Health and personal care

Health and Personal Care

The health and personal care sector includes the following businesses:

• Pharmacies and drug stores
• Cosmetics, beauty supplies, and perfume stores
• Optical goods stores

Pharmacies and Drug Stores

The world is facing an aging, longer-lived population with an increasing demand for drugs. Pharmacists are more and more called upon to provide advice rather than simply dispensing medication, with increasingly complex drug regimens and the possibility of side effects or drug interactions.

Pharmacies face challenges from non-traditional providers of medications and related supplies, primarily in-supermarket pharmacies and mail-order companies.

Cosmetics, Beauty Supplies, And Perfume Stores

Generally, there is increased segmentation in this market, with extreme categorization of products. New and important segments include upscale mass brands and male consumers.

Major challenges in the perfume market are how to stand out in a crowded market, and how to deal with low brand loyalty. While the number of launches has increased dramatically, the industry struggles for positive growth. One of the reasons is the switch away from traditional perfumes to other scented products such as soaps, body washes, candles, and even home cleaning products.

A key challenge is how to add value to the offerings, while remaining competitive in the marketplace.

Optical Goods Stores

Optical goods stores provide eyeglasses, contact lenses, sunglasses, and related accessories. They may be associated with an optician or ophthalmologist.

One major challenge for eyewear is pricing. Says Robert La Roche owner of Lunettes De La Roche, “We can't expect consumers to buy a wardrobe of frames at such high prices. Optical needs to take its direction from the rest of the fashion industry. Look at stores like H&M [the low-priced Scandinavian clothing store]. They sell fashion at moderate prices. If eyewear were half as expensive, consumers probably wouldn't buy twice as many frames, but at least they would buy more than one frame every four years, which is what a lot of Europeans do now.”

Another challenge Roche identifies is the optical retail store itself, which needs to be less like a doctor's office and more like a friendly environment, focusing on a few lines of eyewear instead of being like “a supermarket.”

Optical goods stores also face the challenge of providing high-quality service and managing customer satisfaction to stand out in a crowded market.