| The German food market has undergone tremendous changes within the last years: in food retailing a concentration process has taken place, discount-stores have gained market shares,and consumers have shown a hybrid and smart buying behaviour demanding highest quality at the lowest price. New information technologies have been developed and enable a closer collaboration between the members of the chain. Therefore, the former isolated management of single firms must be replaced by a vertical comprehensive management encompassing each individual member of the supply chain. In this context, Efficient Consumer Response (ECR) is seen to be the successful supply chain strategy for the grocery industry. This paper gives an overview of the ECR concept and its single... |
