Pharmacy, as a business, has a number of limitations compared to other niches. In some countries, there are a number of requirements for advertising medicines. Abroad, the situation is even worse: drugs are only allowed to be sold with a doctor's prescription.
In such an environment, window display becomes one of the leading drivers of sales. However, here too, there is a significant difference between the pharmacy business and other business niches: even a small pharmacy kiosk can have several thousand products on sale.
Thus, on one hand competent shop window layout is an integral part of the business's profitability; on the other hand, a huge list of retail items makes it extremely difficult to fill the window layout on a rational basis. Nobody even dreams of split-testing several variants on one display. This is compounded by the fact that merchandising agencies, which are often outsourced to design shop fronts and store shelves, are completely powerless in the pharmacy niche. In order to design a good window display in a pharmacy, the merchandiser must have medical or pharmaceutical education, which is unlikely. For this reason, the window displays in pharmacies are designed by pharmacists and pharmacy technicians who have not studied merchandising and understand nothing about marketing.
The design of displays and the display of products in a pharmacy is based on these principles:
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by price
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by manufacturer
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by scope
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by the composition of the ingredients - natural or chemical
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by the medical field - from traditional medicine to biohacking
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by type - medicines, nutritional supplements, medical devices, consumables
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by various combinations of the above
Which method of window display will bring the highest revenues? It is impossible to say in advance, as split tests have to be carried out first. However, with several thousand products available, pharmacists who are not trained in market research are unable to carry out split-testing of even two versions of a product display in practice.
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The Greenshelf editor comes to the rescue.
Of course, the editor will not put medicines on display instead of pharmacists. But it can be used to optimise the display process and thereby significantly reduce labour costs.
The trade marketer or merchandiser uses the editor to create virtual baskets of goods. Virtual shop windows are filled with these baskets. It is also possible to virtually change the layout of the shop windows themselves. This way, pharmacists or pharmacists in the field don't have to think for themselves how best to display the goods. They have clear instructions, which significantly reduces the time required for displaying the products. It makes sense to involve a doctor or pharmacist in the process of creating virtual baskets and displays. Their expertise, combined with the professional knowledge of a merchandiser or trade marketer, can have an amazing effect! GreenShelf allows you to create such a professional tandem, and each professional can work remotely.
Greenshelf creates several versions of the virtual layout
In this way, several versions of the virtual display are created for each storefront, and frontline staff receive detailed instructions on how to implement them in their outlet. Once in a test period, the pharmacy's display order is updated to the next version. At the end of the test, the average receipt and the total number of receipts from each period are compared and the most successful layout is determined. GreenShelf allows you to create archives: all generated layouts are saved and can be restored even after a long period of time.
For marketing experiments, it is best to choose one pharmacy that is at a loss. In pharmacy chains, such pharmacies are candidates for closure. For this reason, it is not a shame to experiment on them - it will not make things worse. In the process of split-testing, a loss-making pharmacy may at some point turn into a profitable one. The most successful versions of shopping baskets, displays and pharmacy layouts can then be scaled up to other pharmacies in the chain. Pharmacies that have been profitable in the past will be able to increase profits many times over.
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Thus, Greenshelf "kills two birds with one stone": it finds the most profitable options for the distribution of medical goods and saves unprofitable pharmacy chains from closure.
In the case of expanding the pharmacy chain and opening new outlets, managers will have detailed instructions on the most profitable options for designing the retail space of the pharmacy from day one. Moreover, these options are not theoretical constructs, but have already shown positive results in other pharmacies.
From this we can conclude that Greenshelf effectively solves the following tasks of pharmacy chains:
Reduces labour costs when displaying medical products
Allows you to split-test and find the most profitable merchandising options
Allows successful results obtained in one outlet to be scaled to the outlets of the entire pharmacy chain
Saves unprofitable pharmacies from closure by turning them into profitable ones
Minimises the risk of losses when opening new pharmacies