Efficient Consumer Response is a
term used to describe a way of doing business in the
grocery industry that involves trading partners:
"working together to fulfil
consumer wishes better, faster and at less cost."
It was established initially
in the United States of America in response to
certain market conditions:
Low growth
High competition
Pressure from consumers
Emergence of new channels
Emergence of highly efficient
new entrants
Traditional adversarial relationships
resulting in high costs
Emphasis on trading rather
than focusing on consumer needs
In creating the Efficient Consumer
Response working model, the early adopters focused
on two key principles:
Focus
on consumers: A commitment to the
belief that sustained business success stems
only from providing consumers with products
and services that consistently meet or surpass
their demands and expectations.
Working
together: The greatest consumer value
can be offered only when organizations work
together, both internally and with their trading
partners, to overcome barriers that erode efficiency
and effectiveness.
Barriers can be seen both between
trading partners and between business functions
within one business. ECR attempts to break these
barriers down.
ECR is about companies working together
to integrate their operations and eliminate barriers
that impact their ability to satisfy consumers and drive
out unnecessary cost.
ECR is being used to integrate previously
separate aspects of the supply chain and to enhance
the value delivered to the consumer by providing a series
of practical improvement concepts to unlock this value.
The ECR scorecard has been created
to allow companies to monitor their implementation progress
in four key areas:
