SHELF OBSESSED

Today, more than ever, effective point of purchase displays have become an important factor affecting your bottom line. Whether you’re running a grocery store, a pharmacy, or an auto parts distributorship, every retail establishment has a point located somewhere within the store where purchases are made, which provides the perfect opportunity for point of purchase displays.

Whether they're located in a grocery store, a neighborhood pharmacy, or a retail clothing establishment, all retail display cases serve a similar set of purposes. Some are more successful at this endeavor than others, and our goal here is to share some tips to get you thinking about ways to give your store’s retail display cases a functional makeover. Function, however, is just one ingredient to consider. 

Traffic jams are an unpleasant occurrence whenever they’re encountered, whether out on the highway or inside a crowded retail pharmacy store. And while there may not be much you can do about the highway kind, short of avoiding the area altogether, you can, in fact, fix your store traffic patterns to help alleviate traffic jams so that your customers don’t choose to avoid your area too!

If you’re a pharmacy owner or manager and your store looks anything like the one represented in this image, it may very well be time to consider incorporating some new, innovative pharmacy solutions. From the linoleum tile flooring to the bright, sterile fluorescent tube lighting, this particular drug store spells anything but warm, inviting or unique. As an independent pharmacy owner, it’s important to implement solutions that will set your store apart from the typical cookie-cutter type establishments that are so prevalent today, especially the non-descript pharmacies run by various big-box chain stores.

If your pharmacy has become a little old and tired and doesn’t present the type of attractive, modern layout that you’d like, it’s probably time to consider a new pharmacy design. If it’s been more than a decade since you’ve had a major store retrofit, it may be past time to go with an updated store layout in the front end, back end, or both.

Psychology plays a definite role in consumer behavior, albeit often subconsciously. As a pharmacy owner, it’s important to consider this fact when deciding on your particular pharmacy design. There’s a science behind things like the proper use of lighting, floor plan design, location of shelving and other fixtures, product placement, and decor that’s been verified through psychological studies, focus groups, customer surveys, and sales data.

There are proven formulas to improve the merchandising efforts in your pharmacy’s front end section, or retail area, that include lighting, wall and floor coverings, traffic flow patterns, product placement, and your retail shelving setup. All working together, with every cylinder clicking in unison like a finely tuned machine, the time, effort, and expense of upgrading your store’s merchandising section will be well worth it in the form of happier customers, more repeat customers, and increased sales.

As the owner or manager of a long term care pharmacy, your momentum toward achieving greater efficiency in things like inventory control and dispensing processes need not be earth-shattering in order to produce real, long-lasting benefits. Through the utilization of some of today’s available technologies, automated medication management systems, and an increase in workflow efficiency, it’s possible for small, minute improvements to add up to huge improvements in productivity over the long haul.

These days, HIPAA privacy regulations are stricter than ever before. You must guard patients' personal health information (PHI) strictly. That means you must implement your pharmacy design – customer areas, too – with this in mind.

As an independent pharmacist, one of your biggest worries is that your business will suffer shrinkage because of shoplifting or other theft. This is something you can help prevent with some basic security measures.