Page 33 - Retail Pharmacy March 2021

• Sightlines through the store – a key category such as VMS should be clearly visible and preferably located along a wall. • VMS category review – with regard to space to sales. • Stock weight: » Stock sells stock: at the beginning of the month, ensure you have six weeks’ supply of fast movers, such as fish oil. However, too much stock is bad for business (and cashflow), in that it can create a cluttered shop, fill the storeroom and create unnecessary liability. » Constantly consider the fast moving/top- selling lines (periodically check your top 10 selling lines in the VMS category) and ensure you have given these the best position and stock weight to maximise selling opportunities. » You should run a dead-stock report at the end of each month and devise a sell-through strategy. This stock is called ‘dead’ for a reason: it’s killing retail space both visually and physically and steals staff time for cleaning, pricing and planning around this stock. Product The VMS category is a key customer attractor and needs ongoing management. Careful range selection is essential and should be informed by the store’s customer demographics (eg, an ageing population has different needs compared with young families, and affordability for brands is demographically driven), by top script types, and other considerations, such as pharmacy-only ranges. It’s also important to review trending/ top-selling products and popular basket combinations, to identify possible solution areas that meet expectations of the target customer. Solutions can include S4, S3, companion products, and professional services. The purchase of a reliever inhaler, eg, a Ventolin, may lead to the purchase of a spacer for children under 12 to improve medication delivery. There are certain medications where offering companion products such as sunscreen, soap-free wash or laxatives would absolutely provide a more complete health solution than the medication alone. If you anticipate potential side effects or discomfort for your customer, they will appreciate being provided a complete solution, and this also builds trust. Pharmacies should consistently research which health conditions most commonly present in-store and consider ranging solution-focused bays of products featuring both VMS and non-VMS ranges that can immediately present full category solutions to the customer. This approach (supported with quality merchandising and staff trained in these areas) offers pharmacies opportunity to further engage the customer and increase sales in- store). There should be key disease state management alignment so that there’s both depth and breadth of products in the focus health conditions. The key focus areas may include: • Diabetes management • Immunity health • Mobility health • Eye health • Heart health • Sleep and stress • Women’s/men’s health • Children’s health • General health • Digestive/gut health Price/value ‘Price is what you pay for an item, value is what you get’. This saying holds true in pharmacy. It may be cheaper to buy a particular vitamin elsewhere, but if the customer feels the service, advice and relationship they have with their community pharmacy is of value, then the direct comparison is not as valid. The areas of price and value are two aspects of the same facet of the Retail Pentagon, and one that needs to work with the background areas of suppliers, processes and systems: a pharmacy needs to be buying at the right price, taking advantage of promotional opportunities and ensuring staff know the products that have the best business outcome to sell (assuming those products have equal efficacy). Periodic and seasonal promotions are good drivers for customer buying behaviour, as promotions encourage a sale and can influence a customer to buy. Product pricing is not a ‘set and forget’ function in pharmacy, although it does depend on the individual situation of a pharmacy as to the best way for ongoing management. A store in a one-pharmacy country town has a little more leeway and can sit on or near supplier RRP. However, a city-based pharmacy with strong competition should look to compare the pricing of the top 20-30 VMS products monthly. This doesn’t mean that product prices always have to come down. Pricing management is as much about trying to manage the gross profit of the whole category to counteract highly competitive pricing, particularly on known value items. Ticketing is essential for a well run pricing strategy, so that you are communicating CPD ACTIVITY 31 competitive and promotional pricing to customers. Even products with only minimal price promotion can increase sales with a promotional ticket. Promotion Promotional activities that can be utilised in the VMS category to drive sales through customer health literacy and promotional strategies include aligning: • Health conditions – providing some additional health condition information in the form of ticketing, header cards, QR codes, shelf strips, etc, can allow the customer to decide and self-select (it can also assist less experienced retail staff to assist customers). • Visual merchandising – having solution- based window displays, gondola ends and off-location displays can attract customers and draw them to a product or solution. • Promotional strategies – this may be a pricing strategy such as a percentage off, multi buys, gifts with purchase, trial packs or staff activity in the store around a health condition (eg, having a men’s health focus day). • Marketing communications – these need to support the VMS category and the advice and health solution focus to create a holistic experience for the customer, ie, the messaging that they experience at the shelf and at the dispensary are matched in marketing communications such as emails, catalogues and other local area marketing initiatives. • Local area health providers – partnering with health professionals aligned to the store’s health focus can support an in-store event or promotion, eg, a nutritionist. People VMS should be an advice-driven category that provides a complete solution for the customer. Solution selling is about understanding the pain points of the customer and determining the best value solution. There is nothing wrong with transactionally selling products and services, but if a pharmacy wants to maintain its position in the market, and make the shift to providing solutions, it has to look at how the staff are trained to provide a solution and what mechanisms the pharmacy utilises to merchandise solutions. The key to selling more in the VMS category is to get a customer talking. Conversation helps build a relationship, TO PAGE 32 RETAIL PHARMACY • MAR 2021