Monthly Retailer Category Tips — Cold & Allergy

by Kyle Lentz, category analyst, part of Monthly Retailer Category Tips

Prepare for the upcoming cold & allergy season with these insights and tips to update your department.

The cough drops, sore throat relief subcategory has had a sizeable increase in sales at independent pharmacies at +9.1% in the past twelve months.¹ According to Technavio, the throat pastilles and cough drops market share is expected to increase to USD 1.11 billion from 2021 to 2026. There are cough drops and lozenges that treat symptoms of coughs, chest congestion, nasal congestion and sore throat, while other non-medicinal throat drops may treat itchy throat, dry mouth, hoarseness, and tickle. Understanding what symptoms your patients are trying to treat and familiarizing yourself with the products you stock in this subcategory can help you guide them to appropriate products.
There are new products in the nasal subcategory of the planogram that have earned HRG Stars: CofixRX™ and NasoClenz™. Both of these products have areas on their websites so you can become familiar with their recommended uses. With cold and flu season around the corner, consider building endcaps with an assortment of products to help raise awareness of these new options to the category and build the basket with a cross-section of solutions.
Prepare for the fall allergy season by keeping an eye on an allergy tracker for your area, such as the one on The Weather Channel website. This tracker displays two weeks at a time so you can predict when you might see an uptick in customers looking for allergy treatments and order accordingly.

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