For its efforts to get suitable product images for the target market Germany into the Global Data Synchronisation Network (GDSN), Rewe Group won the ECR Award for ‘Operational Excellence’ together with the branded goods giants Mars and Procter & Gamble this week. As justified as the award is for the dedication of the three companies, it also became apparent at this week’s ECR conference (ECR Tag) in Frankfurt that Rewe Group is still a long way from its goal of obtaining all product images of packaged consumer units via the GDSN.
According to a resolution of the GDSN User Group for Germany, suppliers to the German retail sector have been obliged since February of this year to provide at least one image of each product via the GDSN, which in principle is also suitable for filling an online shop. Nevertheless, Steffen Kujus from Rewe Group Buying reported at the ECR conference that, according to a measurement in May 2023, 42.2 per cent of the item data that his company obtains via the GDSN data pool Atrify was still missing product images.
And this only included those data that – as required by Rewe Group – had passed GS1 Germany’s DQX data quality check. For data that had not been DQX-checked, the fill level with images was even significantly lower. “We will take the images from the GDSN as a matter of priority and no longer chase the manufacturers,” Steffen Kujus warned the retail suppliers at ECR Day to implement the requirements of the GS1 specialist group ‘Media Assets’.
Edeka Group wants image data also for print media
The biggest challenge, however, might be that Germanys largest grocery retailer and Rewe Group’s direct competitor, the Edeka Group, demands product images from its suppliers in a format that deviates from the definitions of the GS1 expert group.
Edeka Group collects product images in high resolution in TIFF format, which they also use for poster printing in sales outlets and other print media such as leaflets. However, the requirements for the product images linked to the GDSN for the German target market only meet the requirements for digital use in terms of resolution and format (JPEG).
