News

Study says chain drug stores ripe for kiosks

March 20, 2002

MIAMI - The next 12-18 months should see excellent growth opportunities for kiosks, point of sale (POS) systems, and customer relationship management (CRM) systems in chain drug stores, said a study just released by IHL Consulting Group.

Greg Buzek, president of IHL and author of the report, said that the study, "Information Technology and the Chain Drug Store," is written for retailers as well as technology vendors planning to enter the retail market.

Buzek told KIOSKmarketplace that strong opportunities for kiosks include loyalty and pharmacy history applications. An effective application would be a kiosk where customers could learn about drug interactions and get answers to other questions, leaving pharmacists free to dispense prescriptions to customers, he said.

"Another area that we think is a real opportunity is for getting prescription history or patient history information, where somebody can come at tax time and say, `I'd like to know what I spent last year at your pharmacy or through your chain on prescription drugs,' and to be able to put their social security number and loyalty card number in there and to be able to download all their information to a printer," Buzek said.

Buzek said that the report is based on a database the company has kept for about three years on 2,800 retailers, rather than an interview-based report.

"The focus of this report is more of an education piece, saying, `here are the opportunities,' than it is a scientific research report saying, `we interviewed the top 50 drugstores and this is what they want to buy,'" he said.

"It includes key personnel, key hardware and software applications that are written and the financial performance of retailers," Buzek added.

The news release noted that the 87-page report provides detailed discussion of the departments and systems/inventory challenges that chain drug stores face. It also includes profiles of the top 20 chain drug stores, the hardware and software systems that they are using, and the key personnel to talk to at each of these top retailers.

The report's level of detail makes it unique among analysts, according to Buzek.

Most of the other organizations that look at the retail market tend to take an overall forest view," he said. "They tend not to get down to specifics."

Other IHL reports include "IT and the North American Supermarket," and soon-to-be published reports on the convenience and gas, department stores, and mass merchant segments of the retail industry.

The IHL Web site makes available a free synopsis. The report costs $1,495.

Headquarted in Boynton Beach, Fla., near Miami, IHL Consulting Group provides market analysis and business consulting services for information technology companies that focus on the retail industry. The company was founded in 1996.