By Harry McQuillan - Numark Chairman
Community pharmacy has always been so much more than a “shop” – it’s a care setting. For generations, it has been the trusted front door to healthcare, where professional expertise meets local knowledge, and care is delivered in the heart of our communities. It’s personal, it’s professional, and it’s profoundly local.
What we can’t do is ignore the reality: the rise of supermarkets, discount chains, and online healthcare retailers presents a very real challenge. How do we differentiate ourselves, stay relevant, and strengthen our over the counter offer in a world that’s changing faster than ever?
The first point is simple, price alone won’t save us. Competing with digital giants on convenience, or supermarkets on bulk purchasing, is a battle, I believe, we simply won’t win. Our strength lies in what they cannot replicate, the personal, professional, and community-led nature of our service. To breathe new life into our over the counter offering, experience and expertise must sit at the very heart of everything we do.
That means rethinking our pharmacies as health and wellbeing hubs, not just dispensaries with a few shelves of traditional products. Every medicine on our shelves should be carefully chosen, self-care, preventative health, and specialist products that other retailers overlook.
One of the Numark 12 principles reminds us that pharmacy must “utilise data to demonstrate need and value”, and that applies as much to our over the counter offer as it does to our clinical services. Every product should earn its place by meeting local need.
Technology should also be part of the picture. Digital booking systems, click-and-collect services, and local delivery models extend our reach while retaining the human connection online retailers can’t offer.
Staff training is equally critical. Every conversation, every recommendation, is a chance to add value, whether it’s guiding a customer to the right sports injury product, advising on supplements, or signposting a clinical service. Expertise, coupled with a citizen-first approach, turns casual purchases into long-term loyalty.
The spaces themselves matter too. Our pharmacy environment should be welcoming, modern, and clearly reflect our healthcare role. Thoughtful merchandising, seasonal campaigns, and clear health messaging signal that community pharmacy is leading in health and wellbeing.
Above all, pharmacy must lean into what makes it truly unique - trust. In a world where healthcare can feel impersonal, transactional, and inaccessible, community pharmacy offers reassurance, continuity, and care. If we pair that trust with an innovative, experience-driven over the counter offer, we don’t just protect our collective presence, we reinforce our central role in the everyday lives of the communities we serve.
The first of the Numark 12 principles is clear: “Community Pharmacy teams will improve population health and address increasing healthcare demand as part of an integrated wider health system.” Our over the counter offer is not just convenient, it is trusted, advice-led, and designed to empower people to look after their health.
The challenge is real, and so is the opportunity. By keeping the patient at the centre, community pharmacy can not only survive the competition, it can thrive as the first choice for local healthcare access and provision.
