that finds itself in a landfill is more dangerous because landfills produce a lot of methane, and methane causes 28 times more potential for global warming effects than carbon dioxide alone.
However, OliTec has done research and found that a study in Denmark using Time Temperature Indicators (TTIs) reduced food waste by 25%-65%, depending on the type of food being monitored. A 65% reduction in food waste is quite impressive, no matter which category it’s in though.
How Do OliTec Labels Work?
Just reading about OliTec smart labels can be a bit confusing and you may be trying to imagine what sort of information they display in order to tell people when to toss spoiled food. The smart label displays aren’t just a bunch of words and numbers that consumers have to decipher, however. They’re quite easy to understand.
During the 5-15 day period, the label has a colour range that goes from yellow to red. Of course, products in the yellow range are still viable, while products in the red range are either spoiled or in the danger zone. There’s also a blue thermometer indicator on the label that indicates that the product is being stored at optimal temperatures.
This is great for grocers and retailers because in the event that equipment fails and products are exposed to potentially harmful temperatures, retailers can simply check out the labels to see which products were compromised, as opposed to tossing the whole pallet. This should both save money and reduce food waste.
What makes OliTec smart labels different from other smart labels already on the market is that they only cost around 2p, they don’t have any unique storage requirements, and their labels can be added to standard label printers, which means they won’t slow down or stop the production process, making them ideal for product manufacturers.
The Future of OliTec
OliTec has high hopes of reducing food waste and making a huge and positive impact on the environment, but it’s hard to tell sometimes whether a company actually has the potential to live up to all of its dreams and claims, isn’t it? If enough grocers and retailers were to use smart labels that determine more accurate “Best Before” dates and the temperatures of products, then it’s safe to say that food waste would be considerably reduced on a global scale. But it’s hard to tell whether OliTec’s vision will fully come to fruition.
What we do know, however, is that OliTec is currently in talks with several major supermarkets, stores and suppliers in both the UK and the U.S. to test out their product on a large scale. They’re still looking for a major company to partner with, as well. So, it seems as though you’ll see more of OliTec’s smart labels at a supermarket near you in the future.
