Easter is Early

This year, Easter Sunday is March 27. Retailers consider this an early Easter that comes with a short selling season. Easter is no exception to the holiday selling season, meaning the bulk of retail sales will take place during the last 7 to 10 days before the holiday. Putting candy, gifts, decorations, and greeting cards out now reminds customers that your store is ready to meet their Easter needs when the time comes. All of your Valentine's Day candy, cards, and gifts should be off the shelves or in a clearance section.

A Few Sweet Tips for Easter

To ensure your best candy sales, stick to reliable all-time favorites: Cadbury single eggs, Cadbury Mini Eggs, Cadbury Clucking Bunny, Hershey's Candy Coated Eggs, Hershey's Pastel Kisses, Milky Way Creme Bunnies, Milky Way Creme Eggs, Peeps, Palmer chocolate bunnies, Reese's Peanut Butter Eggs, and Jelly Belly jellybeans. Keep good inventory notes!

Great Easter End-Caps

Visit the Overhaul of Fame—Seasonal collection of pictures of real pharmacies' merchandising displays on the Front-End Overhaul section of the NCPA website for great ideas of what to do and sometimes what not to do.

Spring Break is Right Around the Corner

Spring break at some colleges starts as early as next week! Place an order for sun care items with your wholesaler now to ensure you are prepared for Spring Break 2016. Create a "Spring Break Survival Kit" end-cap featuring energy drinks/bars, water bottles, vitamin B, Imodium, and headache/pain relief. Add another end-cap with sun care items including sunblocks with lower SPFs, self-tanning spray, razors, aloe, sunglasses, and nail polish. Add a creative sign!

It's Still Peak Flu Season

Create a display of impulse items like hand sanitizer, pocket tissues, throat lozenges, lip balms, or vitamins at your checkout counter(s) or prescription drop-off counter.

Eight of Top 10 2016 Retail Trends are Tech Driven

The retail environment is constantly changing with every new style, product and season. While change is often retailer and consumer-driven, technology is shaping eight of the top 10 trends expected to have the greatest impact on retail sales in 2016 in a market brief released Wednesday by Synchrony Financial.
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Use Promotional Aisles to Engineer Store Traffic

To get the most out of your aisles, position your most popular departments close to the pharmacy to encourage shoppers to pass through and interact with the less popular departments on their way to their destination. Attract them to these departments with clear signage, or use 3D or hanging point-of-sale materials to catch shoppers' eyes and pull them towards the departments they may otherwise walk past.
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