New initiative launched to give emerging Australian products shelf space in pharmacies

Written by Tess Sanders Lazarus

The Australian Pharmacy Alliance and DaigouSales.com have partnered to establish a ground breaking new initiative called the ‘Slingshot Brand Incubation Program’ (Slingshot) to showcase emerging Australian products throughout 650 independent pharmacies across Australia.

The Pharmacy Alliance is a member based network of over 650 independently owned member pharmacies. DaigouSales.com is an online sales platform which sits on WeChat and enables Australian businesses to set up estores to sell their products to China via Australian based Daigou (Chinese shoppers who buy Australian products and send them back home to friends, family and others).

The ‘Slingshot’ program will assist emerging Australian brands to grow and establish their brands through a pharmacy based retail placement program. The program is the first of its kind in Australia.

“Unless you are an established brand, pharmacies and retail outlets don’t want to know you,” Dr Mathew McDougall, founder and Managing Director of DaigouSales.com said today.

“If you want to export your products overseas into markets such as China, your product’s brand awareness needs to be on the rise in Australia and you need to be achieving strong local retail sales. This all leads to greater consumer credibility in your target export markets.

“The ‘Slingshot’ program is a brilliant initiative which will not only help Australian brands to raise their profile and sales in Australia, it will help them with their export journeys.”

The ‘Slingshot’ program offers emerging Australian brands ideal for retail pharmacy environment, the opportunity to put their products on consignment into an extensive network of independent retail pharmacies where their brands are placed on shelves in up to 650 locations throughout Australia.

The program will provide emerging Australian brands with:

. Brand visibility throughout Australia in retail pharmacy

. Retail sales and brand development

. Warehousing of products

. Fully managed stock distribution and replenishment

. A call centre for support and enquiry

. Monthly payments

“’Slingshot’ is a win win for our independent pharmacy members across Australia and Australian small businesses, “ Darren Dye, CEO of Pharmacy Alliance, said today.

“Independent pharmacies are mostly mum and dad businesses who not only care about their local community, they also have a strong desire to support other mum and dad businesses and Australian SMEs.

“Australian products are high quality products designed and manufactured in well regulated environments. By creating shelf space across our network of independent pharmacies to showcase and sell emerging Australian products means we are not only offering the community the opportunity to purchase high quality items, we are also supporting growing Australian businesses – and this is a good thing for everyone.

“Importantly, our independent pharmacy members will become known for stocking emerging Australian brands and this will bring shoppers into the pharmacies wanting to support and buy local Australian products.

“We are really pleased to be partnering with DaigouSales.com to launch this new program and we are looking forward to offering the Australian community another reason to shop at their local independent pharmacy.”