Connected Product Glossary
Plain-English definitions for the standards, regulations and technologies behind Digital Product Passports, product authentication and connected packaging.
Battery Passport
The product-specific Digital Product Passport mandated for EV and industrial batteries above 2 kWh sold in the EU from February 2027.
Read definitionCircular Economy
An economic model where products, materials and components are kept in use as long as possible through repair, reuse, refurbishment and recycling.
Read definitionCIRPASS
An EU-funded consortium preparing the technical groundwork for Digital Product Passports across the textiles, batteries and electronics sectors.
Read definitionConnected Packaging
Physical packaging that carries a scannable data carrier (QR, NFC, RFID) linking the product to a live digital experience.
Read definitionConsumer Engagement (via product scans)
The interactions a brand has with a customer triggered by scanning a connected product — content, offers, registration, support or loyalty.
Read definitionData Carrier (DPP)
The physical mark on a product — usually a QR code, NFC tag or RFID — that points scanners to the product's Digital Product Passport.
Read definitionDigital Product Passport (DPP)
A structured, digital record of a product's identity, materials, supply chain and sustainability data, accessible via a data carrier such as a QR code or NFC tag.
Read definitionDPP Interoperability
The principle that a Digital Product Passport must be readable and meaningful regardless of which vendor created it, which scanner reads it, or which member state queries it.
Read definitionEPCIS
A GS1 standard for capturing and sharing supply-chain events — what happened, when, where, why and to which item.
Read definitionESPR (Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation)
The EU regulation that introduces mandatory Digital Product Passports and stricter ecodesign requirements across nearly all physical goods sold in the EU.
Read definitionFirst-Party Product Data
Customer and behavioural data collected directly by the brand through product scans, registrations and owned experiences — not via third-party platforms.
Read definitionGS1 Digital Link
A GS1 standard that turns a product's GTIN into a resolvable web URL, letting a single QR code serve consumers, retailers, regulators and supply-chain systems.
Read definitionGTIN (Global Trade Item Number)
The unique numeric identifier assigned to a product by GS1 — the same number encoded in every retail barcode in the world.
Read definitionNFC (Near Field Communication)
A short-range wireless standard that lets a smartphone read a passive tag by tapping it — no app, no camera, no aiming required.
Read definitionProduct Authenticity
The verifiable claim that a physical item is genuine — produced by the legitimate brand and not counterfeit, diverted or tampered with.
Read definitionProduct-Triggered Loyalty
Loyalty mechanics that activate when a consumer scans or registers a specific physical product, tying rewards to ownership rather than purchase frequency.
Read definitionProvenance
The documented origin and chain of custody of a product — where it was made, from what, by whom, and how it reached the consumer.
Read definitionQR Code
A 2D matrix barcode that encodes a URL or data string and can be scanned with any modern smartphone camera.
Read definitionSGTIN (Serialised GTIN)
A GTIN combined with a unique serial number, identifying one specific physical item rather than a product line.
Read definitionTextile DPP
The Digital Product Passport variant being defined for apparel, footwear and other textile products under ESPR — expected to be the first mainstream consumer DPP mandate.
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