Invacare Supply Group - Strategies, Solutions and Best Practices for Business Leaders

Having all the necessities for home medical care can be challenging for patients and their families, but those challenges are multiplied for medical supply retailers. Placing orders for more than 20,000 different items from more than 600 manufacturers is no easy task for any retailer.

That’s why so many of them turn to Invacare Supply Group, which boasts not only the size and versatility to fill all of their inventory needs, but also the technological edge to help them serve their customers faster.

Vice President of Sales and Marketing Greg Bosco says the company – a wholly owned subsidiary of leading home medical equipment manufacturer Invacare Corporation – has been serving the needs of retailers since 1999. The company specializes in the distribution of home medical supplies in 42 different categories, including diabetic supplies, incontinence supplies, nutrition products and wound care supplies.

“We’re probably the most diverse [distributor],” Bosco says. “We do not carry any pharmaceuticals, but our mix of product – which includes a growing amount of the ‘feel-good’ healthcare items – really gives us one of the strongest mixes in the industry.”

In addition to stocking more than 20,000 products from hundreds of manufacturers, Invacare Supply Group also provides its customers with marketing programs and a home delivery service. Bosco explains that the company also has recently begun helping its customers create their own Web portals for home shopping through its partner, Wired Retail Solutions. Invacare Supply Group also has distribution centers located in states such as New Jersey, Indiana, California, Texas and Georgia.

Bosco says Invacare Supply Group succeeds because it is able to take pressure off pharmacies and retailers. “We offer our customers a virtual distribution center, so in effect we are their distribution center so they don’t have to carry the products,” he says.

More than 85 percent of products ordered by retailers through Invacare Supply Group are delivered directly to the end-user’s home. This takes delivery off the retailer’s plate and allows them to focus their attention on marketing and sales instead of inventory and shipping. “We’ve allowed them to reallocate their resources to focus on patient care,” Bosco says.

Reaching Out
Because they have more time to focus on marketing and customer service, Invacare Supply Group’s customers also look to the company to help them develop better plans for reaching out to their customers. The company provides a number of services aimed at helping pharmacies and smaller medical retailers gain a bigger share of the market.

“We are trying to help our customers diversify their product portfolios, and we’re trying to help them learn about portfolio sales and cash business,” Bosco says.

For example, he says, a customer focused on diabetic supplies is currently being squeezed by recent reductions in federal and state reimbursement levels. Those retailers can either reach out to more customers or try to diversify their product offerings to make up the difference. Bosco says there are numerous products those retailers could offer that are related to diabetes care – such as skin creams, blood pressure cuffs and scales – that they have not added to their product mixes.

“Right now, our customers are letting those sales go to the big-box retailers because they’re so focused on the reimbursed products,” Bosco says.

The company also helps its clients reach out to their customers through the creation of customized catalogs and other marketing materials. These include direct-mail postcards and four-color mail circular inserts, which are sent out by ZIP code.

Invacare Supply Group is also helping customers establish their own brand names through promotional merchandise such as magnets and t-shirts.

The company recently established theisgstore.com to sell promotional items that can be stamped with the customer’s logo and contact information. Perhaps the most successful marketing initiative undertaken by Invacare Supply Group in recent years has been its development of Web portals for customers. Working with third-party software designer Wired Retail Solutions, the company has established Internet shopping sites for retailers, who can direct their customers to the sites for at-home shopping.

“We’ve set up over 200 customers right now with Web sites, and we have at least a dozen in the queue right now waiting to be set up,” Bosco says.

Wired Retail Solutions President Kevin Roseff says online ordering systems were not common in the home medical supply market before Invacare Supply Group entered into it, mainly because its elderly consumers are generally unfamiliar with computers. “The market was really lacking online order systems,” he says, stressing the adaptability of the company’s platform.