Watsons plans to revamp its image with color-coding

The leading drugstore chain Watsons Taiwan said yesterday it plans to dazzle customers with bright spacious floors and a colorful directory.

The 249-outlet company is also considering opening 26 more stores in Taiwan this year and another 25 next year, a company executive said yesterday.

"To create a better shopping environment for customers, the design of our new store that is going to open in the new Taipei 101 Mall on Nov. 14 will be more capacious than the current stores," Gordon Reid, managing director of Watsons Taiwan, said at a press conference. "At this new outlet, we will adopt a new color-coding system to help customers find products they want."

The color coded directory system will use various colors to categorize products, Reid said, adding that Watsons opened a store with the feature in Hong Kong in June.

For example, shelves with purple boards will stand for cosmetics and skin-care products, and blue shelves will contain drugs and medical goods. For those who are looking for daily-use products, toys and stationary items, they can check the orange boards.

If the new setting receives positive response from consumers, Watsons' top 20 branches in terms of sales figure will be renovated to adopt the new features and image as well, Reid said.

However, the color-coding concept is not new. The nation's second-largest drugstore chain Cosmed (康是美), which runs 98 outlets nationwide, introduced color-coding in one of its Taipei outlets on Dunhua North Road earlier this month.

"We had this customer-friendly guidepost a year ago," Anita Lai (賴文琦), a Cosmed public relations official said. "Besides interior renovation, we also open beauty and health consultant services."

Coincidentally, Watsons said it will also provide in-store beauty and health consultant services in its new store.

When commenting on the competition with Watsons regarding its pricing strategy and rapid expansion, Lai said Watsons has gradually transformed into a "personal store" which basically sells everything from snacks to home appliances, while Cosmed will continue to focus on cosmetics and drug products.

Although the retail business generally saw dire sales last year due to the slow economy, Reid said Watsons enjoyed double-digit growth in sales figures because of its attractive low-price guarantees and marketing strategies.

"The market is far from saturated, this is why we are still expanding our business here in Taiwan," Reid said.

According to statistics of the Taiwan Chain Store and Franchise Association (連鎖加盟協會), as of the end of April there were 516 drug and cosmetics stores in the nation, growing from 447 in the same period last year.