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A new look for a new year

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A new look for a new year

Cathy Crossthwaite, Numark’s marketing coordinator

Getting the look and feel of your pharmacy right can be a difficult task, especially if you’ve been there a long time and have stopped noticing the layout. It needs to reflect the values of your business and should be tidy and appropriately clinical with a welcoming atmosphere. Effective signposting is essential to ensure your customers can find important areas of the pharmacy such as the prescriptions counter, consultation room, promotional bays and product categories.

The most important opinion about your pharmacy is your customers’, so why not ask their thoughts?
They will appreciate that you have asked their opinion and may offer you a new perspective in terms of what works well and what could be improved.

The customer viewpoint

Put yourself in your customers’ shoes and ask yourself:
• Does my pharmacy look inviting?
• What is the first thing I see as I enter, or even before I enter?
• Can I see the prescriptions counter from the doorway?
• What would be the typical route for a customer walking through my pharmacy?
• Can I make more of the route, encouraging customers to walk the shop floor before arriving at the prescriptions counter?
• Are product categories well signposted and can customers easily navigate fixtures to get to the products they want?

Whilst at the front of your pharmacy, take a look at other people’s reactions as they walk past.
Have a think about what could make their heads turn. Pricing? Promotions? Design?

Do your research

Competitors in your town can provide inspiration for changing your physical environment, so go and check them out. Consider the following:
• Who are they aiming at and how are they enticed to shop in that pharmacy?
• What’s in the windows, is it an intriguing visual? Does it look minimalist? Is it cluttered?
• Is the pharmacy easy to navigate and are you able to spot the fundamental features from the front entrance – pharmacy counter, consultation room, and waiting area?
• Are the product categories well signposted? See if you can spot the natural path that the customer is influenced to take.
• What is the most prominent category and how can you tell that this is the case? Where is this category placed and how is it advertised to customers?
• Is this a place that exudes a personality and encourages the customer to linger? What gives this impression?
• What catches your eye and what is it about the presentation that is compelling?
• What can you take from this pharmacy to apply to your own business?

Taking ideas from others shouldn’t stop with pharmacy, you can get inspiration from many different retailers.

Focus points

• Pharmacy exterior: The front of your pharmacy is your personal advert to potential customers, so you need to nail the design.
• Prescriptions counter: This is a fundamental part of your business and should be visible from the front of your pharmacy for easy prescription collection.
• Retail space: Your retail area should be spacious and visually appealing. It should be a pleasure to browse, with great products, well merchandised. Numark’s core range and planograms provide our members with a range of resources and tips to help you create a fabulous retail space. Security is important, ensuring minimal disruption to your service and profitability. If you can see all of your product fixtures from the dispensary, you are able to monitor your displays and reduce theft. Try not to display products too close to the door and where areas aren’t visible from the prescriptions counter. Use mirrors to ensure all areas are visible.
• Promotional material: Try to keep your promotional bays towards the front of the pharmacy so that customers can see them through the window. Display promotional posters in the windows for customers to see the great offers you have from outside your pharmacy.
• Consultation room: Your consultation room should be located in a quiet area of the pharmacy to avoid customers feeling embarrassed or uncomfortable. Consultation rooms are an important part of independent pharmacy as they allow you to deliver income-generating services from which to build a loyal customer base.
• Waiting area: The area where people wait for their prescriptions should be located near the dispensary so customers can easily hear when their prescription is ready. Face seating towards your shop floor or promotional material.

Customers will subconsciously glance over to the area and may become interested in your retail offering while waiting. This is a perfect opportunity to encourage impulse purchases.

You may not be able to afford a refit at the moment, but a review of your layout could result in increased profits today.

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