Pharmacy products account for nearly 10% of Walmart’s revenue and is a focus of growth – primarily because healthcare spending will increase 5.8% annually through 2024.
Walmart believes that pharmacy and specifically investments in pharmacy technology will increase their revenue per square foot by 1% per year – currently Walmart’s revenue per square foot is $446/sq ft.
Walmart upgraded its pharmacy app in March 2017. The upgraded app allows customers to fill prescriptions via the app before they visit the store. The company is also setting up express lanes in its stores where these customers can pick up their prescriptions. Walmart estimates that the upgrade and the express lanes will reduce the wait times for pharmacy customers to under a minute from the current 6-11 minutes. This upgrade could also ensure that customers use Walmart’s mobile app more frequently.
Walmart has executed this strategy as it believes that “some customers value convenience as much as they do price savings, a focus on convenience to reduce wait times could draw more customers to Wal-Mart’s pharmacies”.
In this video, we explore how large chains like Walgreens, CVS and Walmart Pharmacy deploy mobile technology as a strategy and growth enabler. They have invested millions to gain competitive advantage against community pharmacies.
