The importance of clever POS materials

Staff shortages was the number 1 challenge facing pharmacies in our recent Alita Sales Tracker survey. In store merchandising is one strategy that pharmacy owners can adopt to easily and cost effectively help with staff shortages and brands can employ as a “silent sales person” in store. Let us help you with clever POS.

Expanded scope of practice and increased services are wonderful recognition of a pharmacist’s training and skill as a primary health care provider. With this comes increased time pressures whilst already dealing with staff shortages. It means Less time to personally assist customers with other general pharmacy lines.

The benefits of great POS

Having POS in store helps drive sales and allow customers to self-select which supports owners, pharmacists and relieves pressure on pharmacy teams.

POS needs to be eye catching, quickly convey key selling points and most importantly be small and unobtrusive. How does a brand then get all the information to the customer within these requirements?

QR codes are now a widely accepted means of providing critical information about products, provide instructions and ingredients.?These can be a silent salesperson and a trainer to staff.?We recommend to all brands that QR codes should be used on POS.

How do you ensure your POS

It helps customers in product selection and reduces pressure on Pharmacy staff.Customers like the tangible experience of getting to know a product.Therefore, creating informative, clever POS that customers gravitate towards is key.?

80% of Customers in a recent survey called ‘Unlocking Retail’ by shopper described their last in-store shopping experience as really enjoyable.?

In a busy retail environment, your product must stand out and invite the consumer to want to learn more.

Shelf talkers or wobblers with key points provide this product information without taking up too much room on shelf and give customers seamless access to product information quickly while also supporting their shopping experience. Brochures or flyers can provide that information if QR codes are not possible or available. Brochures should be incorporated into any shelf displays so that they do not get separated from the product or they should be housed in a small holder that can attach to the shelf when allowed by the store.

Product testers are an invaluable part of the shopping and buying experience for consumers and should always be provided by brands where possible.

How do you ensure that your POS gets used?

Shelf talkers are a better solution than wobblers which often don’t meet clean store requirements and therefore don’t get used.?There are some very clever shelf talker designs that we use with our brands that ensure maximum take up by pharmacy. QR codes are cheaper, more environmentally friendly and a neater solution to stores than brochures. Shelf stripping with a QR code can be a very cost-effective way to provide POS support for a brand and also create a brand presence.

Floor stands that are difficult and time consuming to assemble or are flimsy are also likely not to get used. Pharmacy staff do not have the time to work through complex instructions to set up your stand.?Stands need to be robust but very quick and easy to assemble whilst being very small in footprint.?

How the POS gets delivered to store also becomes key as to whether it gets used or thrown out by pharmacy staff who don’t know what it is.

POS delivery method

POS needs to be delivered via a distribution method that the pharmacy staff are expecting or delivered by a sales representative. POS deliveries direct to pharmacy by a third Party with no information on the outside of the package and no branding are likely to be discarded when they reach the store. Brands must remember that the buyer who approved the stand is not likely to be the person unpacking the order and therefore knows nothing about the stand. The part time nature of staff in pharmacy means it might be days before “what the stand is/for” is uncovered and that during that time the stand hasn’t been set up at best or worst, has been thrown out. Added to this is, for wholesaler supplied brands, the stock is separate to the order, only adding to the mystery and wasting pharmacy staff’s time.

At Alita Sales, we assist our wholesaler supplied brands by shipping any POS through our distribution centres with our product orders and POS instructions.

This helps remind the pharmacy assistant about the conversation they had with the Alita representative and the POS and product comes directly from Alita rather than a 3PL.

Do you need to grow sales?

Have a Brand of Pharmacy that needs more strategic help to grow sales??Reach out?to our Alita Sales Pharmacy specialists.