BEING loyal to your neighbourhood retail stores could help you get medicines cheaper. With competition hotting up in the $5-billion domestic pharma retail market, customers are offered discounts ranging between 10-20% for most medicines. Retailers contend that such huge discounts would help retain customers and wean them from local chemists. Subhiksha, India’s retail chain offers a flat 10% discount on all medicines to customer irrespective of their profile. “We have the lowest price and cost structure that helps us give discounts and in turn retain customers”, Subhiksha MD R Subramanian said. In India, many drugs are sold over the counter unlike the developed countries where only a few are sold through retail outlets. Some retailers directly sell medicines while a few have tied up with local chemists for distribution. Delhi-based Pharma retail store 98.4 Degrees also works on the philosophy of discounts besides providing value added services like home delivery. “We give huge discounts to our loyal customers to retain them”, 98.4 Degrees marketing executive Neeraj Arrya said.
Med Plus, another pharma retail chain has also taken to the same model. “Our idea is to target the 40 plus population. We are targeting them through our customer loyalty cards”, Med Plus CEO Madhukar Gangadi said. Big retail chains are essentially banking on volumes to break even. But there are some players in the industry who oppose the discount model. North India-based pharma retail chain Guardian Lifecare is averse to offering discounts. “Quality management is our major focus. When we are dealing with life saving drugs quality rides over cost,” Guardian Lifecare CMD Ashutosh Garg said.
Many local chemists offer discounts only on day-to-day drugs in contrast to big retailers who give them for all medicines. For customers, it seems to be a win-win situation as they have the advantage of getting their regular medicines at prices lower than the maximum retail price (MRP).
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