View from the Summit

As we ship this issue to the printer, it has been less than 24 hours since Drug Store News hosted its 18th annual Industry Issues Summit. What began almost two decades ago as a closed-door discussion between a handful of retail merchandising executives and a few vendors in a small hotel meeting room has since evolved to become one of the signature thought leadership and networking events on the industry calendar.

(To view a slideshow of the event, click here.)

Executive reports from each of the three Dec. 1 panel discussions — the Health, Wellness and Technology Summit, the Chronic Care Roundtable and the more broadly front-end-focused Issues Summit — will appear in the February, March and April 2017 editions of DSN, so much more to come.

But for now, here are a few quick takeaways on what buyers and sellers are worried about today.

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  Technology can’t improve health on its own; the most essential ingredient is engagement. Without it, your FitBit is just a FatBit.


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  A product launch is more than just a project or a program — it’s a commitment.


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  Everybody talks about health and wellness, but what does it mean? How does the customer define it, and is the experience of shopping your brands or your stores aligned to that definition?


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  Looking for white space? Think horizontally across the store — and potentially outside of your own business — rather than vertically within a single category.


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  The omnichannel wakeup call: During the five-day period between Thanksgiving and Cyber Monday, 54% of visits to retail websites — and 36% of sales — came from mobile devices. If you’re a brand marketer today, have you checked out the way your product looks on mobile? Are you happy with the experience? Do you think shoppers are?

More to come in 2017.