CVS and Walgreens continue to see increased visits
Fueled by COVID-19 tests and vaccinations, Walgreens and CVS are still seeing increased visits, according to Placer.ai. The firm that analyzes retail traffic released its 2021 Pharmacy Review that showed the two pharmacy retailer giants are still succeeding two years into the pandemic.
“And since the spring, the two category leaders have seen significant year-over-two-year (Yo2Y) visit increases, driven by the heightened demand for wellness products as well as the pharmacies’ ability to administer COVID vaccines and tests,” wrote Shira Petrack in the report. “And visit data from recent months confirms that CVS and Walgreens are still very much riding the wave. Neither brand suffered any noticeable dip in visits from the Delta or Omicron surges, and both finished the year far ahead of their 2019 visit numbers.”
In December of 2021, CVS had 32.5% more visits compared to 2019, while Walgreens had 27.8%. Monthly visits for both retailers peaked in July and August. In August of last year, Yo2Y visits increased 43.4% for CVS, and 47.7% for Walgreens.
CVS recently released its financial report from Q4 2021 and the full-fiscal year of 2021, and both periods saw increased revenue compared to the prior year.
In addition to fueling visits, the pandemic has also shifted what consumers are shopping for at pharmacy retailers, especially from private brands. CVS’s senior director of store brands Heather Corkery recently spoke at the Store Brands Industry Forum on Nonfood Innovation about how the pandemic has changed the home goods category. Andrea Collaro, senior director of health and wellness for owned brands at Walgreens, also spoke at the event, and discussed how Walgreens has seen the wellness category take off in the past two years.
Both chains have seen an increase in cross-shopping as well. The share of CVS customers who also visit Walgreens grew from 26.5% in Q1 2021 to 34.0% in Q4 2021, while the share of Walgreens customers who also visit CVS grew from 24.2% in Q1 to 31.7% in Q4.
“Customers are more likely to be loyal to their healthcare provider than to their local pharmacy,” wrote Petrack. “So the transition to healthcare provision may well cut down on cross-shopping – while opening up robust, long-term revenue streams that can cement the current pandemic visit boom.”
The full report can be read here.