Today's customers are increasingly mobile, meaning that they shop with their smart phones and other handheld devices, both researching and paying for purchases with them. While they still comprise a small percentage of sales today, mobile sales are growing rapidly; to wit, payment giant PayPal processed $14 billion in mobile payments in 2012 – and other payment vendors like MasterCard and Visa are jumping on board with their own mobile payments applications. Experts state that mobile payments should see widespread consumer usage by 2015.
Savvy consumers use their smart phones and other handheld devices to research products, download electronic coupons for use at the register, join and redeem points for loyalty programs, and more. The independent pharmacist must have an online presence with both a traditional and mobile website where customers can research products and services, join loyalty programs, etc., and must also readily accept mobile payments if he or she is to ensure his or her own future in retail.
It's true that independent pharmacists already sells over-the-counter medications to the consumer, but many have not yet began to adopt natural healthcare products such as herbal supplements as part of their OTC offerings. Baby boomers especially are interested in making healthy choices, including using natural health products,and independent pharmacists can uniquely fill this need in a way retail pharmacists may not be able to. Because independent pharmacists are generally not tied to a specific product list as may be true of retail pharmacists, they can listen to customers' unique desires for products and seek to fill them as much as possible.
In addition, because independent pharmacists can be more flexible than retail pharmacists, they can adopt new or innovative products that may not yet be part of the mainstream. Finally, because they have established interpersonal relationships with their customers, they are uniquely able to provide these products along with advice on how to best use them, whether they should be avoided with certain medications, etc., so that consumers can make informed and safe choices. These higher-margin products also benefit independent pharmacists because they help offset the declining margins most face with prescription medications.
Independent pharmacists have the flexibility to be truly unique and serve each customer individually, which can already go a long way toward cementing their future in retail: They can carry products that retail chains don't. They can provide quality customer services like free home delivery, and can develop personalized knowledge of each customer. They can support patient safety by filling prescriptions on-site instead of having them outsourced as retail pharmacists do, thus avoiding potentially deadly medication mix-ups.
Independent pharmacies often fail to establish customer loyalty programs to their own detriment. Today's technology allows the independent pharmacist to embrace such a program by inexpensively establishing a customer database, tracking customers and maintaining contact with them for prescription refills and other ongoing needs, and using coupons and other incentives to reward customers for their loyalty.