CVS Health giving stores beauty and health makeover
New York -- CVS Health is rethinking every aspect of its store to ensure that it not only reflects the company’s broader commitment to healthcare and but also delivers on what customers have come to expect from its pharmacy locations. The move comes on the heels of its decision more than a year ago to pull the plug on tobacco products and rebrand the company as CVS Health.
To showcase just how the health and beauty makeovers are playing out within the store, CVS Health executives met with Chain Store Age sister publication at a newly renovated CVS/pharmacy nestled in New York City’s Chelsea neighborhood for a closer look.
“As we became CVS Health, we also had to raise the bar for ourselves and our customers and really ask the question, ‘Why did we exist and what could we do to help them be healthier?’” said Helena Foulkes, executive VP of CVS Health and president of CVS/pharmacy.
The store format, which will roll out this year to roughly 500 stores across the country, brings to life several strategic themes previously outlined by CVS Health to further grow the front-store business:
• Better health made easy
• Elevate beauty
• Customer-driven personalization
• MyCVS store
• Digital innovation
The Better health made easy feature is perhaps most evident upon entering the store as shoppers immediately see the store’s bolstered selection of on-the-go healthy foods. Situated in the store’s former photo section, shoppers will now find refrigerated units packed with healthy, on-the go snacks. The company has added more than 500 items to the section, including such well-known brands as Chobani yogurt, Kind snack and Panera soups. Also, in many of the stores the front aisle of bagged candy has been converted to healthy snacks like nuts.
“We know that customers are changing how they shop, behave and eat. They are no longer sitting down for three meals a day but are snacking through the day and they want a place that is convenient where they can snack in a healthy way,” Foulkes told Drug Store News.
Looking to better compete with specialty rivals like Sephora and further build on its strong heritage within health and beauty, the company is also rethinking the beauty shopping experience.
Shopping the cosmetics wall, for example, is easier than ever, complete with mirrors and “hot spots” that showcase on a monthly basis “what’s hot” in beauty. The store also features upgraded endcaps and displays to further elevate the shopping experience.
“I think that all of it, including the skin care work, allows us to elevate our brand and give her a better shopping experience and also show her that, being CVS Health, we’re particularly good at the things that she would expect us to be, especially around taking healthy care of herself as she thinks about beauty,” Foulkes said.
Today, consumers are taking a more active role in their healthcare decisions and are increasingly searching for ways to take care of themselves proactively.
This is a shift that has certainly not gone unnoticed at CVS Health. In the new store format, shoppers will see an enhanced focus on proactive healthcare in such areas as women’s wellness and wound care.
“We are trying to help educate her right at the shelf so she can make some really good decisions for herself,” Foulkes said.
One area in which the company has tried to raise the bar is in women’s wellness, where it has expanded offerings to provide a wider range of solutions to address the different stages of a woman’s life.
Meanwhile, in wound care CVS Health recently bolstered its family of exclusive CVS/pharmacy store brands with the new, exclusive Hospital Series wound care line.
“The takeaway is we are really trying to bring the best of our learnings and customer insights and bring something that is very relevant to the customer where she is, all within the framework of knowing that, first and foremost, we are CVS Health,” said Foulkes. “We are very focused on pharmacy and healthcare and the role the front store is really to invite those customers in and make them feel comfortable and ultimately serve them around their pharmacy needs.”