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Pharmaca creates experience that shoppers will find beautiful to behold

7/16/2012

WHAT IT MEANS AND WHY IT'S IMPORTANT — If beauty is in the eye of the beholder, then the folks over at Pharmaca just gave their shoppers a whole lot more to behold. The new full beauty ambiance installed by Pharmaca lead executive Mark Panzer and his team represents the latest evolution in pharmacy retailing — creating an in-store experience that generates the kind of Foursquare buzz that will drive new-to-Pharmaca shoppers into the store to check it all out.


(THE NEWS: Pharmaca Integrative Pharmacy unveils full beauty experience. For the full report, click here.)


There are actually two opportunities here. For shoppers celebrating their nth 29th birthday, the economy has driven them out of the hair salons and spas, away from the prestige offerings associated with the department store boutique and toward more home beauty treatments. According to a recent SymphonyIRI MarketPulse Survey, making the beauty experience happen at home (after soccer practice and dance rehearsals) was the second-most cited economy-driven action by moms. Trying to make beauty products last longer and going less often to hair salons or spas were ranked on that list No. 3 and No. 5, respectively.



If value and convenience is what she's looking for, Pharmaca just gave her a reason to get out of the house (during soccer practice and dance rehearsals).



Then there are the millennial shoppers, younger women who have never really established that shopping muscle-memory that suggested the best beauty products could only be had at Macy's. Across millennial women, 48% suggested they're going to hair salons and spas less often and 33% are using at-home beauty treatments in an effort to save money, according to a separate SymphonyIRI MarketPulse Survey.



And it's the younger millennials — the millennials perhaps most comfortable with posting their experiences on FourSquare or Pinterest — who are shopping the drug channel more often than even their slightly-older peers (most of whom have yet to celebrate their first 29th birthday). And while convenience, selection and price are important to these younger millennials, too, choosing retailers based upon a "fun factor" also is pretty significant. According to SymphonyIRI Group, 42.6% of millennials identify with a retailer because they're "fun to shop at."



So, if a fun experience is what she's looking for, well Pharmaca just gave her a reason to create a new shopping muscle-memory — one that dictates the best beauty experience can be had at the neighborhood pharmacy.

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