At a time when consumers can easily track their orders on Amazon online or keep watch of their home remotely, the digital information flowing through the local seaports about billions of dollars worth of goods is outdated and too slow, experts say.

Shipping companies have different ways they report arrival of cargo. And trying to track a shipment can be confusing even for those who have done it for years.

“We need to continue to up our game,” said Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker, who on Friday at USC signed an agreement with the school’s Marshall Center for Global Supply Chain Management to help find a fix. “We are not at the kind of world-class level that we need to be at.”

As competition grows around the world, she said, the United States has to make itself an attractive location for export production and importing.

To that end, the partnership with USC will explore ways the ports can adopt a standardized information system that could allow various players from retailers to truckers to big shipping companies to share data.

The first tangible outcome is a conference and contest for technology developers planned for next month.

The idea is to be able to track a shirt imported from China across the supply chain from nearly the time it’s ordered and be able to tell what kind of transit problems it might be encountering. That could go a long way toward making delivery of products speedier and cheaper, as consumers have come to expect.

“Never have we had a port community system with digitized technology,” said Gene Seroka, executive director of the Port of Los Angeles. “This is really ground-breaking.”

Nearly 40 percent of imported goods to the United States come through the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, but information about how quickly products like jeans and plasma TVs will arrive and be distributed is complicated by a web of different software systems that don’t talk to each other.

Easier access to data could help ease congestion by alerting everyone when equipment is down or in short supply. Seroka said he would like to be able to know weeks instead of days before a container ship arrives at port, so planning for its arrival is smoother, which would help train operators, truckers and brokers.

Additionally, Pritzker said, the Commerce Department will hold quarterly meetings with ports around the country, and those that do business with them to develop better ways to handle issues such as cargo congestion, equipment shortages or information sharing. And next month, an advisory board to the department will release its recommendations for maritime standards on cargo status, with the goal of improving the supply chain.

A singular data set could help when there is a problem, such as not having enough trailers at a terminal, officials said.

“There is no standardization,” said Jon Monroe, spokesman for Dewell Container Shipping Corp., a freight shipping company with offices in Bell and Shanghai.

He said customers often ask him where maritime shipments are, but each of the vessel companies have different measurements for arrival, making it tough to provide consistent answers.

“That information is critical to plan your labor,” he said. “You have to know when things are going to arrive.”

Cliff Katab, president of El Segundo-based Performance Team Freight Systems Inc, which provides transportation and distribution of products for major retailers and manufactures, including Nike Inc. and TOMS Shoes, shares his frustration.

“The biggest problem is everyone speaks a different language,” he said. “In order to do business, we have to spend a certain amount of money and time to make sure that we speak the same language.”

That means creating new inventory and tracking systems every time the company contracts with a new company. What he would like to see is something akin to a bar code or other data set that can be used across every business.

But for years, competitors have held on tight to this because it offered them a competitive advantage.

Now it poses headaches at the ports where nearly every terminal operator works off of a different data system. In Long Beach and Los Angeles, there are 14 terminals and 11 different operating systems, complicating matters for truckers and others who need to access information about their cargo.

“The idea is to digitize the transmission (of information) so supply chain partners can plan and make decisions in a more reliable, safe manner,” said Noel Hacegaba, chief operation officer at the Port of Long Beach.

Editor’s Note: An earlier version of the story incorrectly identified Gene Seroka as the CEO of the Port of Los Angeles. He is the executive director.