In order to deal with poor sales, five pharmacies in Beijing have on October 26, 2013 introduced vending machines which are equipped with tracking systems to sell baby formula. Despite attempts to attract customers, sales on the first day were disappointing and not up to the expectations.
The person in charge of business operations at Yong’antang, Zhang Dawei informed that the store sold only six cans of infant formula on October 26, 2013. The official in charge of branding and public relations at Jinxiang, Song Yigang said, “I hope we will have more kinds of infant formula so that everyone is able to get what they want in our pharmacy. If not, customers may not visit here again”.
The pharmacies, including Yong’antang, Jinxiang, Cachet and Quanxin have become the first ones in China to venture in the trial system of the baby formula. More pharmacies are being encouraged to do the same by the International Brand Management Center, which is an organization under the Ministry of Commerce.
All products are directly being transported from dairy companies to drugstores and are kept in the cabinets which can store up to 30 cans each. Customers can search for information on the product on the vending machine and before paying, they have to enter their phone number so that the company can directly reach customers if the product has quality problems.
Photo Credits: China BEV News
