There are two ways to approach point-of-sale in your pharmacy. One is to see it as a commodity. A necessity, but not something that’s useful as more than a payment collector. The second way is to use POS as an opportunity creator. A hub for customer service and an indispensable pharmacy management tool.
If you have to have a POS system, wouldn’t you rather have one that pulls its weight and provides you with more than just the basics? One that helps you thrive in your business rather than maintaining the status quo?
That’s probably an easy yes. However, that yes often comes with a cost. The bolt-on POS systems that many pharmacies use don’t have advanced functionality to help improve profits or customer-centricity. They are free, but could pile on some additional expense.
True pharmacy point-of-sale is valuable. But it should also pay for itself. Not just over a long term of improving efficiency or reducing other costs, but in measurable ways that you can see. Here are a few ways you can see the actual return your POS is offering.
Increase supplement sales.
Most supplements have a fairly high margin and can represent a significant opportunity for improving sales. With a point-of-sale integrated supplement recommendation system, you can advise customers on prescription-induced nutrient depletion and help them to select a supplement product to alleviate nutrient depletion symptoms and side effects. While a point-of-sale based solution is not the only way to implement a nutrient depletion recommendation program, it does make the process easier and prompts you and your team to have more conversations with your customers that in turn will lead to more supplement sales. If you have a baseline for supplement sales before starting an active nutrient depletion program, you can easily track the growth of sales and easily attribute those added profits to your integrated program. We’ve seen pharmacies have enormous success with nutrient depletion programs and show exponential growth month after month.
Improve front-end profits.
Outside of supplements, there’s money to be made in the front-end. This is a sticky subject, as recent years have seen a shift from a front-end-heavy pharmacy model to a leaner more apothecary-style pharmacy. Consider though, that the front end is one place in your pharmacy sales where you have granular control over price and margins. Even if you carry less than 100 SKUs, those SKUs need to be performing for you. To gauge performance and make informed business decisions, you need to be able to run detailed reports on product movement, margins and accurately calculate your inventory turns and gross profit return on investment. Truly understanding your front-end means you can make changes tailored to what your customers are buying and what’s making you the most money. You should be able to see those results directly in your bottom-line.
Save you money on credit card processing.
If you’re stuck with limited credit card processing options, you might be paying some unnecessary fees. Having your fees evaluated regularly based on volume and average ticket size means you can end up paying less. Which also means your processing fees won’t eat up as much of your profits. This is a small change, but a powerful one. Make sure you ask your POS provider if they can help you save money on credit card processing fees.
