If you’re just dipping your toes in the world of getting your pharmacy online, gearing up to manage delivering online orders can feel like it’s way, way in the future, especially for a small community pharmacy. So, why would you bother having your products displayed on your website? Here’s why you might be missing the secret sauce your competition is cottoning on to.
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Big discounters have arrived in the New Zealand pharmacy market. It’s been a long time coming, but now that they’re setting up shop next door, how prepared are you to compete?
We speak with Managing Director of First Retail Group Ltd, Chris Wilkinson, about the importance of an online strategy to help prepare against discounters.
Chris, we’ve seen discounters come into the market in other verticals. What affect can they have on established businesses?
Discounters are disruptors in that they shift consumer expectations, making it more challenging for established businesses to compete. Retailers must look to other ways of demonstrating their overall value proposition and widen their audience through new channels such as e-commerce.
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Once you’ve decided to establish an online presence, it’s time to start thinking about what kind of content you’re going to have on your website. You can approach this in lots of different ways, but there are three main approaches
To decide which approach to take, you need to think about what your customers need, how they engage with you, and which approach will best-help you to help them solve their problems. Here’s how:
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Meeting the needs of modern consumers can be a challenge for pharmacists. Big pharmacy discounters with powerful brand identities and huge advertising budgets can offer pharmacy goods at prices brick-and-mortar pharmacists struggle to even match – much less beat! This challenge becomes even greater when you add the online discounters in the mix. Consumers can get low-priced healthcare and pharmacy goods delivered to their homes in a matter of days.
Sometimes, it feels a bit bleak. But it doesn’t have to be. In fact, you can hold your own competing online against the big players. You can get an edge by focusing on two things: your trusted and personalised expertise and the convenience you offer. Read on:
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In our Shop Local article series, we talk to retailers, town centre managers and passionate people about what makes their local area unique and how they’re spreading the word within and beyond their community.
We spoke to Hellen Wilkins, Manager at Destination Orewa Beach, about the unique coastal lifestyle of Orewa and the shop local initiatives in the area, as well as how they are responding to their evolving environment and audience. (more…)
GoRetail is a collaborative programme of strategies to keep the Gore CBD strong and ensure Gore remains a great place to do business.
The initiative certainly has the town talking. Watch the video to see the positive impact GoRetail is having towards making Gore the most commercially resilient provincial town in New Zealand. (more…)
Storbie is passionate about people finding and buying local products and services. In our Shop Local article series, we talk to retailers, town centre managers and passionate people about what makes their local area unique and how they’re spreading the word within and beyond their community.
With nearly a third of Kiwis now using a smartphone to find local information, Howick Village in Auckland knows it is important to provide local businesses, residents and visitors with a tool that facilitates local engagement on mobile devices. We spoke to Jenny Foster, Howick Village Business Association Manager, about how exciting town events combined with digital channels work together to promote Howick’s unique combination of heritage town and boutique shopping destination. Read on to see the types of town promotions that are working for Howick. (more…)
Retailers whose business and products are more visible online attract more customers into their store. It’s not just about online sales.
88% of consumers who search for a type of local business on a mobile device call or go to that business within 24 hours.
How can retailers be visible online in ways that support physical retail? (more…)
Storbie is passionate about people finding and buying local products and services. In our Shop Local article series, we talk to retailers, town centre managers and passionate people about what makes their local area unique and how they’re spreading the word within and beyond their community.
Consumers want to purchase locally-made goods and support local businesses, and they are doing more and more product research online and on-the-go before stepping in store to purchase. These are two trends that business associations can take advantage of in their marketing, says Sandy Turner, General Manager of the Hamilton Central Business Association (HCBA). Turner says digital channels are a vital way to get these products in front of consumers and influence buyer behaviour. She explains how HCBA’s marketing efforts combine digital and traditional methods and why the new Hamilton Central online marketplace website is a key part of the Hamilton digital strategy.
A common perception is that online is just a sales channel that detracts from brick-and-mortar sales, however research shows that digital interactions in fact have a huge influence on in store sales (called web-influenced sales) and buying behaviour. (more…)
Why do competing businesses the world over cluster together in the same place? Go to New York’s Fifth Avenue and you’ll find Saks, Abercrombie & Fitch and Gucci all vying for your attention. Head down to the waterfront in Auckland and you’ll find a line-up of restaurants complete with an eager maître d’ trying to entice you in.
Less glamorous but equally relevant, if you are looking to tile your bathroom in Wellington, you’ll head down to the ‘tile mile’ at the bottom of Ngaio Gorge where you’ll find a whole swag of tiling businesses parked right next to each other.
The reason for this is that when competing or complementary businesses band together in a cluster, whether that be Fifth Avenue, the Auckland Waterfront or even the tongue-in-cheek ‘tile mile’, everyone benefits from increased sales. The best of these clusters become brands in their own right. (more…)
