Today there are over 2600+ Apollo Pharmacy outlets in key locations across the country, with plans to reach 3000 stores by 2017-18. D. Rama Krishna, Vice President – Sales & Marketing and P. Jayakumar, Chief Operating Officer from Apollo Pharmacies share more about the retail strategy of the pharmacy chain. 

How many stores you have Pan India and what are the expansion plans?

Today there are over 2600+ Apollo Pharmacy outlets in key locations across the country.

Being India’s largest branded pharmacy retail chain, we are present in 18 states covering more than 370 cities and serving 3 lakh customers per day with around 40% of the pharmacies operating round the clock. We aspires to reach 3000 stores by 2017-18.

What are the rankings for your Pharma Stores in India in terms of turnover? Tell us about your online channel. 

Apollo Pharmacy is the No.1 retail chain in India in terms of pharmacy spread as well turnover, and has around 55% of the current market share amongst the organized chemist retail space across India.We have developed our online delivery system to meet the needs of our customers in Wellness and FMCG ranges. Adhering to statutory compliance restrictions on sale of Pharmaceuticals online, the company is awaiting clear guidelines on the same.

What portion of your store is dedicated to prescriptive and non-prescriptive drugs/products in terms of space and sales? 

Apollo Pharmacy has gradually experimented and strengthened several non-pharma categories, such as Baby & Mother, Wellness, Health Foods etc. Store space allocation and revenue is at 60:40 in terms of pharma to non-pharma.  It is currently the 5^th largest FMCG retailer in the country and the top retailer for major brands like Nestle, Abbott and P&G.

Is there a difference in how you use POP in these outlets?

We follow standard merchandising and planogram which has been derived based on our customer buying behaviour. We have the category labels to help the customers identify their needs. Also we have shelf talkers running across the categories. Posters and banners are well placed for the monthly promotions. Our POP’s are designed to handle Monthly offers and special promos as well.

Are your physical stores using any digital solutions that help improve customer experience? 

We are focusing on strengthening the internal systems to improve service parameters like fill rate, bounce and availability to our customers. We have plans to utilise the potential of analytics to reach out effectively to customers. Technology-wise we are moving ahead and making our present IT systems future proof. Apollo Pharmacy is the first retailer in India to embrace cloud based ERP solution which will strengthen our IT systems.