Introduction and background
The pharmacy market in Austria is subject, as in every country in Europe, to a strong structural adjustment but what are the relevant factors for a successful market positioning? There is market pressure because of (a) standardization of the relevant legislation within the European Union (EU), (b) the trade concentration including online pharmacies and (c) an increasing competitive awareness and price sensitivity in the general public. The task of pharmacists is a successful positioning within the abovementioned business environment. Determining the factors of relevance for the positioning was the aim of the study.
Research design
In this study five heterogeneous pharmacies were chosen for the stratified random sample (n = 698). The survey compiled the respective individual performances and output quantity from bundles of services from a customer focus perspective, immediately after the visit to the pharmacy.
Result
The evaluation shows the strong influence on the overall satisfaction of pharmacy clients by the pharmacies core competencies (appearance of the team including the quality of consultation as well as all characteristics at the point of sale). Furthermore, the result points to the necessity to deal with fields, such as the “Internet and related services”.
Discussion
The three in cluster summarized factor groups confirm the high competence in historical core areas of the pharmaceutical retail industry. Future pharmacy clients will probably base their purchase decision still unchanged on the sum of the lowest transaction costs; however, from a client perspective which services lead to decreased transaction costs within a liberalized market and which of them will influence and change clients patterns and purchase behaviors? This will be part of future studies.
Outlook
For pharmacists the undertaken study shows that based on the extracted factor groups, a proactive repositioning of their pharmacy is already effective at that stage.