In the e-commerce industry, in which Apotea operates, the ability to communicate efficiently and accurately about products is a significant challenge. The increasing digitization, automated warehouse, and growing e-commerce impose greater demands on accurate data.
Apotea is Sweden’s largest online pharmacy, offering a range of 28,000 non-prescription items and 18,000 prescription medicines for humans and animals. From their warehouse in Morgongåva, they dispatch around 60,000 packages per day, containing approximately 300,000 items. Additionally, a large number of mixed pallets with goods arrive daily, often mixed pallets. Having access to accurate data is crucial for their operations.
Correct data in the systems
In early 2023, Apotea and GS1 Sweden initiated a joint project to explore how the implementation of GS1 standards could enhance efficiency and data quality at Apotea and benefit the industry as a whole.
For Apotea, which has invested heavily in new automation for its logistics, having accurate data in the systems is crucial. They need to know details about incoming goods, such as what they are, when they arrive, their dimensions, weight, and more. Accurate information about when products arrive at the warehouse is also important from a customer perspective. When Apotea’s customers place orders, having correct information about the delivery timing is advantageous. Especially when it comes to medications, since customers may need to start taking the medication on a specific day.
Through the implementation of GS1 standards, Apotea hopes to simplify its purchasing process, goods receipt, and invoice handling, as these processes currently involve a considerable amount of manual work.
Another streamlining effort by Apotea is to gain better control over expiration dates, ensuring that the items in their inventory do not become too old. This approach can help reduce the number of goods that need to be discarded.
The common language
The GS1 standards chosen by Apotea include GS1 Trade Item Information, EDI (Electronic Data Interchange) and SSCC (Serial Shipping Container Code). By using these standards, Apotea aims to streamline its purchasing process, goods receipt, and invoice processes, leading to increased data quality and reduced time for error handling and manual intervention.
By adopting GS1 standards with their suppliers and other stakeholders in the value chain, a common business language is established. This common business language allows Apotea to have a structured model with necessary information, eliminating the need to search for information and enabling them to allocate time elsewhere.
Listen to Apotea’s CEO, Pär Svärdson, talk more about Apotea’s standardization journey and why it is so important.