How to Integrate Dietary Supplement Sales into your Practice
FEATURE
Without Turning Your Office into a Retail Store
Tracy Barrilleaux
MANY DCS ARE VERY INTERESTED IN ADDING ADDITIONAL REVENUE STREAMS IN ORDER TO INCREASE PRACTICE PROFITS, BUT ADDITIONAL INCOME OFTEN MEANS MORE WORK, WHICH INCREASES THE BURDEN ON ALREADY TIME-STRAPPED DCs.
Increasingly, a significant area of opportunity for DCs to bring more money into their practices while also enhancing patient outcomes is by embracing the in-house sale of dietary supplements. While the market is booming and patients seem to prefer this option, many DCs have neither the time nor the interest in running another business. Luckily, DCs can offer this service to patients and enjoy increased profits via a practical and innovative online solution that virtually runs itself.
How Lucrative is the Market Opportunity?
Supplement use in America is a multibillion-dollar business that continues to rise every year. Breaking down the market shows an increasingly profitable opportunity:
• Internet supplement sales are growing at 15 to 20% annually.
• Practitioner-direct supplement sales totaled $2.9 billion in 2013 with an annual growth rate of 10 to 15%.
• 26% of DCs make between $30,000 and $50,000 every year from direct sales to patients.
The market is not projected to slow anytime soon; in fact, it only increased during the Great Recession, proving that Americans are committed to wellness.
Are Patients Interested?
More than 70% of Americans take dietary supplements for a full range of health reasons, from specific conditions to general wellness, and consumers consistently indicate that their most trusted resource for information on dietary supplements is a healthcare practitioner.
According to a variety of research data, Americans trust healthcare practitioners more than any other (by far) for VMS information—more than family, friends, pharmacists, or any other group. That trust in healthcare practitioners is even prevalent among young people who are accustomed to getting product recommendations from social media.
Unfortunately, many supplement options in grocery stores, big box stores, pharmacies, and even local health food stores ai e not of good quality. When patients purchase recommended supplements in these locations, it makes good patient outcomes questionable at best. In addition, some patients find it overwhelming to parse through seemingly limitless options with little understanding of what they should choose.
Unless DCs can offer an alternative to low-quality products, they have little to no say in what supplements their patients take. Patients certainly ai e somewhat concerned with price, but they ai e more concerned with quality. DCs can control the quality of the supplements their patients take by selling only the highest quality professional brands. This presents an enormous opportunity to not only increase practice profits, but also, more importantly, increase patient compliance and outcomes by making it easy for patients to purchase high-quality supplements.
Why Don’t More DCs Take Advantage of this Significant Income Booster?
Understandably, DCs didn’t sign up to ran a retail operation. It’s time-consuming, frustrating, and takes an enormous amount of space that many offices just don’t have. Additionally, spending time doing inventory, shipping, dealing with customer services, training staff managing cash flow, etc. takes more time away from patients—something DCs struggle not to do.
What is the Alternative to an In-house, Brick-andMortar Dispensary?
Early attempts were made by national distributors of dietary supplements to create viable alternatives in the foirn of online dispensaries and fulfillment partners. However, the business model of an Internet company is vastly different from one for a distribution business, and these companies were not able to embrace the nimble, innovative nature that is necessary.
In the past few years, several online platforms have surfaced that provide a viable alternative to an in-house dispensary, and the first was created by Dr. Devin Ryerson. Frustrated with the lack of available options, Dr. Ryerson started seeking a better way to provide this critical service to patients without all the hassle. He drew up plans for online dispensary software that would function as a fulfillment partner to medical practices that want to offer the convenience of this service to their patients, but don’t want to invest in the time and resources necessary to run a vitamin shop. PureRXO.com was born.
Created by a DC for DCs, PnreRXO.com allows DCs and other healthcare professionals to create turnkey e-commerce stores fully branded to their practices, but with none of the time and money investment required to ran an in-house dispensary. These stores increase incremental sales per patient through utilization of the various online communication and marketing tools built into the PureRXO.com platform.
Companies such as Health Wave, Emerson, and others soon followed with their own versions once venture capitalists and private equity firms began to see the opportunities inherent in this model, as well as the intense interest on the side of healthcare practitioners.
What Is a Virtual Dispensary?
A virtual dispensary allows DCs to sell supplements through their practices without running a retail operation, but with full confidence that their patients are getting the best service and product. When shopping for a viable partner, DCs should look for a company that handles all of the operations, including:
• Inventory
• Stocking
• Customer service (from real humans)
• Negotiations with supplement manufacturers
• Running credit cards and processing payments
• Packaging and shipping
• Marketing
It’s all of the benefits without any of the hassle. Setup is simplified, which allows DCs to get up and running quickly.
Best Patient Outcomes: What about the Quality of the Supplements?
Practitioner-grade dietary supplements offer the purest, most potent forms of vitamins, minerals, and other ingredients. These formulas are based on the experience of practitioners in regards to what works for their patients, and utilize patented raw minerals, highly bioavailable ingredients, and the cleanest formulations.
When you’re inquiring about a potential dispensary as a partner, make sure they only stock high-quality, professional-grade dietary supplements from trusted brands, such as Metagenics, Nordic Naturals, Pure Encapsulations, lagen Professional, Thorne Research, and many more. These are the brands favored by DCs to supply the best possible health outcomes.
Dressed for Success: Additional Practice Management and Marketing Tools
Some platforms offer more than just an online supplement dispensary. They also include plenty of tools to help DCs run their practices more efficiently, and more profitably. Tools such as:
• HIPA A-compliant, secure patient communication vehicles, including the ability to e-mail for follow-up care, detailed product recommendations, and appointment reminders. Some of these tools even allow DCs to bulk e-mail all patients about clinic information, health news, and product recommendations.
• Free health library access, including referenced articles on general health, A to Z health conditions, in-depth details on vitamins and herbs, drug-nutrient interactions, recipes, and much more. This is a highly valued resource for your patients.
• A simple blogging tool to allow you to keep in touch with patients without having to create a new website or leam new software. Simply type and post.
• Social media sharing buttons so your patients can tell family and friends about your practice.
• Brochures, intake forms, and patient cards that are ready to print and use.
• Detailed reporting on orders, order history, products ordered most often, remunerations, and more at the click of a button.
• Full integration in Google Analytics for your main practice website so you can track visits and ROT
• Product automatic-delivery options.
• The ability to highlight products on your dispensary’s home page so you can make it easy for patients to see and find the products you recommend most often.
• Optional e-mails automatically delivered to patients that increase patient engagement and retention, as well as “win back” patients who have drifted away from your practice.
Patient-Centric Care. Practice-Building Profits.
One of the biggest health challenges of the twenty-first century is wellness. As many as 133 million Americans have one or more chronic health conditions related to lifestyle choices (2005 census). Eighty percent of seniors have at least one chronic condition, which accounts for 75% of all healthcare costs. Healthcare practitioners, including DCs, are the best equipped to address and prevent these health conditions, and one of the best ways to do this is through integrative care and wellness programs, including practice dispensaries.
Tracy Barrileaux is an Account Manager at PureRXO. PureRXO. com offers one-stop shopping services for patient-centric care, as well as robust practice management tools. For more information on PureRXO. com, visit www.purerxo. com. You may contact Tracy directly at [email protected] or by cal I ing7'60-688-3199.
