What Happens to Your Products After the Factory — and Why It Should Matter to You

‍

You control a large share of your production data (volumes produced, logistics flows, manufacturing costs).
But very few of you know what happens to your products once they are sold.

In a world demanding traceability, sustainability, and transparency, that blind spot is becoming both a risk — and a missed opportunity.

Introduction

You know your production volumes, your logistics flows, your manufacturing costs.

But what do you know about what happens next?

How long are your products actually used?
Are they resold, repaired, recycled… or forgotten?

Today, most brands lose sight of their products the moment they leave the factory.
Yet that is precisely when the most valuable phase begins — in terms of data, impact, and long-term customer relationships.

‍

Context & Core Challenge

A Post-Sale Blind Spot

Your products live longer.
They move between multiple owners (second-hand, refurbished, rental models).

Meanwhile, regulations such as CSRD, DPP, and Ecodesign now require full lifecycle traceability.

→ You are becoming responsible for what you can no longer see.

Sector Examples

Across industries, regulation is increasing your responsibility over the entire product lifecycle. You are now required to prove traceability and sustainability far beyond your manufacturing sites.

This responsibility is materializing through Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) and major regulations such as AGEC law, the Digital Product Passport (DPP), Ecodesign, the EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR), and circular VAT frameworks.

This is especially critical for priority sectors:

Batteries

Key context:
Access to critical raw materials (rare earths, battery cells) and recycling capacity are now issues of strategic sovereignty.

Implication:
Full lifecycle tracking is essential to organize efficient recycling systems and prove material circularity.

Key regulation:
The EU Battery Regulation requires a Digital Product Passport for industrial and electric vehicle batteries, documenting composition, performance, and lifecycle data.

Textile

Key context:
Faced with massive environmental impact (waste volumes, pollution), traceability is the only viable path toward sustainable fashion.

Implication:
Mandatory material and product identification (via the Digital Product Passport) must be transformed from a constraint into proof of transparency and measurable impact.

Key regulation:
The French AGEC law and the Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation (ESPR) strengthen obligations around sorting, reuse, and recycling. The DPP will play a central role in proving durability and sustainability.

Furniture & WEEE (Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment)

Key context:
These sectors face increasing volumes and high end-of-life complexity (dismantling, component recovery).

Implication:
To meet Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) obligations, companies must collect reliable, real-world usage data to optimize collection, repair, reuse, and recycling.

Key regulation:
For electrical and electronic equipment, registration in the European EPREL database is becoming a key data touchpoint for repairability and product lifespan information. EPR obligations for WEEE and furniture require proof of commitment to second-life strategies.

Without post-sale data, it is impossible to measure impact — or ensure compliance.

Business & Strategic Stakes

From Compliance to Performance

This is not just a regulatory issue anymore. It has become:

• A product performance challenge: understanding real-world usage, lifespan, and repairability.
  
  
• A customer relationship opportunity: maintaining direct engagement after the point of sale, without intermediaries.
  
  
• A credibility imperative in sustainability: proving — not estimating — real product impact.
  
  

In other words:

Post-sale data is becoming a strategic asset.
What you do not measure, you no longer control.

‍

Opening the Door to a Solution

The Product Becomes Its Own Source of Truth

What if each product could tell its own story?

What if it carried with it its production data, repairs, resales, and circular journey?

What if the connection between you and the product never broke?

That is the ambition of the Digital Product Passport.

‍

Even a Non-Serialized Product Becomes Unique Once It Lives Its Life

A Digital Product Passport enables:

• Verifiable and interoperable data — meaning information that can be easily read and exchanged between systems and stakeholders.
  
  
• The ability to track circularity, repairs, and ownership transfers.
  
  

Concrete KPIs Enabled by the Digital Product Passport

• Material Circularity Rate
  Percentage of materials reintegrated into the loop (recycling, reuse), proven through post-sale tracking and lifecycle documentation.
  
  
• First-Life Duration (FLD)
  Average period of use by the first owner. A key indicator to refine total product lifespan and sustainability engagement.
  
  
• Active Repair Rate
  Number of registered repairs per product, demonstrating eco-design performance and after-sales service effectiveness.
  
  
• Resale / Second-Hand Rate
  Frequency and number of ownership transfers recorded, confirming residual value and second-hand market attractiveness.
  
  
• Post-Purchase Engagement
  Measurement of customer interaction after purchase via the passport (history consultation, maintenance services access, trade-in offers), strengthening direct relationships.
  
  

This is not just a compliance tool.
It is a new infrastructure of trust between brands, consumers, and regulators.

Vision

Regaining Control Over the Life of Your Products

In the next five years, the most successful companies will not simply be those that manufacture the best products.

They will be those that truly understand what becomes of their products.

Those that turn post-sale data into competitive advantage, direct customer relationships, and verifiable proof of sustainability.

And you — do you know what happens to your products after they leave your factory?

‍