For example, cold and allergy is a general category, while cough drops, allergy, and cold and flu are subcategories. Planograms showcase how to arrange products based on general categories and subcategories. When they use our planograms, they’re leveraging our team’s expertise but they also can make adjustments to meet the particular needs of their local clientele,” said Megan Moyer, Senior Marketing Communications Specialist at HRG. “Pharmacists don’t have the time to look into all the data and products our teams are reviewing. With a department of category management specialists, HRG provides the expertise, market data, and resource capacity pharmacy owners don’t have. So, the pharmacy owner can increase front-end sales without sacrificing as much time and as many resources. Planograms can eliminate almost all of the front-end planning for the pharmacy. “We consider the information manufacturers provide as we perform our objective analysis of sales and unit movement data to create the best, most profitable planogram.” “Planograms are a replacement for that store visit,” Lentz said. With thousands of different front-end products per category, how does an independent pharmacy owner know what to sell?Īlthough manufacturer and distributor representatives visit pharmacies to educate owners and to help them merchandise products, it doesn’t occur as much as it did years ago. “We want to make sure that the items are turning for our retail partners,” Lentz said. HRG combines rigorous research and experience to create planograms that help pharmacies maximize sales and profits. “It’s a small piece of the pie, but can be a profitable piece if done correctly.”Īnd that’s the ultimate goal of planograms. “Retailers that don’t take advantage of that 10 to 15 percent in front-of-the-counter sales are losing a great deal of money,” he said.

“Independent pharmacy margins are shrinking so much behind-the-counter that they need to get that penny profit wherever they can,” said Kyle Lentz, Category Analyst at Hamacher Resource Group ( HRG), a firm that improves results across the retail supply chain by addressing dynamic needs such as assortment planning and placement, retail execution strategy, fixture coordination, item database management, brand marketing, and analytics. They offer a plan based on research-backed factors indicating products should increase profits and turn quickly. These visual diagrams show pharmacies exactly where to place their front-end products. Planograms are guides for arranging retail shelves to maximize front-end sales.

Time to trade in your best-laid plans for proven planograms. Is your pharmacy’s front end producing less profit than you hoped? Written by and published in Elements magazine, March 15, 2018

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