Making Home Delivery Profitable for your Store
Medication delivery services can be a huge differentiator for your store. But controlling the cost of delivery is big concern for owners. Many owners are asking “what if I offer delivery and cannot keep up with the demand and expense?” To answer this, let’s consider two different fictional pharmacies. London Drugs and Paris Pharmacy both offer drug delivery but with unique specifics to their programs.
A TALE OF TWO FICTIONAL PHARMACIES… |
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| Delivers to: Any Customer | Delivers to: Customers within Med Sync Program |
| Frequency: Unlimited | Frequency: Once per month per customer |
| Items delivered: Any Items in Store with or without prescription fill | Items Delivered: Medications with limited or managed OTC requests |
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Delivery Area: Anywhere
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Delivery Area: Scheduled
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Pay mileage to Driver
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Leverages Delivery Vehicle tax incentive and wraps vehicle for advertising
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Loses money on Delivery Services |
Makes money by offering Delivery Services |
London Drugs offers their delivery to any customer, anywhere, on any medication, on any over-the-counter time, at anytime during their pharmacy hours. They get many requests for delivery from their customers. Their driver works hard to stay on top of deliveries which are spread all over their service area. As a result, the cost of providing delivery service is a loss to the business.
On the other hand, Paris Pharmacy decides to advertise delivery to customers with a few clear requirements. These include requiring customers participate in a medication synchronization program to receive monthly deliveries of their medications. This one step allows for route planning to optimize delivery times and trips. They also leverage the opportunity to claim a tax incentive with a delivery vehicle purchase. Because they opt to wrap the vehicle with an advertising message, the car further supports the pharmacy. As a result, Paris Pharmacy manages to keep the impact of deliveries to a minimum and gains new customers with the service.
MAKE DELIVERYS WORK FOR YOUR STORE AND CUSTOMERS
From these to pharmacies we can begin to see how scaling your delivery services, communicating effectively to patients, qualifying them for delivery, and keeping delivery events simplified makes all the difference in making deliveries a value-added service and not a liability. Parameters to consider placing on your delivery program include:
- Manage customer expectations with the convenience of delivery: limiting delivery times, zones, dates, and over the counter product purchases.
- Deliver to customers once per month becomes achievable for patients whose medications are synced for monthly fill. Additional meds can still be delivered to patients as new prescriptions occur.
- Plan and manage delivery routes to specific areas on specific dates and times for maximum efficiency.
- Take advantage of a tax incentive when purchasing a vehicle for delivery operations.
- Use a portion of your adverting budget to outfit the vehicle with a branded wrap to further your brand impressions while delivery is in process.
So if you set up proper parameters around medication delivery it will be profitable and attract new customers to your store. Consider freeing up dollars and resources within your current store to invest in delivery services. Let at Inventory iQ help you. Our team is ready to provide a free consultation to determine how much we can help you find resources right in your own store. We love connecting you with the right information that you can use to strengthen your store. Connect with us now.
