A year in review – thank you from GM Customer Cameron Frith

Cameron Frith
General Manager, Customer

2025 was, for many businesses, incredibly challenging. For members engaging with GS1 NZ, our aim is to make these interactions positive and easy, and to help members get on with their business. I’d like to thank you, as a GS1 New Zealand member, for your support this year.

The GS1 NZ team is conscious of our shared global purpose - harnessing the power of GS1 standards to transform the way we work and live. We do this through standards and solutions for efficiently identifying, capturing and sharing vital product and location information to help your business go faster.

As we look ahead to 2026, I’d like to reflect on some of my personal pick of the highlights from 2025 that are contributing to smoothing your member journey and improving business operations for GS1 NZ members:

Digital product improvements

I’m really excited about the work our digital team has done to improve the experience you have using our digital products. The team has an ambitious programme of work which aims to deliver more intuitive interfaces and reduce the level of complexity within our products.

A key aspect of this has been the ongoing migration of members that joined prior to 2020 to the new, modern version of the MyGS1 member platform. This has been a culmination of many years of investment and work coming to fruition for members. This migration work is set to be completed in early 2026.

Data quality has continued to be a focus

Data quality has continued to be a major focus for retailers and healthcare providers in 2025. With more and more customers shopping online, accurate data has become essential for retailers to ensure that online products match physical products, known as creating a ‘digital twin’. To make it easier to understand the match between online product data and physical product data we delivered new features to NPC Rapid Loader which now has a ‘traffic light’ to indicate the quality of your on-pack data. This is based on the age of your data and allows members to click through to see more information or an ‘OnPack’ service order with us to update your product data should it be out-of-date.

Ongoing Transition to Next Generation Barcodes

We’ve been sharing with you that there is a global transition to Next Generation Barcodes and we’ve been increasing awareness of this change and its benefits.

This month we took a step forward in the transition, with the launch of GS1 QR Codes available for creation and download inside MyGS1. This new functionality will allow you to generate your own GS1 QR Codes to allow your customers to find out more about your product by ‘scanning’ the barcode with their cell phone. The neat thing is that GS1 QR codes also will ‘beep’ at the point of sale when retailers support this next generation. GS1 New Zealand is one of a small number of organisations throughout the GS1 federation which have provided members the ability to generate their own GS1 QR Codes in real time. MyGS1 now enables members to select a GS1 QR Code barcode combined with a traditional linear barcode (to allow backwards compatibility) in either ‘landscape’ or ‘portrait’ format to suit your particular packaging or design sensibilities.

Enhancing operations with GS1 standards

Businesses have continued to enhance their operations with GS1 standards. Over the last 12 months we've seen apparel companies embrace GS1-standard radio-frequency identification (RFID) technology to really ‘move the needle’ in terms of inventory accuracy and operational efficiency. What’s really cool about RFID is that it can read up to 1000+ items per second and without needing line-of-sight.

We’ve also seen Foodstuffs asking its suppliers to use GS1 Serial Shipping Container Codes (SSCCs). SSCCs are, in essence, licence plates for logistics units such as cartons and pallets. These license plates enable goods to be tracked on their journey to the store and increases efficiency and goods receipting. NZ Post has also been leveraging SSCCs on their courier labels experiencing enhanced visibility and the ability to track-and-trace throughout the supply chain.

Lastly, Woolworths New Zealand has continued to rollout the GS1 DataMatrix, a Next Generation Barcode, to help track batch and best before information on its fresh foods. They have publicly stated that reading these Next Generation Barcodes at the point of sale has dramatically reduced product waste and store staff hours manually checking dates printed on products.

Thank you

2025 has been a successful year for GS1 New Zealand and I thank you for your ongoing commitment to GS1 New Zealand and global standards. I take this opportunity to remind you, as a member of GS1 NZ, you have access to a range of valuable benefits, and below are some I’d like to highlight:

5 free Global Location Numbers. You can check your balance in our member portal MyGS1.
10 free barcode graphics and 5 verification reports annually. You can also check how many of these you have left in MyGS1.
Priority support and expert guidance from our team, plus free training and industry insights. New members receive one free voucher to attend our Foundation Seminar which gives an overview of the GS1 system. Our short weekly webinars are great for new members, in particular, Barcode Quick Start and SSCC Essentials.
We’re now offering a free 30-minute Next Generation Barcode consultation to every member if you’re interested in learning more about the transition.