ECR - Efficient Consumer Response

Serving customers better and increasing sales while reducing costs: three objectives of Efficient Consumer Response (ECR). The ECR business model is based on cross-company collaboration and includes a holistic concept of standards, process models and methods. GS1 Switzerland represents ECR in Switzerland and actively contributes to its development in the global ECR community.

The vision of the ECR concept is to satisfy consumer wants quickly, cost-effectively and even better than before – and doing all this sustainably: ECR combines strategic, process and technical aspects to remove inefficiencies along the value chain.

ECR is a collaborative business strategy based on standards, skills and systematic cooperation between the internal business divisions and companies involved in the value chain. The primary objective is to satisfy customer needs as effectively and efficiently as possible. Everyone involved in the value chain has to focus on benefits to consumers. This is the only way to uncover opportunities and achieve customer benefits that one division or one company acting alone would not be able to realise.

ECR has been established in Switzerland since 1995. Since 2005 the ECR Switzerland organisation has been integrated into GS1 Switzerland.

ECR focus areas

Demand side
Demand management manages demand and ensures the business remains customer or consumer oriented. It also includes activities that stimulate demand such as category management, shopper or customer journey management and omnichannel retailing.
Supply side
ECR models provide efficient, effective processes for supply chain management to monitor and control the flow of goods. The various standards and processes can also be used in combination to optimise the supply chain.
Enabling technologies
Enabling technologies promote consistent use of process-enabling technologies. They focus on economies of scale and safe investment. ECR depends on widespread use of GS1 standards.
Integrators
Integrators find solutions to specific issues in business operations. Examples are on-shelf availability, out of stock, shelf-ready packaging, waste prevention, shrink reduction and collaborative planning, forecasting & replenishment (CPFR).
Data management
Data management: These days almost every process is replicated and every product represented in digital form. This creates massive amounts of data. Proper management of the data, whether master data, movement data or analysis data, is essential for success.