How Ecosoft Achieved 100% Price Control and Eliminated Stockouts with effie

Many merchandisers said: ‘It’s good that we have such a program.’ Now they save their time, which is a big plus.

— Yevgen Stolyarov, Head of Key Accounts Department, Ecosoft.

About the company

Ecosoft is Ukraine’s leading water filter manufacturer and market trendsetter with almost 35 years of experience. The company creates high-quality water treatment equipment for domestic, commercial, and industrial use across global markets, generating $1.3 billion in annual net revenue.

Before implementing effie, Ecosoft operated with traditional manual processes for retail monitoring and merchandising control. The company relied on field teams to manually visit points of sale, create reports by hand, and coordinate between departments through fragmented communication channels. This approach made it nearly impossible to maintain real-time visibility across their extensive retail network.

The problem

Ecosoft faced critical operational challenges that were limiting their growth potential:

• Lack of Real-Time Control: The company lacked a systematic way to monitor shelf share, pricing compliance, and stock levels across retail chains. Stockouts occurred regularly in problematic retail locations, directly impacting sales.
• Unreliable Field Operations: Merchandisers could manipulate reporting by taking photos months in advance, making it impossible to verify actual shelf conditions or compliance with planograms.
• Inefficient Resource Allocation: Managers spent valuable time visiting stores to verify merchandiser work, instead of focusing on strategic activities such as negotiations and sales analysis. Manual report generation consumed entire days.
• Poor Interdepartmental Coordination: Different departments operated in silos without synchronized processes, resulting in missed opportunities and ineffective decision-making.
• Competitive Disadvantage: Without reliable competitor monitoring and pricing intelligence, Ecosoft was unable to respond quickly to market changes or effectively defend its shelf positioning.

These issues resulted in lost sales, reduced market penetration, and significant waste of human resources and marketing budgets.

How effie solved it

Effie transformed Ecosoft’s retail operations through comprehensive automation and real-time monitoring. The platform introduced real-time dashboards that provide complete visibility into shelf share, stock levels, and planogram compliance across all retail locations, preventing stockouts through systematic shelf management. effie enables complete price monitoring and control at all points of sale, ensuring compliance with recommended pricing strategies and preventing unauthorized discounting.

The system enhanced merchandising accountability through GPS-enabled photo reporting with timestamp verification, eliminating manipulation and ensuring the authenticity of field data collection. Automated report generation replaced manual processes, while real-time competitor monitoring through structured questionnaires provides immediate insights into competitor promotions, pricing, and activities.

Key Implementation Facts

The solution covers 75-80% of the company’s needs without requiring any extra modifications, providing exceptional value right out of the box. This high coverage rate is achieved through a seamless integration with existing business processes, ensuring a perfect fit without disrupting current operations. Additionally, the system features customized control logic that is specifically designed to match the client’s unique business rhythms, creating a harmonious workflow that aligns with established organizational patterns.

The case demonstrated how crucial it is to customize control logic to match client business rhythms. This adaptability is our core strength.

— Effie Customer Success Team.

Results

Within the first implementation period, Ecosoft achieved remarkable improvements:

• Stock out Elimination: Previously problematic retail chains with regular stockouts now maintain consistent product availability through systematic shelf management.
• Full Price Control: Complete real-time visibility and control over pricing at all points of sale, eliminating unauthorized price variations.
• Improved Shelf Positioning: Marketing teams can now monitor and optimize shelf placement in real-time, ensuring products are positioned at eye level rather than relegated to top or bottom shelves.
• Enhanced Store Relationships: Store managers now confidently place larger orders, knowing Effie reports prove sell-through rates and prevent overstock situations.
• Operational Efficiency: Report generation time reduced from full days to minutes, freeing valuable management time for strategic activities.
• Team Productivity: Field teams report significant time savings and improved job satisfaction due to streamlined processes.

Effie allowed us to defend our point of view and prove our case in negotiations with retailers. We are not losing sales and are observing positive dynamics: shelves without stockouts, sales growth, and market penetration growth.

— Yevgen Stolyarov, Head of Key Accounts Department, Ecosoft.

Further Plans

Ecosoft continues to expand its use of effie’s capabilities:

• Enhanced Competitive Intelligence: Deeper integration of competitor monitoring across all retail channels
• Promotion Optimization: Advanced analytics for measuring and optimizing promotional effectiveness
• Cross-Department Integration: Further synchronization of production, marketing, and sales processes through centralized data sharing
• Market Expansion Support: Leveraging effie’s insights to support entry into new geographical markets

What makes effie unique

This case demonstrates effie’s unique capabilities:

• AI-Powered Monitoring: Real-time shelf monitoring with photo verification eliminates human error and provides reliable data for decision-making.
• Seamless Integration: effie integrates photo evidence with point-of-sale data, creating comprehensive retail intelligence without disrupting existing workflows.
• Fraud Prevention: GPS and timestamp verification eliminate manipulation possibilities, ensuring data integrity and team accountability.
• Rapid Implementation: Quick deployment with customization to match specific business processes, as demonstrated by effie covering 75-80% of Ecosoft’s needs without additional modifications.
• Scalable Solution: Proven ability to handle complex retail networks while maintaining real-time performance and accuracy.