How one viral Facebook post sparked online sales flurry
We love a good news story here at Storbie, especially when it’s a bit of fun too. We chat to Tauranga pharmacy owner and self-proclaimed dad joke king, Simon Hodgson, about how he inadvertently sparked a flurry of demand for Bureta Pharmacy’s Man Flu Relief after a tongue–in–cheek Facebook post went viral.
We love a good news story here at Storbie, especially when it’s a bit of fun too. We chat to Tauranga pharmacy owner and self-proclaimed dad joke king, Simon Hodgson, about how he inadvertently sparked a flurry of demand for Bureta Pharmacy’s Man Flu Relief after a tongue–in–cheek Facebook post went viral.
It was pretty early one Friday morning when Simon shared a photo of Man Flu Relief, a product him and his team have had fun making over the years for some of their regular customers.
On the bottle, Man Flu Relief claims (but then doesn’t) to “provide temporary relief from whinging, whining, nobodycaresitis, imgoingtodie syndrome and possible fever and headache (or possibly not…).” Followed by the disclaimer “Please remember these medicamints have absolutely no therapeutic effect! Not one iota!”
Within a couple of hours, Simon’s post had been shared to Baby It’s Personal, Bad Dad Jokes and popular daily deals site Vic Deals captioned "Meanwhile in Tauranga…". Combined, this activity garnered the attention of thousands of spouses, sons, daughters and colleagues of people in their life who could do with a bit of relief from the dreaded man flu.
7 Ways Pharmacists Can Save Time
We've made a guide on how to save time in your business, so you can focus on growing your customer relationships. Get savvy on everything from easy-to-use platforms to streamlining your supply chain processes
Once people realised this was a real thing that they could actually buy, not only did Simon have people walking in the door of his pharmacy ordering ten’s of "the man flu product I saw online" at a time, but his online pharmacy powered by Storbie received orders from all over the country. Not only were they buying man flu relief, but while they were at it, they were also adding "Concrete Pills" and "Grumpy Tablets" to their carts before checking out!
"It was madness, we had this construction guy come in and he walked straight up to the counter, and placed an order for 10 of the things for his mates at work. We’ve been packing up orders to send all over New Zealand, and even a few Aussie ones too. All from our little community pharmacy here in Tauranga. It’s unbelievable!"
It’s fair to say that Simon’s experience has demonstrated to him first hand the power of being online, not only for online sales, but the influence that being online can have on feet through the door too.
We’ve spoken to Simon about the fact that he shared Man Flu Relief on a Friday, and have planted the seed for him to release Monday-itis Relief. Keep an eye on Simon’s Facebook page at Bureta Pharmacy Ltd and Bureta Pharmacy online for Monday–it is coming soon. Or not.
There's more where that came from!
Join our mailing list to keep up with the latest online retail goodness.