As an independent pharmacist, you know that serving your customers is your number one priority. However, you must also keep in mind that many of your customers will want to serve themselves when they visit your store. That is, you must arrange your store so that they can find what they need easily on their own. You do that by using the proper pharmacy shelving and display options to keep products neat and organized. Customers will see what they need easily as they make their way through your store. How?
Proper shelving displays:
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Don't just organize – they showcase products throughout the store
Although you use pharmacy shelving to keep your products neat, clean, and organized, you should always be thinking about how to use your pharmacy shelving to best showcase your products.
Gondola shelving and end caps are marvelous pharmacy fixtures that provide you an almost endless variety of display configurations. Use them to showcase high volume seasonal items like cold and flu products, or to create point-of-purchase displays to take advantage of customers' propensity to impulse buy. Make sure you create your displays with calls to action that create urgency, such as "It's cold and flu season – stock up now! Two for the price of one!" Make these displays highly visible throughout your store so that customers can see and take advantage of them easily.
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Don't impede foot traffic or "flow"
When you construct your pharmacy shelving displays, your goal is to help customers find what they need – but you don't want to create traffic jams or impede the "flow" of the store with those displays. Instead, place them just out of the flow of traffic but well within customers' fields of vision as they make their way through your store. Make it easy for them to stop, browse and/or take what they need, and then rejoin the "flow" without difficulty.
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Are used in the checkout lanes
Don't forget your checkout lanes when you are putting together pharmacy shelving displays. The displays near your checkout lanes should not block access to those lanes, but they should contain items that are perfect "last-minute" purchases that customers either need or want but have otherwise forgotten. Retail shelving in the actual checkout lanes will hold small items like travel sized bottles of conditioner, shampoo, cold and flu formulations, candy, magazines, gum, and other small but high volume items that customers always need. You do two things when you take advantage of checkout lanes' display options: You increase sales, of course, but you also are truly helpful because you remind customers of things they need but would otherwise have forgotten – a perfect example of helping customers find what they need at just the right moment.
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Are "islands unto themselves"
When you arrange your pharmacy shelving displays, don't be tempted to overcrowd; it will simply confuse and frustrate customers. They may also have difficulty finding what they need, the exact opposite of what you're trying to achieve. Don't place displays too close together, and vary them throughout the store to avoid redundancy and provide a visually pleasing effect.
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Prominently showcase "destination" products
As an independent pharmacist, your products' inventory is no doubt broad and seeks to satisfy every customer's need. However, even so, you have to keep your own specialized "destination" products in mind, products every customer knows they'll find in your store and come to you first. Over-the-counter medications, vitamins, hydrogen peroxide, cotton swabs, and rubbing alcohol are just a few examples. Proper pharmacy shelving that's placed purposefully throughout the store enables customers to find them quickly and easily.
