Digital Product Passport: from regulatory mandate to strategic leverage for digital products

In recent years, sustainability has gone from being a defining theme for a single company to a necessary operational requirement for developing marketable digital products.

This is the context in which the Digital Product Passport (DPP) was born, one of the most significant initiatives introduced by the European Union as part of the Green Deal and the circular economy strategy.

Often perceived as a regulatory constraint, the DPP actually represents a much broader opportunity: transforming the product into a traceable, integrable, and strategic information asset. For companies developing digital products or managing complex ecosystems, the Digital Product Passport is not just compliance, but a point of contact between product, technology, and marketing.

What is the Digital Product Passport (and what's really changing)

The Digital Product Passport is a system that allows you to collect, structure, and make accessible relevant information gathered throughout a product's life cycle: from data related to the origin and composition of materials, to manufacturing processes, to environmental impact, to useful information for maintenance, repair, and end-of-life management.

This information is made accessible through digital technologies such as QR codes, RFID, and cloud platforms, allowing companies and consumers to access up-to-date and verifiable information.

The real change, however, is not technological but cultural: the product ceases to be a static object and becomes a dynamic information node, capable of evolving over time and generating value even after the sale.

Beyond compliance: DPP as a leverage for product strategy

Simply implementing the Digital Product Passport to meet a regulatory requirement risks replicating a familiar logic: building something without considering the value it can generate. A more mature approach, however, is to integrate the DPP into the product strategy, transforming it into a lever for differentiation and innovation.

The DPP:

• enables new levels of transparency: making previously difficult-to-find information accessible changes the relationship between brand and user, reducing information asymmetry and strengthening trust. In a competitive market, transparency is no longer just an ethical issue, but a distinctive element;
• it directly impacts the user experience. It's not just about displaying data, but about designing access and interaction methods that are intuitive, contextual, and useful. Integrating these touchpoints into the product lifecycle opens up new service opportunities, from maintenance to support, to the continuous evolution of the experience. In this sense, the DPP is also a UX/UI issue, not just a technological infrastructure issue;
• it represents an accelerator for data strategy. The need to collect and structure information throughout the supply chain drives companies to improve data quality and consistency, promoting system integration and enabling new data-driven models. Over time, this can translate into new business models based on actual product usage, service logics, or broader digital ecosystems.

The challenge: integrating product, technology, and strategy

Implementing a Digital Product Passport presents a series of complexities that go beyond the technical dimension. One of the key concerns the technological infrastructure, which is often fragmented across disparate systems that don't communicate effectively. This requires data integration and standardization efforts that cannot be underestimated.

Alongside technology, the issue of organizational alignment emerges. The DPP involves various business functions, from product to IT, from operations to marketing. Without a shared vision and clear coordination, there is a risk of developing partial or inconsistent solutions.

Another critical aspect is data governance. Defining who is responsible for updating information, how frequently, and according to which standards is essential to ensuring reliability over time. Without solid governance, the Digital Product Passport risks rapidly losing value.

In this scenario, value lies not only in the ability to implement a technical solution, but in designing a coherent system that brings together product, data, and experience, integrating strategy, development, and marketing.

ReTrace: the 20tab solution

This is how ReTrace was born, an innovative blockchain-based solution for supply chain certification and traceability, designed by 20tab and AstraKode to meet both the requirements of EU Regulation 2024/1781 (ESPR) and the real operational needs of companies.

ReTrace is a tool built around three concrete objectives:

• verifiable transparency
• operational efficiency
• measurable sustainability.

Each stage of the supply chain is recorded on blockchain with timestamps and certified details, ensuring that information is traceable, immutable, and accessible in real time to customers, partners, and regulatory bodies.

Operationally, ReTrace automates data collection and certification, integrates with existing business systems, and generates automatically verifiable reports, minimizing manual intervention. Intuitive dashboards allow all stakeholders in the supply chain to monitor processes, verify compliance, and access certified data seamlessly.

The architecture is modular and scalable: designed to evolve with the product, integrate with IoT devices, manage complex geospatial data, and support advanced features such as smart contracts, AI-based predictive analytics, and zero-knowledge encryption for the protection of sensitive data.

ReTrace is the result of the synergy between two Italian leaders: 20tab brings a product-driven approach, a focus on UX and accessibility, and experience in developing scalable digital platforms; AstraKode contributes its leadership in enterprise blockchain and distributed infrastructure. The result is a robust technological solution, designed for those who view DPP not as a formal requirement, but as an opportunity to build trust throughout the supply chain.

If you'd like to comply and transform the Digital Product Passport into a strategic lever for your product, let's chat.