RETALING IN PHARMACY

INTRODUCTION

Managing a retail pharmacy can come with many limitations however it is a regulated business
for a retailer to check upon pricing in drugs, various prescriptions and brining profit in their
pharmacy business and various promotion strategies that can be advertised in social media
platforms. However, we can manage businesses in a different way that can set us apart from
various competition which will eventually help us to improve retail pharmacy business. A retail
pharmacy sells both prescription and non-prescription drugs that are meant to be accessible to
the world so we get to know the available communities. Retail pharmacy also sells various
products that merchandise various beauty care products, various nutritional supplements.
however medical professionals can remind us from commercial point that is been standardised
in the pharmacy retailing.

Most of the Pharmacists look into product mix of their retail pharmacy by reflecting upon the
retail space that has b allocated and inventory. By understanding the primary role of a
pharmacy is to sell drugs, it’s not the drugs that actually deliver most of the revenue or the
profits. Medicines can be regulated but it can be sold through various prescription. To promote
various strategies for a retailers to push into production that can also increase the sales. A retail
pharmacy can easily sell and have higher margins when compared to various medicines. By
reviewing the product category we can contribute sales and production by visual merchandising
will help in better sales and production.

Role of The Retail Pharmacy

Every pharmacist plays an important role at the retail pharmacy they influence the customers
to give them better advise on various medicines that needs to be allotted on various schedules
when the medications needs to be taken and needs a good proper care for their wellbeing.
pharmacist knows their subject that can easily challenge a pharmacist with a clear mindset.
Pharmacists can also be a medical practitioner to work efficiently and help the customers to
get the right prescribed medicines that have been prescribed by the doctor and pharmacist
take initiative on the allocated medicines, drugs and various other inventories also
maintaining loyalty to the customers .

Objective

To find out various challenges pharmacists are facing in a retail pharmacy. By understanding
small retailing shops how it works and how the pharmacist run their business and the
consequences they face in the pharmacy shop.

Problem statement

We need to find out how retail pharmacist faces challenges in running their Businesses.
However, managing a pharmacy isn’t a easy task to keep a track of inventories (stocks of
pharmaceutical goods) So we need to get to know how the pharmacist faces the situations by
staying loyal to customers who visits the pharmacy by coming up with various prescriptions
and pharmacist also ensures his business runs profitable.

Methodology

Health is a basic need which every human needs in their daily routines for their wellbeing. t is
important to introduce stronger competition, especially in private sector pharmaceutical
distribution. Competition among a consolidated set of strong players can increase efficiency
across the supply chain, cut the time it takes to deliver pharmaceuticals to consumers, and lower
prices.

I have come up with an idea conducting an interview with small medical shops Med plus
pharmacy shop, Muthu pharmacy, thangam medicals comparing it with apollo pharmacy which
is the chain of overall medical pharmacy. Collected various data interviewing the pharmacist
experiencing various challenges they are facing in running the pharmacy.

Data analysis of Medplus pharmacy

MEDPLUS
Firstly, I visited med plus located in puruswalkam, spoke to Yogendran. I asked him what
challenges he was facing in medlife told me when customer comes to his shop with no proper
prescriptions, he finds difficulty to suggest him the right medicines. When they face issues in
lack of drugs, they have told me they get medicines from the main branch which is located in
porur. Their competitors are pharmeasy. Even asked about if they sell other products like soap,
powder they told me they sell other products for better productivity. The productivity gain in
their pharmeasy is to increase workload. They manage disputes between pharmacy technician
with staff engagement by refraining from certain activities. We can Search and select the
Medicines we want by visiting the shop and showing the prescription we received from the
doctor and providing the prescription at the store so we can collect your medicine. We can Buy
Online by Searching the medicines we want from the list of medplus online and then we can
upload the prescription at the checkout point. They provide Authentic medicines 100% natural
and no side effects when the checklist is been brought. they have access to door to-door
deliveries when I interviewed Yogendran they provide out of delivery list which has herbal
products, beauty products and various baby care products including sanitary napkins. they also
ensure every delivery are well-packaged that can reach the doorstep at faster way. They have
range of discounts in every festive seasons. They are Customer-friendly which can order Order
from the comfort of house it provides smooth billing procedure it can help us to upload online
by having medicines that are delivered to us. We can Track and Re-Order the medicines and
other products of medplus by considering the previous bills that will help us to re-order for the
next purchase.
Apollo pharmacy
I spoke to pharmacist Balaji of apollo pharmacy. I have asked him about the challenges they
face in apollo pharmacy. He had told me there is no shortage of supply since its chain of leading
pharmacy. He had told while issuing medicines they check the patient’s name, items name,
quantity of products the customer purchased, the expiry date of medicines and finally they
acknowledge the bill. He told me they provide excellent customer service offline and online.
Even if its online the delivery is quick and they check the right perspective of medicines are
delivered to the customer. This pharmacy also counsel the patients, old aged people who aren’t
aware of the particular medicines, they provide good relationship with customers who visits
the pharmacy.
They also follow-up the medicines if the customers requires specific medicines, they make sure
they get the required medicines in the main branch that’s on greams road where there is
wholesale of retail pharmacy. they stay loyal to customer needs and make sure they get the
right prescribed medicines for customer incase if the customer finds any default in medicine
prescriptions. The right resolutions are been taken for the customer. Their competitors of apollo
pharmacy are SastaSundar, PharmEasy .The profit of this retail pharmacy is highly stable after
asking Balaji how stable the income had been in the pharmacy.Apollo pharmacy has various
segmentation of products in the pharmacy, they have baby food, various supplements, beauty
products, herbal ayurvedhic products, weight loss supplements, various allopathy medicines,
various sanitary napkins brands even have multivitamin supplements, kids milk powder when
compared to other pharmacy it has much more products in various segmentations. The turnover
in this pharmacy is going well with good capital sources as far as concerned good stability in
their income levels. The profit margins rises more than 60% of the overall growth in pharmacy.

Kalyan pharmacy
Kalyan pharmacy
Collected data about Kalyan pharmacy , Spoke to Prabhakaran the sales
executive of this retail pharmacy that is located at egmore, this pharmacy has
entire stocks of allopathic medicines, beauty products, sanitary pads. It has
variety of various brands of products. Kalyan pharmacy faces challenges in
prescription and drugs stocks when there is less availability. They get main
supply from Coimbatore as they have retail pharmacy with variety of retail
products. the turnover in this pharmacy is stable and has continuously
improved compared to last year. they have 4 sales executives in this pharmacy.
It works from 9 am to 8.30 pm including weekends. The pharmacist have good
knowledge about medicines. They have good sales team management and the
workforce in the pharmacy is excellent. They provide online delivery services
but we need to book a week before as they have huge list of customers opting
for delivery services. Kalyan Pharmacy offers Allopathic, Homeopathic, Ayurvedic, to
their patients. They treat customers with care by staying loyal to customers who
visits this pharmacy. The main workforce in this pharmacy is to achieve
customer attention and gain profit margins and to increase workforce
enhancement in their production. They look into their inventories with good
customised segmentation of various classification of medicines in this
pharmacy.

Muthu Pharmacy
I have interviewed Muthu pharmacy spoke to pharmacist named Manoj. he says this
pharmacy provides various services for customer. Free Blood Pressure, Weight and Height
Check-up outlets for public. All medicines, injections, vaccines, tonics, baby food items,
cosmetics, personal care items, surgical items etc. are available at the outlets. Medicines
Home Delivery Services Blood Pressure Check-up Services, Weight And Height Check Up
Injections Delivery Services. You can find all kinds of prescription medicines, over the
counter drugs, protein powders, health supplements, dermatologically test ed beauty
products at their store. They also do home delivery in case you have some urgent
requirements. They have online delivery services, good sales support team in their
pharmacy.
The turnover in this Pharmacy is comparatively good. They have good marginal profit.
They have sustainable source of income, commercial modes of services and good
collaboration with team management. They have steady workforce in terms of supply in
medicines. They work efficiently to perform better and manage the retailing in a
functional way. Muthu pharmacy in emerging market has eco-friendly atmosphere that
helps us in making improvements on various distribution in a retail pharmacy. Regulators
need to permit the consolidation of pharmaceutical distributors and retail pharmacies without
reducing competition. They could also cap pharmaceutical distribution and retail pharmacy
margins to protect consumers and increase their ability to buy life-saving medicines.
Regulators need to increase enforcement capacity.

Findings
By Hiring The Right People

After interviewing the pharmacist, they have suggested me how important is to hire sales
people when the management runs in short for customer who visits the pharmacy

We can Hire people who has basic knowledge on the medicines and how they can treat the
customers who thinks commercially to understand the customers needs by benefiting the
pharmacy business with their selling skills.

The management team in hiring a sales professional should feel comfortable to cross killing
and upskilling the upgraded products and how they can influence the customer on purchasing
the right products.

IMPLICATIONS
We can Creative Product Sourcing

We can recommend product sourcing technology in fashion & beauty products that can help
us in beauty category in a pharmacy retailing sections.

With the help of modern technology tools example Google Trends will help us to track if
people are searching online By using the information we can trend many online products. We
can check the list with a deep look into products which can be relevant for a retail pharmacy
that can help us in sourcing the products in the stores. By updating a list of rising retail product
categories .
Today pharmaceutical supply chains have a complex networks of wholesalers, distributors that
has less visibility when the stock are not available. The modern technology tool of google
trends can eventually help us to reach out to supply of various medicines.

Conclusions

To really understand the future of pharmacy we need to understand what the consumer thinks
about health care. Every role of the pharmacist cannot be recognized by the world and certain
consequences each individual face in their pharmacy. We can see there is a drastic influence
about health and wellness , there is a continuous improvement in health care sectors in every
management. . Most important elements is the staff of the retail pharmacy when we develop
a confidence in maintaining good relationship between customer and pharmacist it can be
only satisfied only when the customer is satisfied with services the pharmacist provides in his
retail shop

Results

According to this study there is no difference between more experienced retail medical stores
and lesser experienced medical store. We must maintain a consistency on various product by
ensuring good quality of medicines that will enable us to provide a better competitive pricing
technique for the customer who will check up the either entering the stores or purchasing
online where there can be availability of retail segmentation of pharmaceutical products.
Most of the customers ensures there is timely production which can be important for every
marketing retailers the establishment of pharmaceutical products and services also by
maintaining customers loyalty. Every retailer have a product to maximise margins that will
help in sales distributions. By gaining market share experience we can develop differentiated
parameters that are pricing in retail marketing category that have private labels that is been
effectively used by pharmacy retailers to have deeper understanding on various segmentation
.

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