CVS Pharmacy, the retail division of CVS Health, unveiled a new store strategy in April that included a revamped store design, an updated assortment of healthier foods and a bigger selection of health and beauty products.

But CVS also remains committed to digital and mobile healthcare, says CVS Health senior vice president and chief digital officer Brian Tilzer. More than 19 million customers have downloaded the CVS mobile app, which among other features lets customers store their payment information and then check out with their smartphone at the pharmacy or in the checkout line.

More than 41 million customers also are enrolled in the drugstore chain’s pharmacy text messaging program, a mobile tool that provides users with medication refill reminders and enables easy prescription refills.

“Mobile devices have completely changed the way we manage our lives—and that includes how we manage our health, so that’s why we’ve made significant investments in digital over the past few years, including opening a digital innovation lab dedicated to advancing the role digital technologies play in our customers’ lives,” Tilzer says. “We will continue to focus on developing new tools that help our customers find easier and better ways to manage their health: whether that be at our stores, in our pharmacies or at their homes.”

CVS is No. 106 in the Internet Retailer Top 500, which ranks North American retailers by their online sales.

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CVS operates about 9,700 stores. Last month CVS announced plans for major changes to as many as 70 new and existing stores this year, with plans to expand the program to several hundred more in 2018.

In select stores CVS says its “new, health-focused formats” have 100 more feet of space for health, beauty and healthier food products. The new products include a broader selection of vitamins and supplements, more natural ingredient health and beauty products, and food products that are gluten-free, sugar-free and organic, among other health-related criteria. Each revamped store also features what CVS calls a “discovery zone” that groups products such as natural health and beauty on store shelves so customers can find specific merchandise more easily, the retailer says.

The new products CVS will offer in its newly designed stores will not be available online. But CVS does continue to roll out e-commerce initiatives that tie e-commerce and stores closer together, Tilzer says.

In October CVS Health expanded a pilot project for mobile payment for prescriptions by rolling it out nationally.

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In April 2016, CVS added CVS Pay to its pharmacy mobile app. CVS Pay enables customers to refill prescriptions, manage prescriptions and pick up and pay for prescriptions, all within an Apple or Android app. CVS Pays also lets customers use the mobile app to check out in a CVS drug store and to pick up and pay for a prescription from a drive-through lane.

Customers can begin using CVS Pay by adding a credit or debit card to the CVS pharmacy app. They can also add their health savings account and flexible savings account cards.

At the store, an associate will scan a bar code from the customer’s app, ring up the purchases, let the customer choose a payment method from those stored within the app, and then process the payment, CVS says. All verifications for prescriptions and payment take place directly in the app.

“We’re bringing our deep expertise in health services into our aisles to help our customers discover better choices, and we’re expanding the type of care we provide, through our Minute Clinics and our new eye and ear centers, so our customers can come to us not just when they’re sick, but also when they want to stay healthy,” Tilzer says. “Our digital strategy is part of this mission: from making shopping at our stores easier, to digital pharmacy tools, our digital tools are aimed at solving customer pain points and ultimately to helping our customers on their path to better health.”

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Another upgrade CVS is rolling out to its stores allows customers to more quickly reorder for curb-side pickup. The CVS Express program was launched in April 2016 and lets customers using the CVS app order items online and pick them up at a nearby CVS store in less than an hour. The newest upgrade lets users see a list of items from past purchases and reorder those products without having to create an entirely new shopping cart.

“We are constantly evolving our digital experience, and at the heart of that evolution is a focus on making the experience easier, simpler and more convenient for our customers,” Tilzer says. “CVS Pay and Curbside are two of the biggest examples of this, but we are always making enhancements like the new ‘reorder’ feature that further simplify the experience in CVS Pharmacy stores.”

 

 

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