As compression hosiery research and development has increased so has the population of adults who could benefit from compression hosiery use. Today, this population includes not only edema and neuropathy patients, but also workers who spend long hours walking and standing, and pregnant women who wish to reduce the likelihood of developing varicose veins and swollen legs.

For HME dealers, this presents an opportunity to increase cash sales. “If you can get someone to come into your store today to buy a pair of compression hosiery, two things are going to happen—first, you are going to move that particular product; second, you are going to greatly enhance the likelihood of capturing that customer later on for related products, such as canes, lift chairs, walkers, and even wheelchairs and hospital beds,” says David Gould, director of patient services at Gould’s Discount Medical in Louisville, Ky. Gould’s, a family owned and operated HME company, offers DME with an emphasis on mobility devices and respiratory care. It has an entire showroom wall dedicated to the display of compression hosiery and compression socks.

Several hundred miles away in Murfreesboro, Tenn, Mindy Cunningham tells a similar story. Cunningham is purchasing and customer-service manager of Reeves Sain Medical, a full-service DME store that offers on-site pharmacy, infusion-therapy, oxygen, and extended-care operations, and is part of an enterprise that includes drugstores in three other locations. Compression hosiery is about 10% of the DME store’s business, she says. “It adds nicely to our bottom line, and it just keeps getting better as we become more creative in marketing it to our customers.”

Selling Ideas
Boosting sales of compression hosiery is a relatively straightforward proposition. Try these ideas:

1) Position your store as the local expert on compression therapy and hosiery. You will generate more traffic if you can develop a reputation among referring physician offices and among consumers as the best resource in town for compression hosiery, says Cunningham. “That requires you to become expert in measuring and sizing the product so that, when the referring physician calls in with a diagnosis, you can recommend the right brand, type, and compression level,” she says.

To gain the necessary expertise, attend seminars on the subject. Cunningham has been to five of them. “I also ask the manufacturers—and they are real good about responding to this—to send me product updates, educational materials, and the like,” she says.

2) Supply your referral sources with educational materials on compression therapy and compression hosiery. Cunningham says physicians in her area are increasingly interested in learning everything they can about compression therapy. “One doctor told us it is a subject that is almost completely overlooked in medical school,” she says. “He said his training in compression therapy consisted of just half of one day’s worth of classroom discussion. But now, we see more and more physicians wanting to become better educated on compression therapy. They know that, if they do become better educated, they are going to be able to catch problems sooner and also prevent them from happening in the first place.”

3) Include mention of compression hosiery when meeting with referral sources to discuss the overall capabilities of your business. Gould says that his company supplies physicians with a binder containing descriptions of everything Gould’s Discount Medical offers in the way of products and services. In it is a section on compression hosiery. “This is an important product, and we want referring sources to know that not only do we supply it, but we also have the expertise to help the patients they send us receive exactly the right type and size of compression hosiery,” he says.

4) Target customers likely to need the product. Marketing efforts should be aimed at people with diabetes, congestive heart failure, varicose veins, decubitus ulcers, and limb fractures resulting in edema. According to Gould, the typical compression hosiery customer is a woman, over the age of 55. He estimates customers who fit that particular profile account for 75% of his compression hosiery business. The bulk of the remaining 25% of compression hosiery customers are younger than 55 and are employed. Men make up about 10% of this group.

Also play up compression hosiery as a preventative for varicose veins and the symptoms of swollen legs. Cunningham suggests marketing the product to people who are on their feet all day since they are apt to develop problems compression hosiery can address. Include pregnant women as well.

5) Carry compression hosiery brands with packages that simplify selection for customers. Some manufacturers mark product sizes prominently on the box or outside wrapper, and include purchase guides pegged to customer weight, height, sex, and shoe measurement, says Cynthia J. Hatalak of Health System Services in Niagara Falls, NY.

6) Stock a range of colors. “Customers enjoy choices and sometimes will purchase an additional pair if more than one color is available,” Hatalak says.

7) Ask manufacturer’s representatives or distributors for their recommendations on types, sizes, colors, compression strengths, and quantities to stock. Since compression hosiery is a product purchased almost solely as needed, it becomes a tricky—and a financially risky—proposition to inventory it in any meaningful way. On the one hand, you will need enough breadth and depth of line to allow for creation of a visible and impressive-looking shelf display, Cunningham says. On the other hand, you cannot carry too much stock because, not being an impulse-buy item, it tends to sit on shelves for a while—which means you will be tying up capital.

“Obtain guidance where you can,” Cunningham says. “Manufacturers can help with inventory suggestions, but also talk to friends in the HME business who are already involved with compression hosiery in their own stores.”

8) Avoid forcing customers to switch brand loyalties once those loyalties have been established. After you have carried a manufacturer’s line for a long period, customers who use it will develop brand loyalty, Gould says. Therefore, use extreme care when discontinuing a brand in order to introduce a new one.

“Many compression hosiery users become convinced that the brand they have been using is the only one for them,” Gould says. “If you take it away, you risk losing their business—they will go instead to wherever that favorite brand is sold.”

A safe way to handle discontinuation is gradually phasing out the old brand and using incentives, such as discounts and rebates, to encourage customers to try the new brand being introduced, he says.

9) Post charts and other visual aids that will help customers better understand the different applications of the various brands and lines of compression hosiery. The array of compression hosiery products has become so immense that patients can be easily confused—and intimidated—by the selections that can confront them. Comparison charts, usage diagrams, and the like will make it easier for customers to sort things out, Gould says.

“In addition to a poster that graphically describes limb edema, we also have on display a mannequin leg that wears a really nice, attractive specimen of the hosiery,” he says. “This not only calls attention to what’s being sold in this part of the store but also gives a clear illustration of how stylish the product looks. A lot of first-time compression-hosiery customers, when they see the mannequin leg, are comforted—they come into the store worried that they are going to have to walk around in something very clinical looking, and are relieved to see that is not necessarily the case at all.”

Manufacturers of compression hosiery are a good place to obtain visual aids.

10) Make sure customers understand that compression hosiery needs to be replaced at least every 6 months. Informing them of the expected service life of the product will help drive those purchasers back into the store at regular intervals, Gould says. “Unless you tell them the hosiery has a limited life, some people will keep using it months or years beyond the point when it’s any good.”

Mailing a compression hosiery coupon to the customer about 5 months from the date he or she bought the first pair is a pleasant way to remind the customer to return to replace the hosiery.

11) Intersperse related-needs merchandise within the display of compression hosiery. The idea here, Hatalak says, is to suggest to customers other types of products they might want to pick up in order to maximize their satisfaction with the compression hosiery they buy. For example, there are accessories to help users put on their hosiery and special glues that can be substituted for garters to hold hosiery in place.

Gould’s Discount Medical sets out a lift chair or two alongside the compression hosiery display section so customers can sit down while trying on a pair. “Once I get them in that chair, they can feel how great it is and then I can start talking to them about the advantages that owning one would provide them relative to their medical condition,” he says.

12) Create a small display of compression hosiery by the checkout counter. When hosiery-using customers are in the store to purchase items other than compression hosiery, seeing a display of the product at the checkout counter will prompt many of them to grab a new pair, Hatalak says. “They will figure they might as well buy that new pair since they have already made the trip to the store and are standing right there with the product staring them in the face,” she says.

13) Encourage electronic orders. Many customers—notably men—are too embarrassed to walk into a store and purchase compression hosiery, Hatalak says. Others are too busy or live too far away. The solution is to set up a system for receiving orders via the Internet and the telephone. “Embarrassed customers can feel far more anonymous this way, and everyone else will appreciate the convenience,” Gould says.

14) Get involved with limb-edema clinics. These are growing in popularity as a way to reduce the severity of limb edema and minimize the need for daily bandaging during compression therapy, Gould says. At least one manufacturer of compression hosiery has made support of limb-edema clinics a priority, and has developed a comprehensive marketing program complete with ready-to-run ad slicks, point-of-purchase shelf call-outs, prescription pads, and educational materials in which HME dealers can participate, Gould says.

15) Host a public event focused on the need for compression therapy and the role of compression hosiery. This summer, Reeves Sain Medical staged a “Leg Health Day” at its store, Cunningham says. The event featured free-of-charge screenings to identify individuals at risk of developing varicose veins, swelling, and other conditions associated with tired, achy legs. In addition to promoting awareness of the value of compression therapy, the event also brought consumers into the store to acquaint them with other products Reeves Sain offers. To get people to come to the event, the dealership arranged to have posters put up in physician offices and senior citizen centers, flyers inserted in its billing statements, and commercials aired on local talk-radio shows.

Compression hosiery will never be the largest, most expensive, or flashiest product in your store. But by giving its marketing just a little attention, it can add nicely to your bottom line.

Rich Smith is a contributing writer for Dealer/Provider.