Ultra-competitive, with an ambivalent customer journey from beauty products to healthcare products, pharmacies are one of the trickiest retail spaces to implement effective product merchandising. Staying at the forefront of this industry demands a commitment to innovation.
I recently sat down with a client, a French pharmaceutical laboratory and pioneer in micronutrition — to hear how their merchandising and IT teams tackled this challenge head-on last year.
The merchandising project manager used to create all planograms and visual proposals on PowerPoint. It was a tedious, error-prone, and less-than-professional process. As the IT project manager put it: "the tool is easy to use and intuitive, the team set about implementing the IWD software on their own."
Their gamble paid off handsomely. Since using IWD, the team has significantly reduced the time spent on creating planograms by a factor of 2.
"I used to dedicate a grueling 6 hours each week to creating planograms and another 4 hours to adapt them. Now, it's down to a mere 2.5 hours for creation and 1.5 hours for adaptation. The time savings are incredible."
With their newfound efficiency, the team is poised for growth. Besides securing their position amongst the top leaders of the industry, they have ambitious plans to enhance their brand's presence in France's top 100 pharmacies and expand their reach internationally.
In an ultra-competitive and glamourized industry, well-equipped sales teams are essential. IWD planograms serve not only to help field teams place products accurately but also as a visual tool to assist sales staff in negotiating space with pharmacists or illustrating Sales Books.
Moreover, IWD provides appealing visuals to showcase the merchandising team's work. "We now take pride in presenting our accomplishments at internal team seminars."
The team has their sights set on the 3D version of the software, which they believe could be instrumental in bolstering their countertop displays and refining their Cross Merchandising strategy.
In the end, it's not just about innovation, it's about empowering today's pharmacy professionals. With IWD at their disposal, they're well-prepared to tackle the evolving challenges of the retail world.