The Importance of Food Supplements in Pharmacies and The Evaluation of Sales Marketing Dynamics

Herbal products have been in use for thousands of years. According to a notification issued by the World Health Organization (WHO) [1], 70-80% of the world population uses herbal additives and supplements within the framework of basic healthcare services. It is stated that 60 billion USD are spent each year in the USA in this field while 5 billion USD were spent for “over-thecounter” products in Europe in 2003. This study is significant in terms of determining the strategy for healthcare requirements of people and the importance of visual and category design for food supplements in pharmacies in the field of sales and marketing in Turkey, the preferences of customers entering pharmacies, the contribution of campaigns to the sales, the ratios of product groups sold in pharmacies, the age range of customers entering pharmacies, the preferred price scale, the product variety within pharmacies as well as the importance of food supplements in our lives. This exploratory study is conducted with 219 pharmacists from various cities in the whole of Turkey. Data about the location of the pharmacy, the number of persons entering the pharmacy, the most preferred product categories, the age range, preferences and price scales, the contribution of campaigns to sales and the impact of in-pharmacy category management, product variety, visual quality on people and sales within the pharmacy are collected via a questionnaire. In this study, answers to the above-mentioned questions yielded positive results. Therefore, the importance of food supplements in pharmacies and the contribution to the sales of in-pharmacy categorization, visual quality and information were emphasized in this study.