Boots html only image

Helping Boots' Medicine Customers Buy Better, and Buy More

The Problem

  • Buying medicines is often confusing and uninspiring
  • Product choices are limited - it’s a “sea of sameness”. There is no common on-shelf/on-pack language to engage, educate or motivate
  • This leads to depressed sales, and most importantly, customers purchasing the wrong product for their needs
  • The category needed to be redesigned to make sense to the customer, through clear communications, logical adjacencies and compelling merchandising

The Process

  • We focused on three major healthcare categories - Analgesics, Cough/Cold Remedies and Indigestion
  • Working with store teams, Head Office Healthcare and Research teams and the PAGB (Proprietary Association of Great Britain) we examined major healthcare customer missions in detail and identified barriers to purchase at fixture
  • We spent time in-store observing and filming customers shopping at the healthcare fixture and interviewed them on exit to better understand their frustrations
  • A number of new POS solutions and planograms were developed to better communicate clear product features to customers

The Solution

  • We ran a “Go Live” trial over three days at the Reading store, building new merchandising plans with the store team on the shop floor, and live testing the new POS solutions
  • Having observed and interviewed customers at the fixture to gauge their reaction to the new design, we then redesigned the communications and planograms in-store overnight, and re-tested the solution the following day
  • New categories, and even new types of product packaging (e.g. Herbal Pain Relief ) were tested in store
  • Navigation was improved by focusing on the strength of the product, as well as the active ingredient
  • Pharmacy Only Medicines (always located behind the counter) were merchandised alongside OTC medicines through the use of dummy packs
  • Improved on shelf communications highlighted major differences between products - e.g. fast-acting vs long lasting and benefits to the customer

The Results

  • Elements of the trial have now been rolled out across Boots who are projecting a +5% uplift in Healthcare sales as a result of the trial

“To me ?What If! are uniquely able to shift customer behaviour. What I really like is their forensic focus on the real customer issues not on internal prejudice. The quality of solution you get out depends entirely on how much you commit to co-creation and to opening your mind to radical new solutions.......we ended up with some initiatives that were fully road tested and in 300 stores within 12 weeks, and surprise surprise they are actually delivering!”
Simon Potts, Commercial Director, Consumer Healthcare

“Hats off to Boots for doing this. Doing a Go Live is like shopping evolution at lightspeed. Take 100 potential winning ideas, put them live in store, then speed up the process of survival of the fittest 1000-fold by having on-tap research and design teams tweaking the strongest ones in real time. The experience is incredible and the results are awesome!”
Graham Bishop, ?What If!