On Tuesday (28 May), five travel retailers comprising Gebr. Heinemann, Dufry, DFS, Lagardère and Kappé held the second global Strategy Meeting of the Travel Retail Data Innovation Group (TRDIG) in Hamburg to discuss the evolution of the industry’s global master data exchange.

 

More than 90 supplier representatives from all product categories, together with those from data companies and the standardisation organisation, GS1 Global Office, attended the event.

 

The first TRDIG Strategy Meeting was held in Hamburg in June 2018 with around 100 participants from 35 suppliers. At the end of the meeting, decision-makers, master data experts and IT managers added their signatures to a large ‘commitment wall’.

 

“With this symbolic gesture they highlighted their joint commitment to connect to the TRDIG data pool by 2019 and to use it for master data exchange,” says Heinemann.

 

The aim of this year’s Strategy Meeting was to take this commitment to the next level by engaging all parties to shape and promote the standard together as a community.

 

“The data pool is now live,” says Inken Callsen, Director Fulfilment at Gebr. Heinemann. “Numerous suppliers from across all categories are connected and contribute their master data into the data pool. Some suppliers are already exchanging master data exclusively via the data pool.

 

“Our target is to integrate more than 80% of our Perfume & Cosmetics (P&C) and of our Liquor, Tobacco, Confectionery and Fine Food (LTCF) assortment, as well as the first suppliers in the categories Fashion & Accessories and Watches & Jewellery (FAWJ) to the data pool by the end of the year.

 

Sophie Boasson, Supply Chain Director at Lagardère Travel Retail, adds: “Lagardère is, by now, 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.”

 

On stage at the TRDIG Strategy Meeting 2019, key players of the travel retail sector as well as industry representatives explained their current project status and emphasised the great advantages that result from the data pool.

 

Small working groups subsequently kicked off 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 transform these topics into specific measures during workshops that we and the other retailers will host in the upcoming months,” says Alessia Poveromo, Global Head of Master Data at Dufry. “This builds a solid foundation for the digital future of the entire travel retail industry.”

 

In the course of 2020, the TRDIG expects all suppliers for whom the automated master data exchange is appropriate, to exclusively use a data pool.

 

“Our joint project continues to gain momentum and everyone is really keen to get involved,” adds Heinemann’s Callsen.

 

“We will continue to 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 all 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. After all, the more partners we have in the global data pool, the better.”