Want to start a Chemist Shop - Need suggestions !!!!

[sahilthegoodguy]

Hi Folks

I am interested in starting a Chemist Shop, so need suggestions from your side. As my family is from the medical side, so thinking of starting the shop.
The main things to start a chemist shop are - D Pharma Degree, a shop (of course ).

After these things, How to start....how to move further
The only thing which is bothering me, is that there are large number of chemist shops in all areas these days. Most chemists give large discounts to attract people. But a newbie cannot give much discounts....Also, in this sector margin is not very high. So how to deal with all such factors ??

New to the business side, so any ideas are most welcome.


Regards.

 

[vikasb]

Sahil bhai. The margins are among the highest in the business.

You need to contact some wholesellers to get the medicines on wholesale rates. There is a wholesale market for medicine in ghaziabad. You can come to Ghaziabad and i will be happy to take you there. Maybe we will find some good deals.

 

[sahilthegoodguy]

Sahil bhai. The margins are among the highest in the business.

You need to contact some wholesellers to get the medicines on wholesale rates. There is a wholesale market for medicine in ghaziabad. You can come to Ghaziabad and i will be happy to take you there. Maybe we will find some good deals.

As far as I know, the margins on the branded medicines is just 15-20 % max.
The chemist also has to give around 5-10 % discount to the customers. So one is left with just 5-10 % margins and with a business partner, the margin gets even more reduced.
Though on generic medicines, the margin is high.

Thanks for your concern Vikas. I have seen the Ghaziabad Wholesale market.
PS: Keep the ideas flowing in

 

[vikasb]

Ouch..! The branded medicines. You are right. My father is a wholeseller and distributor of Ayurvedic medicines and we hardly get 3-4 percent margin on branded ones. So, the generic medicines it is...

About the discount to customers, i have seen a very few chemists providing the discounts. Also, people generally do not ask for discounts on medicines.

 

[sahilthegoodguy]

About the discount to customers, i have seen a very few chemists providing the discounts. Also, people generally do not ask for discounts on medicines.

Here in our area and what I have seen in most parts of Delhi, chemists have now started giving discounts even upto 10% (which is quite high).
In our area, there is not even a single chemist which is not giving discounts. Recently, I saw a chemist giving 35 % discounts on surgical items.
And the chemists(which were super hit earlier) which are not giving the discounts presently, have lost most of their clientage. Thats what is bothering me.

 

[vikasb]

Ohh.. Dont bother about this bro. MRP on surgical items is always quoted a lot more than it costs a chemist so if you even provide a discount for 40-45 percent, its not going to effect you. Heck, i bought a crepe bandage for 25 from the wholesale market and the MRP was 150

I am sure that nobody can give discounts of more than 3 percent on branded medicines. Its the generic medicines the discount is being provided. These chemists keep a very few branded ones and major stock is of generic.

Now the question arises - Why ppl buy generic medicines?

The answer, my friend, is that these chemists have links with doctors and, for some commission, the doctors prescribe only the generic medicines which will only be available at HIS medical store. ..

 

[noidea]

Margins are among the highest. And as vikasb said, even if you give some discount it will not eat into your profit too much. GO FOR IT......

It was usual for medicine shops to give discount here in Kolkata as well but the association of chemist shop owners got together and stopped the practice because it was hurting the small shop owners.

 

[Yogesh Sarkar]

Have no experience about chemist shop, but when we bought medicines for Ladakh flash flood victims, prices I believe were 20-35% less than the listed price and that was when we had only bought medicines worth 1 lakh. Chemist in our area offer anywhere from 5-10% discount (5% normal customers and 10% for regulars with large orders).

 

[Viny]

Profit margin is in excess of 25%, furthermore it depends upon turnover too.

People also save money by doing something called "Palti" this way they reorder the medicine sold on the day to maintain the stock, and they dont raise medical bills for the sold item, that way they save from taxes and can show large unmoved stock and low sales.

Giving good discounts is key to get the initial attractions, it act as viral marketing and people flock in, turnover becomes the game player here.
Thus tieups with doctors for special medication and giving discount % is not required. I know chemists giving 15-20% off in competitive markets. Also the words like "Rahat der per" or "Charitable rates" also gets the eye.

Free home delivery for monthly medical calls, order on phones for regular clients, client membership card discounts etc are also some hot methods.

Making relationship with hospitals, clinics etc gives additional benefits, you might have to sell things at cost or even at loss to them, but there bulk orders give a big benefit in getting better discounts from suppliers. Remember turnover is game changer

Avoid suppliers dumping, as dead stock is bad.
Avoid long credits, people move out with pending bills
Charge supplier for display space and for promotional activities
Keep lot of change currency it always help in retaining customers.
Collect various medical guides available from suppliers, like diabities monthy chart, or pregnancy charts etc. These free give away promotion materials. Which is generally dumped in distributors stock room. Giving these free gifts to clients make them happy as its unexpected and they many times appreciate (be logical when handing over these materials, as it at times create annoying / uncomfortable situations for clients, eg. Condom usage guidance or condom types booklets)

I hope this helps
Best of Luck

 

[thedrsunil]

1. How to start:

There are two ways

1. Do it yourself: Find a person with Diploma in Pharmacy, Go to the office of drug controller, bought the required forms, fill them with all the documents asked attached and deposit it in the office of drug controller along with the required fee. The drug Inspector of your area will call you for a personal interaction (read, he will be anticipating some Gandhis from you) and then he will inspect the proposed premise for the chemist shop. At the time of inspection, your shop must be ready will all the furniture and fixtures in place. If satisfied, he will then issue you a license to run the chemist shop.

2 (a). Get help from the professionals (read, touts). If you have a known chemist, especially in your area, he might be having cordial relations with the DI. You can take his help to meet the DI, bribe him (OK, request him ) to guide you how to complete the paper works and get the approval after completing all the paper works.

2 (b). There are a few full time touts in the drug controller's office that will take care of everything. Find one and take his services.

PS: A person with D. Pharma will give you his license for a monthly fee of Rs. 1200-1500 or even 2000 without working at your shop.


Also, in this sector margin is not very high. So how to deal with all such factors ??

Margin depends upon type of sales, you are doing.

Type 1 is sale of prescription drugs. You get a prescription and dispense the asked medicines to the patient. Here the margin stands about 20 %. In Rohini, you must have to offer at least 10% discount to the client so your margin left is just 10% and even less some times. You can increase your margin by replacing the branded drugs by a generic drug, but remember this is unethical practice and will harm you in long run.

Type 2 is direct sales. In this a person comes to you and asks for medicines for certain general disorders, like cough, cold, fever etc. Chemist almost always dispenses generic medicines to such patients. A bottle of cough syrup should not cost you more than Rs. 5-7 and it will fetch you about Rs. 60. Ten bottles a day and you are on.

Surgical items have a margin beyond imagination. A product with an MRP of Rs. 100 might cost you just Rs. 10. Well even in surgical items there are few brands who offers comparatively less margin but since surgical items seldom sold on brands, it will remain your call what to sell.

See what type of sales you will be in and count your margin.

Last, Stay away from Ghaziabad market. Ghaziabad and Agra are the two cities which are (in)famous for fake medicines. You can never find out which a genuine medicine is and which one is fake. If, by any chance, you got a bad publicity in your area, it will ruin your plans.

Distributors do visit the chemist shops. Once opened, Distributors will start coming in hope of some orders. You can order the medicines from the authorized distributors. They do offer some credits. It may be bill to bill or even a month long one. For some medicines for which there is no distributor around, you can visit Bhagirath Place. If you feel shor of time, Even there are some guys who will purchase the medicines from Bhagirath Place and deliver the medicines to your counter for 2% fee.

New to the business side, so any ideas are most welcome.

Here is one, Thanks to Aamir Khan.

Open a shop with Only Generic medicines from reputed companies. Fix your margin to 40%-50% and sell them to all needy, even on prescriptions.

A Generic injection of Amikacin is costing Rs. 7-9 and a branded one is costing 54. Well both are equally effective . Now fix your margin and sell it (at 10-15). Customer will get it at a much lower price and you will get a high margin. If you can make the persons to understand that both are equally effective, you will make your day.

Having said that, it is also advisable to arrange a CD of Satyamev Jayate’ episode on medicos and do play this CD in your shop all through the day on a large screen. And if you can buy some space from your cable operator, let him air that program once a day with name and address of your shop.

Now the side effect:
It’s a time consuming job, like all the shops. You will have to open early and upto late hours. No or a very few breaks are allowed.
Take your call. Wishing you all the best.

- - - Updated - - -

.....Chemist in our area offer anywhere from 5-10% discount (5% normal customers and 10% for regulars with large orders).

YS, you better visit Rohini. Here a competition among chemist is going on. All the chemist were offering 10% here on all branded medicines, (be it a single tablet or bulk load) and new chemists have started offering 11 and 12% discounts too.