Inside: Want your front end to get noticed? Boost sales with an easy-to-shop front end that gets people excited to visit your independent pharmacy.
When you make the effort to treat your front end like a retail space that deserves attention, then you’ll get more out of it.
Your patients will feel more excited to stop by, and your staff will want to make product recommendations.
Does the look of your front end right now make patients want to get in and get out? Do you notice that patients aren’t stopping to buy anything extra?
In a setting where you want your patients to feel comfortable and positive about your business, it might be time to step up the look and feel of your front end.
Make a great impression on your patients when you make some easy front-end improvements.
1. Consider a different layout
If you want to motivate patients to shop and increase retail sales, consider a new front-end layout. One that makes a unique impression.
Take a look at your fixtures and think about how you could improve the shopability of your front end. Should you move them around? Highlight a certain area? Increase end cap space?
You could even hire a design expert to maximize space at your pharmacy and create a layout that stands out.
Or, rearrange your front-end fixtures yourself. (It’s not as hard as it sounds.)
2. Improve the lighting
The right lighting can make your front end look like a completely different space. A more exciting one.
Start by removing fluorescent lighting. It doesn’t make anything look good, and it could even be bad for you. Psychology Today wrote about how fluorescent lighting can induce stress. If you use overhead fluorescent lights, it’s time to find a better option. (Unless you want your patients and staff to feel irritable and drained.)
If you can boost the natural light coming into your pharmacy, do that first. If not, choose incandescent lights as the next best option.
Improve patients’ moods even more with modern light fixtures that add style to the space. Use lighting to create focal points. Interesting light fixtures hung over the pharmacy counter can highlight it, for example.
3. Invest in eye-catching shelving
Many pharmacies use standard metal shelving to display products.
While completely functional, this style of shelving doesn’t do anything to encourage customers to pick up a bottle of vitamins or diaper cream.
If you want to increase sales, attractive pharmacy shelving can help. Custom shelving that fits with the overall design of your pharmacy can dramatically improve the look and usability of your front end.
4. Go for more creative (and branded) signage
It’s easy to overlook signs in your store. So long as you have a “Prescription Pick-Up” sign, you’re good to go, right?
Signs can do so much more than point out where to pick up prescriptions.
The right signs can:
- Get patients excited
- Encourage people to walk through the door
- Promote a new product
- Give shoppers more information
- Help with a question or ailment
Signs that fit with your pharmacy’s brand will help patients recognize and get a feeling about your pharmacy.
Take a look at how big retail stores use signs. They have signs above the aisles, signs on the shelves, and signs on the windows. And, they all fit with their brand. Go check out a few stores and get ideas on how you can incorporate better signs into your front end.
5. Use end caps to sell, not mark down
Should you want to bore your patients, then go ahead and make the second most-shopped area in your pharmacy a clearance section.
That’s what you’re doing if you make an end cap a clearance area. If you want to excite patients, do more with your end cap displays.
Use them to feature, promote, and sell products. Change the displays at least once a month and with every season.
6. Get rid of stale products
You know what’s boring? Seeing the same old products on the shelves.
Your shoppers get excited about fast-movers, new items, and seasonal items. Don’t let unappealing non-moving items take up precious shelf space.
Mark them down, return what you can, or take a loss.
7. Use merchandising best practices
Effective merchandising helps excite shoppers. Use merchandising best practices to guide you. And, consider designating a staff member to handle ordering, merchandising, and organizing the front end.
Follow these general merchandising tips:
- Display seasonal items near the door
- Keep important items at eye level to increase purchases
- Fill in gaps and bare spaces
- Display items by value not size, with the priciest items at eye level
- Keep items on the shelf facing the front; don’t arrange them diagonally
- Change displays regularly
8. Stock items your competitors don’t
Sure, when patients walk into a pharmacy they expect to see certain items. Vitamins. Bandages. Cough and cold products.
But what if you surprised them? What if you had those items and products they can’t find anywhere else? Wouldn’t that make for a more exciting shopping experience?
Unexpected items to stock include:
- Local honey
- Soaps made by local artisans
- Healthy granola and granola bars
- Organic lip balms
- A small section of cards made by local artists or design studios
9. Link the front end to other services
Take advantage of the space in your front end to remind patients about your full-service pharmacy.
Use posters, window clings, and shelf signs to remind shoppers that you offer:
- Adult vaccines
- Blood pressure monitoring
- Compounding
- Diabetes education
- Kids vaccines
- Medication synchronization
- Travel vaccines
For example, hang a sign in your compression stocking section that promotes your diabetes education seminars.
10. Look like the business you want to be
What will excite patients to shop at your pharmacy more than anything else?
When their hometown pharmacy looks like it means business. It’s clean and clutter-free. Inside and out. The signs are updated and bright. The paint is crisp. The inside feels relaxing and is easy to shop.
Make a few easy changes to get patients excited about not only your front end but your entire business.
A Member-Owned Company Serving Independent Pharmacies
PBA Health is dedicated to helping independent pharmacies reach their full potential on the buy-side of their business. Founded and owned by pharmacists, PBA Health serves independent pharmacies with group purchasing services, wholesaler contract negotiations, proprietary purchasing tools, and more.
An HDA member, PBA Health operates its own NABP-accredited secondary wholesaler with more than 6,000 SKUs, including brands, generics, narcotics CII-CV, cold-storage products, and over-the-counter (OTC) products — offering the lowest prices in the secondary market.
