You’ve probably eaten at a restaurant that has a seemingly never-ending menu. At first, all the options seem nice, but choice overload quickly sets in, and you find it nearly impossible to choose. You ask the waiter for his recommendation and hear, “Everything is really good.” And once you finally place your order — “OK, I’ll go with the pasta carbonara” — you second-guess your choice after the waiter walks away. (“Shoot, maybe I should have ordered the filet mignon instead.”)
And perhaps you’ve shopped at one of those outlet stores with wall-to-wall options, piles of clothes everywhere, and no organization or method to the madness. Nothing is displayed beautifully to call your name from across the store. Nothing is organized by size, or at least not after the first wave of bargain shoppers arrived that morning.
Selling products is more complicated than tossing merchandise on a shelf and hoping people notice it. The tactic isn’t limited to restaurants or clothing retailers. Veterinary practices sell products, too, and one category continuing to gain popularity is animal health supplements.
According to the market research firm Packaged Facts, U.S. pet owners spent $2.7 billion on pet supplements in 2023. In addition, a recent report from Global Market Insights forecasts a compound annual growth rate of 6.8% through 2032 for the veterinary dietary supplements market.
Roaring Brook Veterinary Hospital in Canton, Connecticut, has seen more supplement sales in recent years. According to Tim Burns, the small animal practice’s former manager and owner, revenue from supplement sales jumped from 1.75% in 2019 to 5% in 2021.
Roaring Brook’s increased supplement sales didn’t happen by accident. Here are merchandising strategies that helped Burns grow the revenue source at his former practice.
1. Educate the Entire Team
When a new supplement comes on the market, many manufacturers will offer to educate your team members about it. Take advantage of the opportunity, and don’t hesitate to contact the manufacturers when your team needs a refresher. Burns said the entire Roaring Brook team was involved with promoting services and products, including supplements, so everyone needed to be taught.
“We had a lot of staff meetings with pharmaceutical companies. When they had a new product, they’d come to us,” Burns said. “But, as a manager, if I saw sales of a particular supplement start to fall, I’d ask them to come in. It helps to keep it top of mind for the team.”
2. Be Selective With Supplements and Price Them Competitively
“We tried to limit our supplement offerings and stick to one brand for each type,” Burns said. “There are so many supplements on the market, so we’d choose those we all agreed were better, and we carried the advanced, veterinary-specific versions. We wanted to offer something that we felt was of better quality than some off-label supplement that could be bought at any big-box store and didn’t have all the ingredients that the advanced formulas did.”
Clients want you to recommend the supplement you think will be best for their pets. They don’t want endless options because most won’t understand the differences anyway. Choose the supplements you and your team can get behind, and then sell them at prices that compete with retailer offerings.
3. Get Team Buy-In
At Roaring Brook, Burns ensured his veterinarians agreed on the supplements to stock so that they would feel confident about their recommendations. Team members received manufacturer-provided samples.
“When the team could use the products on their pets and experience the benefits for themselves, they’d get excited to tell clients about the benefits they experienced, and they’d be more likely to recommend the products,” Burns said.
4. Make Everything Convenient
Regardless of how competitively you price supplements, clients won’t buy them if they’re inconvenienced.
When Burns owned Roaring Brook, supplements were sold in-house and through the practice’s online pharmacy.
“People believe that online things are cheaper,” he said. “Our team was pretty good at pushing the sales in-house, but we also had an online pharmacy for clients who wanted to order online. I priced the online supplements slightly lower than in-house, but it was still our pharmacy. That revenue was still ours.”
And Burns’ team members made everything easy, regardless of client preference.
“We had computers in the exam rooms, so we’d show the client the link if they preferred to buy online rather than in-house,” he said. “And then the receptionist could sign them up for the online pharmacy at checkout so the product would be ordered before they left the practice.”
When it’s time for a refill, be sure your clients can sign up for auto-shipping through your online pharmacy. Also, offer curbside pickup for pet owners who prefer to buy in-house, and don’t make them call you to request a refill. They should be able to do it through your website or practice app anytime, anywhere.
5. Properly Place Your Supplements
It’s not by accident that groceries and other retailers stock candy and magazines in the checkout lines for shoppers to stare at as they wait. Place your supplements in a high-traffic, highly visible area near the front desk to get clients curious about the products. If possible, complement the supplements with educational posters or anatomical models and use signage to promote special offers.
Furthermore, be sure clients can pick up the products and read the labels. Roaring Brook had a small display with one or two of each product for clients to access. The rest were on a shelf behind the front desk in plain view of pet owners checking in and out.
6. Stay Stocked, Organized and Clean
Your lobby’s shelves are for more than storing supplements. They also serve to display the products. Keep the shelves fully stocked. Place older products in the front and newer ones in the back. Organize the shelves by supplement type, and have your team clean the shelves regularly.
7. Get Feedback and Keep Clients Engaged with Callbacks
When the team at Roaring Brook put a patient on a supplement for the first time, a veterinary technician called the client after three weeks.
“We wanted to get an idea of how the supplement was working, if they were going to continue to use it, and if they needed to increase the dose,” Burns said. “If we just sent clients home with a new supplement and never checked back with them, the chances of them rebuying that supplement went down.”
Burns’ team began the callbacks in 2020, which he believes contributed to the growth in sales.
“It made a difference in them coming back to repurchase, and it gave us an idea of what people thought of the product itself,” he said.
8. Email Clients About New Products
Anytime Burns’ practice carried a new supplement or when an existing supplement changed, his team would email an alert to all clients. The email offered product details and explained why Roaring Brook chose it.
“Sometimes clients would come in and proactively ask about a new supplement after they received the email,” he said.
9. Keep Everything Fresh and Interesting
Don’t allow your product display to stagnate. Freshen things up every few months by rearranging the supplements, creating new signage and educational materials, or moving your shelves somewhere else in the lobby. Doing that will help catch clients’ eyes.
WHAT IS MERCHANDISING?
Retail merchandising is the process of selling products in a brick-and-mortar store. The experiences you create within that physical location drive product sales. Merchandising involves the selection you offer, where you place products, and how you arrange and display them. Your merchandising strategy affects how clients discover your products and choose what to buy. The better your merchandising strategy, the better your supplement sales.
Is Your Merchandising Strategy Effective?
When you change your merchandising strategy, closely watch how product sales are affected. Use the data to determine what does and doesn’t work well.
DID YOU KNOW?
According to the National Animal Supplement Council, the 1994 Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act forbids manufacturers of human dietary supplements from making “overt drug claims, such as cure, prevent, mitigate, treat or diagnose a disease. The legislation did not provide such guidelines for animal health supplements.”
The NASC added: “Most animal health supplements are considered ‘drugs of low regulatory priority’ and are regulated by the Food and Drug Administration.”
The nonprofit trade organization’s annual conference will take place April 22 to 24 in Columbus, Ohio. Learn more at conference.nasc.cc.
STORY ARCHIVE
Check out these previously published articles on the role of supplements in veterinary practice.
- “A DVM’s Guide to Cannabinoid Supplements,” go.navc.com/CBD-TVB
- “A Golden Opportunity,” go.navc.com/potential-TVB
- “The Whole Picture,” go.navc.com/options-TVB