Rakuten, Japan’s largest e-commerce company, has
partnered with Techrock which runs a China-based e-commerce store which only provides authenticated products. The deal enables Chinese customers to purchase from Rakuten via Techrock.
Fake goods are a significant issue in China. Techrock is addressing the issue by attaching NFC smart packaging to every product. Using the tag the goods are authenticated along the supply chain, and the actions are logged on a blockchain. The products are available in offline retail outlets as well as through the dedicated WeChat store.
The company has a narrow range of products where authenticity is important. Baby nutrition is one area that is particularly sensitive in China. In 2008 contaminated infant formula resulted in six babies dying from kidney damage and 54,000 hospitalized. More recently there have been multiple
infant vaccine controversies.
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