3 Ways to Encourage End-of-Year FSA Spending at Your Pharmacy - BestRx
End-of-Year FSA Purchases

3 Ways to Encourage End-of-Year FSA Spending at Your Pharmacy

Posted on Nov 22, 2022

The end of the year is not only the beginning of Open Enrollment for many, but it’s also crunch time for those with Flexible Spending Accounts (FSA). FSA accounts are a great way for people to set aside money tax-free, to use on eligible wellness items. However, they must be used before the end of the year. This leaves many people scrambling to find ways to spend their remaining balance. Here are 3 ways to encourage end-of-year FSA spending at your pharmacy:

1. Remind Your Patients

You can alert your customers about the December 31st expiration date in a variety of ways, including:

  • Posting signs around your pharmacy (including at the entrance, pharmacy counter, drive-thru window, and checkout areas).
  • Adding a reminder to your phone system auto-attendant greeting.
  • Sending email or text alerts.

In fact, BestRx makes it easy to send mass communications electronically to all your customers. Using our Messaging Interface, you can create custom messages that can be sent manually or scheduled to go out automatically. In addition to the reminder, you can include promotional offers and highlight eligible products available at your store. These messages are also stored in your software as templates for you to edit and use again, whenever they are needed.

2. Creating Promotions for FSA-Eligible Items

Another way to encourage FSA spending at your pharmacy is to create sales promotions for eligible items. This way you’re:

  • Helping customers find ways to utilize their funds.
  • Incentivizing them to make their FSA purchases at your store.
  • Boosting your pharmacy sales.

If you utilize our point-of-sale software, BestPOS, you can take advantage of its built-in promotions feature. It enables pharmacies to quickly create a variety of sales promotions, including:

  • Setting a specific sale price.
  • Applying a discount amount or percentage off.
  • Establishing Buy, Get offers (including free items, or additional items at a reduced price).

You can also set a desired start and end date for each promotion and add individual items, an entire department or product category to a promotion.

3. Listing Your Products Online

Often, customers will search for a product online before deciding where they will make their purchase. However, if your over-the-counter (OTC) products are not listed online, your pharmacy may not appear in nearby searches. That’s why it’s important this information is included on your pharmacy website and on Google, too.

To make the process of adding your products online simple, BestRx offers a free integration for BestPOS users with Local Inventory on Google. Using the integration, pharmacies just need to download Google’s Local Inventory application on BestPOS and scan their OTC products into the system as usual.  From there, Google adds your product information to a variety of online platforms including your Google Business Profile (in the “See What’s in Store” section) and on Google Assistant, Maps, Search and Shopping as well. Plus, Local Inventory on Google continues to make updates to your product listings automatically. This not only ensures your OTC products are visible to your existing customers, but to all new customers searching in your area, too.

Utilizing these tactics not only ensures your customers don’t lose their FSA benefits, but they can increase OTC sales in your store as well. Learn more about how you can streamline all your OTC inventory and sales with BestPOS.