The decline of footfall and consequential retail sales has impacted many Community Pharmacies. NearSt offers an innovative solution for boosting both.
Why should pharmacies appear in local searches? And why is NearSt a great tool for boosting pharmacy retail sales? The points below should convince you of its utility.
- “Near me” or “close by” type searches grew by more than 900% over the last two years. (Source: Chat Meter)
- 83% of online shoppers are willing to go in-store if a product’s availability is guaranteed beforehand. (Source: Google)
- 47% of pharmacy shoppers want digital inventory management to know if items are in-stock before they go. (Source: PYMNTS, 2022)
- 78% of location-based mobile searches result in an offline purchase. (Source: SEO Tribunal)
- 72% of consumers that did a local search visited a store within five miles. (Source: HubSpot Marketing Statistics, 2022)
- 50% of all local search ends with a visit within 24 hours. (Source: Uberall, 2019)
All of those are applicable to Community Pharmacies. But the “Near Me” searches are where NearSt shines, and where the main benefit for you as a local business comes in.
How does NearSt help Pharmacies?
NearSt solves your community’s problem of needing something immediately but not knowing where it’s in stock. NearSt (hence the name) lets them know where the product is being stocked near them whenever (and wherever) they search for it online.
Anything that solves your customers and patients problems, is an asset for your business.
Turning online shoppers into in-store customers
People shop online for convenience. But waiting even a day for a product isn’t convenient compared with collecting it that same day from a local shop. With healthcare products, it’s even more likely your customers want things immediately.
A real-time view of what local shoppers want
Sir Lord Major General Alan Sugar has a phrase he rolls out every series on The Apprentice – “smell what sells.”
NearSt gives digestible insights into what nearby customers want to make sure your pharmacy is always stocking the right products, by providing real-time information about what shoppers near your pharmacy are searching for.
By stocking the things your community is searching for, and showing up when they search for it, you’re putting yourself in a winning formula which equals sales.
How does NearSt work?
NearSt integrates with your EPOS system and puts your live in-store stock onto Google, as well as product descriptions, price, and images. It’s constantly talking to your EPOS system which means the information online is always up-to-date.
The difference between NearSt and Pointy by Google
Those of you with Pointy might be thinking, I already have that! Well, yes, but not quite. Understanding the difference between Pointy & NearSt took me a while too, but there are critical differences.
The main differences between Pointy by Google and NearSt are:
- Pointy is hardware, NearSt is software. Instead of having to manually scan your entire product range, it’s uploaded automatically, saving you loads of time.
- Pointy is owned by Google, therefore only works with Google search engines. NearSt works with every search engine, including Facebook.
- Because it’s linked with your EPOS system, NearSt has LIVE information about your stock levels, meaning people aren’t making the journey into your store then getting dissapointedd when you have no stock.
What if I’ve got an eCommerce website?
An eCommerce website is a great solution for declining footfall and the increase in online shopping activity. However, it may not solve the problem for patients and customers who need a product right now i.e. on the day and not delivered in 2 days, for example.
Using NearSt, even if you’re an eCommerce brand, you’re offering your patients and customers even more convenience by giving them an immediate solution as well as an online one, where they can go and get the product in store.
Can this work with my Pharmacy Mentor website?
You’re darn right it can! We can integrate NearSt with your website via different means. We can create hyperlinks, embed widgets and more. Get in touch with us to find out how.
Case Study – NearSt
I know you love a good case study, so here’s two for the price of one. (Sorry for the retail pun.)
How a local chemist used NearSt as a no-fuss solution to drive in-store customers
In just 4 weeks, Massingham’s products were discovered over 152,000 times in Google by nearby shoppers, driving 157 new customers in-store. One was noted as saying, “we didn’t know you existed, what a lovely shop!”
How a rural pharmacy got their product catalogue online instantly with NearSt
“It’s been great for us. It’s been useful to give people the opportunity to see what we have available in the shop. Our regular customers also use NearSt to check that we have a product in stock that they already know they want.”
– Nick, Clare Pharmacy
Whilst NearSt don’t operate purely with Community Pharmacies, their existing cases show it works. Knowing what I do about most Community Pharmacies’ desire to increase the retail sales, this for me seemed like an obvious solution.
And there’s no massive commitment, either. Pay monthly just like you would a Netflix account.
Head over to NearSt’s website or email us at growth@pharmacymentor.com and ask us for an introduction.
