Community pharmacies are increasingly recognized as pivotal in advancing access to quality family planning (FP) and self-care services. Historically viewed as mere dispensers of medicine or profit-oriented businesses, pharmacies face persistent skepticism regarding their capacity to offer trusted, quality healthcare services. However, their accessibility, flexibility, and deep integration within communities present a largely untapped opportunity to bridge healthcare gaps, particularly for underserved populations such as youth and women of reproductive age.
The following two case studies, drawn from the experiences of pharmacies engaged in the Market Test initiative led by inSupply Health and partners, highlight how thoughtful positioning, client engagement strategies, and digital innovation can transform community pharmacies into trusted providers of family planning and broader self-care services. These examples demonstrate practical pathways to shift perceptions, build community trust, and generate sustainable demand for health services through pharmacy-led models.
Case Study 1: Leveraging Brand Trust to Drive Utilization of Community Pharmacies for Quality Family Planning Services
Pharmacy Outlets: Lucky Summer Chemist & Moments Pharmacy – Nairobi
The problem: Community pharmacies in Kenya are often perceived as commercial outlets, prioritizing profits over public health. Several factors contribute to this perception: Lack of permanence: flexibility that comes with the location of the community pharmacy, and the possibility of the business moving from location to location. Some pharmacy clients have reported that a community pharmacy may exist one day and then be converted into another business entity, undermining the client’s confidence and trust. This lack of permanence contrasts with public health facilities, which are viewed as permanent and unchanging, and may be considered the benchmark for quality health services. Perceived provider gaps: Another key factor reinforcing the perception of community pharmacies as profit-driven businesses is the attitude and limited initiative of pharmacy providers to position themselves as part of the broader healthcare system. Initially, clients viewed community pharmacy providers as less skilled, experienced, and knowledgeable in family planning than those in public health facilities. Concerns around quality: Community pharmacies have faced criticism for the circulation of substandard and falsified medicines and concerns about the potential for over-dispensing medications. These issues contribute to a broader perception challenge, where pharmacies and their providers are often not fully recognized as legitimate part of the primary healthcare workforce.
Without deliberate efforts to reposition and rebrand community pharmacies as trusted and quality-assured health service providers, they may continue to be overlooked as a viable family planning and self-care services channel. This is despite their potential to ease the burden on overstretched public health facilities and improve access at the community level.
The solution: In light of the perception challenges faced by community pharmacies, particularly the view that they are not core healthcare providers, two Market Test pharmacies leveraged their long-standing presence and reputations within their communities to reposition themselves as trusted sources of quality healthcare. Lucky Summer Chemist, with 15 years of service, and Moments Pharmacy, with 21 years, demonstrated that with time, consistency, and commitment to client care, it is possible to introduce and scale new services, such as injectable contraceptives, and establish themselves as reliable providers in a space where few pharmacies in Kenya had previously ventured.
When these services were launched, the Kenya Family Planning Guidelines had not yet been updated to include contraceptive injectables like DMPA-SC. Introducing this new product, particularly for self-injection, requires compliance with safety and clinical standards, strategic marketing, and careful positioning. Both pharmacies had already laid a strong foundation by cultivating a value-based-driven brand rooted in quality and client-centered care. They built on this reputation to introduce DMPA-SC as an addition to their family planning services.
Their success was also driven by a proactive mindset and a willingness to collaborate. They took advantage of opportunities within the project to strengthen referral systems and build linkages with nearby public health facilities, further enhancing community trust and reinforcing their role in the broader health ecosystem.
The impact was evident. Without stockouts, these two pharmacies recorded the highest number of family planning revisits and injectable contraceptive sales among all participating outlets. They were early adopters of client-centered strategies, including routine monitoring of clients’ weight and blood pressure, creating safe and private spaces for counselling, and establishing structured referral pathways. Their experience illustrates how community pharmacies can harness longevity, reputation, and a commitment to service quality to build trust, increase access to essential health services, and deliver greater value to the communities they serve.
Results and outcomes: The strong, credible brands built by the two community pharmacies have earned the trust of their surrounding communities. Unlike other outlets lacking these characteristics, these pharmacies have seen higher client engagement and faster adoption of new services, particularly the uptake of injectable contraceptives. From a business perspective, this trust has fostered a loyal customer base, reinforcing a value-based model that meets both business sustainability and client needs for family planning and self-care services. Their brand legacy and client-centered attitudes have opened doors for successfully introducing new service offerings. This demonstrates the critical role of longevity and the intentional cultivation of a provider ethos that prioritizes the client as a beneficiary and a core part of the pharmacy’s growth strategy.
The conclusion: There is an urgent need to shift the traditional perception of pharmacies and pharmacy providers to merely being medication dispensers rather than capable providers of quality family planning services. While interventions such as training providers, implementing client retention strategies, and improving service delivery are important, they are insufficient to position pharmacies as credible, trusted health service providers within communities. Equally critical are the attitudes and values upheld by pharmacy teams—their commitment to quality, responsiveness to client needs, and the intentional steps they take to evolve and deliver person-centered care. These factors play a pivotal role in transforming how communities view pharmacies, ultimately determining whether these outlets are embraced as integral to the broader primary healthcare system.
Case Study 2: Improving Client Experience and Driving Demand Through Digital Marketing and Retention Strategies
Pharmacy Outlets: Mapplewood Pharmacy and Anaya Pharmacy – Juja, Kiambu County
The Problem: In 2021, the Market Test project led by inSupply Health, in partnership with the Kenya Medical Research Institute (KEMRI) and the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), conducted research that revealed a critical insight: many young women regularly visited community pharmacies to access self-care products, contraceptive services, and especially emergency contraceptive pills (e-pills). However, despite their interest in these services, a significant barrier persisted: Stigma and judgment. Findings showed that young women often sent male partners to purchase contraceptive products on their behalf, citing feelings of embarrassment or fear of judgment when attempting to inquire about sexual and reproductive health (SRH) services at the pharmacy counter. This discomfort was compounded by a broader lack of supportive engagement from pharmacy providers, who frequently missed the opportunity to build trust with these clients or offer reliable SRH information. In environments where conversations about youth sexuality were stigmatized by families, pharmacists, and the wider community, many young women were left navigating sensitive health needs alone, uninformed, or relying solely on peer advice. Perceived provider gaps:Although community pharmacies had the potential to meet the needs of this underserved segment, many providers were unaware of the market opportunity or lacked the knowledge and tools to engage these young clients proactively. As a result, pharmacies were viewed primarily as transactional retail outlets, places to pick up products, not spaces for personalized or youth-friendly healthcare experiences. Moreover, pharmacies lacked basic mechanisms to build and retain client trust, such as systems to track visits, assess satisfaction, or offer continuity of care. Without these critical elements, they failed to create compelling, client-centered value propositions that would establish them as trusted family planning and self-care services providers, especially among youth.
The Solution
Through a co-creation process, several pharmacies began to recognize the untapped opportunity in building and sustaining strong client relationships, particularly in the area of family planning. Among them were Mapplewood and Anaya Pharmacies, located in Juja, within Kiambu County, just 33 kilometers from Nairobi. Serving populations drawn mainly from nearby institutions of higher learning, the two pharmacies realized they were missing opportunities to consistently meet the needs of their younger clients, many of whom valued discretion, convenience, and personalized engagement when seeking sexual and reproductive health services. Acting independently, the pharmacy providers decided to adopt client retention strategies tailored to their youthful clientele’s digital habits and privacy expectations. Their first step was to reflect on making their pharmacies more welcoming and responsive—places where clients felt safe asking questions and accessing services without judgment or discomfort.
The pharmacies introduced simple but effective tools such as To-Come-Again (TCA) options to support return visits. These included the use of Google Calendar reminders and printed appointment cards. These strategies served a dual purpose: first, they signaled to clients that their care journey was important to the pharmacy provider; second, they acted as reminders for the providers themselves to follow up. For many, this meant calling or texting clients after initial visits—approaches that had not traditionally been part of pharmacy service delivery. Over time, this direct outreach led to more clients returning for follow-ups, refills, or related primary care services such as vaccinations or blood pressure checks.
Building on this foundation, the two pharmacies sought to reach an even broader segment of their clientele by creating voluntary WhatsApp groups. These platforms were used to share credible, factual content on topics ranging from family planning and women’s wellness to broader self-care practices. The format of the WhatsApp engagement differed slightly between the two providers. One created an open group that allowed clients to interact with each other and the provider, fitting for a demographic mostly of university students. The other, catering to a mix of working-class clients and students in a more residential part of Juja Township, opted for a closed broadcast list where only the pharmacy provider could post. Clients with private questions were encouraged to message the provider directly. Both formats respected clients’ need for confidentiality and allowed for sustained, responsive communication.
Through these efforts, the pharmacy providers remained consistently accessible, deepening client relationships and building trust over time. Notably, clients began to return for family planning and various health-related inquiries and purchases, including over-the-counter medications, supplements, and preventive services. These client retention strategies had a ripple effect. They positioned the pharmacies as credible sources of health information and created space for personalized, ongoing interactions that are often missing in traditional pharmacy setups. In doing so, Mapplewood and Anaya Pharmacies demonstrated that by embracing simple digital tools and centering client experience, pharmacies can effectively engage young clients, foster loyalty, and expand the scope of services provided in the community.
Results and Outcomes: Recognizing a consistent pattern of returning clients, the two pharmacy providers introduced deliberate client retention strategies to foster trust and offer personalized service access. One of the key measures included establishing a digital marketing presence that promoted their family planning and self-care offerings. This visibility not only attracted new clients but also strengthened engagement with existing ones. A major turning point was introducing To Come Again (TCA) cards—client return cards similar to those issued in public health facilities. Their familiar format and official Ministry of Health (MOH) branding reassured clients about the legitimacy and quality of care. Many clients expressed increased trust in the pharmacies, citing the return cards as evidence that the services mirrored those available in public facilities and were not run by unqualified providers. Initially, some clients were hesitant to share personal information with pharmacy staff. However, the consistent and thoughtful follow-up by providers, such as checking client progress, gradually built rapport and trust. This approach made it easier to record client details in the MOH’s Daily Activity Register and schedule follow-up appointments over time. A particularly impactful innovation was WhatsApp as a client engagement tool. Positioned as a “digital safe space,” these WhatsApp channels provided credible information on family planning and self-care services and served as informal digital marketing platforms. They enabled direct and continuous communication with clients, contributing significantly to retention and interest in a broader range of services.
Conclusion: Basic client retention tools, such as TCA cards and the Ministry of Health’s Daily Activity Register, can serve as foundational elements in building sustained client relationships in community pharmacies. Branded with the MOH logo, TCA cards create familiarity and trust by mirroring public health systems. They facilitate the collection of client information and support consistent follow-up, allowing pharmacies to offer more personalized services. Clients retain the cards and return with them, and pharmacies have developed internal systems to manage and duplicate relevant data for ongoing engagement. However, as these pharmacies demonstrated, retention strategies must go beyond basic recordkeeping. Personalized appointment reminders, follow-up calls, and customized SMS messages reinforced the client-provider relationship. These interactions conveyed care, professionalism, and consistency, which clients value and respond to. The addition of WhatsApp groups further enhanced the experience by providing an accessible, interactive platform for sharing reliable information and maintaining ongoing communication. Through these combined efforts, the two pharmacies have successfully created a client-centered model of care. Their example shows community pharmacies can move beyond transactional interactions to build strong, professional, and trusted relationships supporting business sustainability and improved health outcomes.
