Create a Digital Product Passport: the guide in seven steps

A Digital Product Passport does not come about in a tool but in seven steps of work - and only the last two of them are technical in nature. Anyone who starts with the software selection instead of the data will find after weeks that the decisive information is still with the suppliers. This guide works through the process and says openly what is not yet settled today. What a DPP actually is is clarified in the comprehensive DPP guide.

To a Digital Product Passport in seven steps

The process is the same across all sectors - only the data fields differ. Steps 1 to 3 cost a few days, step 4 drags on for weeks to months, and steps 5 to 7 are plannable again. For a D2C brand with 100 to 300 articles, the build-up amounts to a good person-week spread over a quarter, and a few hours a month thereafter. The calendar duration is decided by the response time of your supply chain - which is why step 4 should start as early as possible.

1. Clarify your exposure and the legal basis

First clarify which regulation covers your product. For most consumer goods that is the Ecodesign Regulation (ESPR), EU 2024/1781; for batteries including e-bike batteries the EU Battery Regulation 2023/1542 with its fixed key date of 18 February 2027; for toys the Toy Safety Regulation EU 2025/2509. At the same time, record which role you are in - manufacturer, importer or own-brand retailer - because liability depends on it; the roles are set out in the guide Who is responsible for the DPP? The product group and key date are supplied by the ESPR deadline checker, and the complete picture of dates by the deadline overview.

2. Determine the mandatory data for your product group

Which fields a passport has to contain is not set by the ESPR but by the delegated act for the product group. And here is the inconvenient truth: for most ESPR product groups this act has not yet been adopted - so a binding field list does not yet exist. That is not a reason to wait but the reason to start now: the core set of identification, material, substances, origin, repairability, recycling and conformity recurs across all regulations and drafts. Anyone who fills it in today faces fine-tuning later rather than a fresh start.

3. Take stock of your data and find the gaps

Put the field list next to your data: what is in Shopify, ERP or PIM, what sits in supplier emails and PDFs, and what does not exist at all? Master data such as article number, GTIN, model and variants is usually present and can be imported. What is regularly missing, by contrast, is origin at the level of production steps, exact material shares and the recycled content. The result is a gap list per article - it is worth more than any software decision.

4. Obtain missing data from suppliers

This is the longest step, and it is where projects stall. Do not send open questions but a fixed field list with example values, units and a binding response deadline - ideally as a spreadsheet to be sent back. Reckon on several rounds: the first answer is rarely complete, and with deeper chains your supplier has to ask further down first. That is why the start date is the biggest cost lever: queries that run alongside everything else over months cost almost nothing - the same queries under deadline pressure tie up half the team, as the guide What does a Digital Product Passport cost? sets out.

5. Structure and validate the data

Bring all information together into a single data model instead of spreading it across spreadsheets and systems. The most important decision here: which fields apply per model, which per variant? Material composition, origin and certificates are usually identical across the model, while colour, size and article number are variant-specific - anyone who does not separate the two will later maintain the same piece of information twenty times over. Then validate against the mandatory information and publish only once no mandatory field is left empty.

6. Publish the product passport and generate the data carrier

Every article gets a publicly accessible DPP page - no login, no app - and a QR code that resolves permanently to that page. The data carrier belongs on the product: sewn in, printed on or on the hangtag, easily accessible and legible. In distance selling that is not enough: the passport has to be accessible in the online offer already, that is as a widget on the product page of your shop. What a finished passport looks like is shown in the annotated DPP example.

7. Establish a maintenance process

The product passport is not a document you hand in but a living data set. Define in writing who updates it and within what period - when a material changes, a supplier changes, a certificate expires or a new collection arrives. Track changes with versioning so that it remains demonstrable which state was published when. An expired certificate in the passport is worse than no information at all.

The minimum data a product passport contains

As long as the product-group-specific legal acts are missing, the following list is the reliable common denominator from the ESPR core set and the regulations already adopted - and the working basis for step 3.

Sector-specific fields are added on top: cell chemistry and carbon footprint for batteries, rolling resistance for tires, and for textiles the complete fibre composition.

Build it yourself, use a template or use software?

For the creation itself there are three routes. Which one fits depends less on budget than on the size of your range - and on how long the printed QR codes have to last.

Route 1 - spreadsheet plus static page. You collect the data in a spreadsheet, publish a plain page per article on your own domain and generate the QR code with a generator. This is not a stopgap: with a handful of products it works, because no regulation prescribes a system. Verdict: viable up to around twenty articles without variants. Above that it tips over - every material change becomes manual work, version states are lost, and nobody notices expiring certificates.

Route 2 - template or generator. You fill in a ready-made DPP template and export the result as a file. The gain is the structure: you see immediately which fields are expected and which remain empty. Verdict: ideal for a first passport, for supplier conversations and for internal alignment. As a permanent solution it fails as route 1 does - a file does not stay online and does not change with the product.

Route 3 - DPP software. Capture, validation, hosting of the public pages, QR codes and versioning come from one system, and variants inherit from the base article. Verdict: from around fifty articles the more economical choice - above all because of the speed of change when a legal act brings new mandatory fields. Which type of provider fits is separated out in the DPP software comparison; for small teams the guide DPP for SMEs is worthwhile.

Try it free: the DPP configurator

If you want to see how far your data gets you, the DPP configurator is the fastest route. You enter your product data - only the product name is mandatory, and the passport becomes meaningful from around eight pieces of information - and immediately see a complete product passport with identification, material and origin, circularity, repair, conformity and an embedded QR code. It also shows the legal basis, key date and the expected mandatory data for your product group. Whatever you leave blank appears as an open point - so the result is at once your gap list for step 3 and your conversation basis for step 4.

You can download the passport as a single HTML file, without registration, and one download is free. It opens in any browser, works without an internet connection and can be saved as a PDF via the print function. Two limitations: the passport is a planning and alignment aid, not legally binding and no substitute for verified conformity documentation. And a file remains a file - it is not permanently reachable under a public URL. For a whole range the route therefore continues to step 6.

The most common mistakes

• Starting with the software instead of the data. Choosing the tool feels like progress but merely postpones the moment when the gap list appears.
• Variant chaos. Anyone who creates every colour and size as its own data set maintains the same material information many times over. The model and variant levels belong apart before the first data capture.
• QR codes on somebody else’s domain. Printed labels live for years. If the code points to a service provider’s domain, your goods depend on that provider’s continued existence - clarify who owns the DPP URLs before printing.
• Treating the DPP as a one-off project. Maintenance begins after go-live. Without named owners, passports go out of date within a season.
• Waiting for the delegated act. It sets fields, not your supplier relationships. Origin and material data can be gathered today - and those are exactly the parts that take longest.

The most important sentence in this guide is also the least spectacular: start with the data, not with the technology. Once steps 3 and 4 are in place, the rest is craft - and anyone who does not want to build it themselves will find exactly steps 5 to 7 in SolveDPP: Shopify import including variants, validation, public DPP pages with QR code and a version history you can put in front of an authority.