How Smart Lockers Help Retail Pharmacies Deliver MORE for Patients

Retail pharmacies are facing a number of challenges in the market today. They are often operating with gross margins under 20% and falling.¹ They are also competing with new entrants in the industry: online and mail order pharmacies, which offer convenient, cost-effective services delivered directly to patients’ doorsteps. This means that, for many retail pharmacies, pill dispensing is no longer their main revenue driver. Plus, offering 90-day prescriptions to compete with online and mail order pharmacies leads to fewer visits per patient, reduced front-store revenue, and lower overall reimbursement per patient over time.

Though the pandemic transformed pharmacists from dispensers to clinicians and expanded the range of revenue-driving services offered at many locations, the change brought its own slew of problems. Providing more clinical services, such as vaccines, prescriptive care (e.g., inhalers, insulin, nicotine patches, contraceptive care), and testing, to cover losses in prescription revenue requires more face-to-face care. Stores facing significant margin compression often cannot afford the additional staffing needs, as payments from health plans and other payers do not cover the cost of counseling patients, let alone the costs of acquiring medicine or staffing the counters.

In short, retail pharmacies are under pressure to improve margins and manage staffing challenges, and are turning their focus to using automation and delivery tools to drive these operational improvements while elevating the level of care.

Why Workflow Efficiency Matters

In addition to helping address the margin challenges above, there are additional benefits to establishing an efficient pharmacy. Doing so helps address employee stress and burnout, which have reached critical levels. According to the 2023 Pharmacy Times Burnout and Mental Health Survey, when pharmacy professionals rated their burnout on a scale from 1 to 7 (1 = “not at all,” 7 = “extremely”), the average score was 5.89, indicating severe burnout across the profession.² When implemented strategically, automation and delivery tools can help streamline prescription fulfillment for patients that don’t need to speak with a pharmacist, alleviating workload for retail pharmacy employees and allowing them to focus on revenue-generating, in-person care.

Further, in today’s always-on world, consumers expect instant convenience in every aspect of their lives, including healthcare. Improving pharmacy workflows directly addresses this expectation by enabling faster prescription fulfillment that gets patients the medications they need, when they need them, without unnecessary delays. Faster delivery to patients translates into happier customers, which builds loyalty and trust.

How Smart Lockers Can Help

The future of automation and efficiency intersects with the adoption of smart lockers for retail pharmacies. They are particularly well-suited for patients picking up chronic maintenance medications who don’t require pharmacist consultation. The solution is also practical, as 90% of Americans live within 5 miles of a community pharmacy.³

The process of retrieving a prescription is painless and easy: when a prescription is placed in the smart locker, the system automatically notifies patients via their preferred method (email or text) that their order is ready for pickup. Patients pick up their prescriptions using a secure PIN, with an optional signature-required feature that ensures order security and provides complete chain-of-custody visibility for each transaction.

Smart lockers can even strengthen privacy protections when the pharmacy software is fully integrated with the smart locker solution. The pharmacy then wholly owns patient notifications, protecting patients’ personally identifiable information (PII).

Given margin pressures, smart lockers can be placed in-store to boost foot traffic and drive additional purchases. Alternately, lockers placed in the store vestibule or outside the store can extend pharmacies’ service hours and provide up to 24/7 pickup, addressing patient demand for convenience. Further, rear-loading lockers can help retail pharmacy employees work double duty: pharmacists can load prescriptions from the back while patients collect from the front.

Delivering MORE for Your Patients with Parcel Pending

With Parcel Pending by Quadient smart lockers, retail pharmacies can leverage an industry trusted solution to effectively streamline prescription pick-up. Parcel Pending is trusted by leading retailers and healthcare providers worldwide, with more than 25,000 locker solutions installed globally. Our proven track record in secure package management translates seamlessly to prescription fulfillment, providing the following benefits for retail pharmacies:

MORE Customization

We’ll design a solution to meet your needs, including options that accommodate maximum volume in a minimal footprint. Our M23 locker systems, for instance, are specifically engineered for efficient delivery of prescription medications and smaller healthcare items. The solution features 23 compartments in a half-wide tower design, maximizing the number of lockers per square foot, ideal for high-volume pharmacies with limited space.

MORE Accessibility

Every Parcel Pending locker is designed with accessibility features to support all patients. Braille keypads enable visually impaired patients to access their prescriptions independently. Door sizes, heights, and placement accommodate wheelchair users, while the control touchscreen and barcode scanner are positioned for full accessibility. Verbal instructions delivered through stereo speakers above the touchscreen provide additional guidance for patients who need it.

MORE Efficiency

Pharmacy management software can be integrated with our locker systems to improve operational efficiency while providing full ownership of patient notifications, protecting patients’ PII. Smart routing and automated alerts reduce manual handoffs, freeing pharmacy staff to focus on valuable face-to-face patient consultations.

MORE Insights

Parcel Pending’s business intelligence platform provides real-time operational data, custom alerts, and comprehensive reporting that enable more intelligent decision-making. Monitor delivery and collection patterns to optimize staffing schedules, identify peak usage times, and further increase operational efficiency. Additional management tools include customizable user permissions, patient satisfaction surveys at the point of use, and security incident notifications, giving complete visibility into prescription pickup operations.

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As the retail pharmacy industry continues to evolve, efficiency and customer service remain paramount. Adopting smart lockers helps retail pharmacy locations deliver on these objectives while also enhancing convenience and loyalty for patients.

Ready to lock in a smart locker solution for your retail pharmacy? Speak with a Parcel Pending by Quadient representative today.

Sources:

1. Joseph, Seth. Why Pharmacies Like Walgreens, Rite Aid and Independents Are Dying. www.forbes.com. January 12, 2026. https://www.forbes.com/sites/sethjoseph/2026/01/12/why-pharmacies-like-walgreens-rite-aid-and-independents-are-dying/
2. Antrim, Aislinn. Pharmacists Report High Levels of Burnout, Resulting in Understaffing and Alternative Career Paths. www.pharmacytimes.com. April 26, 2023. https://www.pharmacytimes.com/view/pharmacists-report-high-levels-of-burnout-resulting-in-understaffing-and-alternative-career-paths
3. Berenbrok, Lucas A., et al. Access to community pharmacies: A nationwide geographic information systems cross-sectional analysis. Journal of the American Pharmacists Association, Volume 62, Issue 6, 1816 – 1822.e2. https://www.japha.org/article/S1544-3191(22)00233-3/fulltext