Boots: The omnichannel marketing strategy behind UK’s leading pharmacy retailer

Success stories about famous or noteworthy brands, like LEGO, IKEA, New Look, or Farfetch, can provide valuable information to retailers and marketers alike. A collection of case studies that consists of tried-and-true, successful marketing strategies creates a roadmap for recreation and implementation. eCommerce marketers can obtain useful data and inspiration through extensive research on retail experts such as Boots, a brand that has survived the test of time for 172 years. At ContactPigeon, we love analyzing top retailers and brands so today we will continue our journey with the UK’s ninth biggest retailer by revenue. Therefore, this case study is dedicated to the impressive Boots marketing strategy and describes how a small family business became a leading UK pharmacy retailer.

Boots UK Limited (formerly known as Boots the Chemists) is a British health, beauty, and pharmacy chain founded in 1849. Currently, the company has expanded in various territories like Ireland, Italy, Norway, the Netherlands, Thailand, and Indonesia. Boots employs 23,000 healthcare providers of which 6,660 are registered pharmacists and 85.5% of the UK residents are a 10-minute walk away from a Boots store. The brand proudly counts 2,336 physical stores, 550 Boots Opticians practices, and 533 Boots Hearingcare locations.

History of the Boots brand

John Boot founded the company in 1849, in Nottingham. After his passing in 1860, his wife took over the family’s herbal medicine shop, with the help of her 10-year-old son, Jesse. When Jesse became of age in 1877, he began to formulate the name of Boots and expand the business by relocating the original tiny herbal shop and making it “the talk of the town”. Later on, he opened additional branches in distinct locations, like Sheffield and Lincoln.

Meeting his wife Florence Anne, a Jersey businesswoman and philanthropist was a very significant touchpoint in Jesse’s life and the development of their little “empire”. Together, they diversified into various sectors, like perfumery, photography, or education. A brilliant example was Florence’s idea to include a lending library department in different Boots branches, named the Boots Book-Lover’s Library, a tradition that carried on for 68 years (1898 – 1966).

By the time the first World War started, the company had 560 branches, and Jesse was asked to offer his services to the government. The company’s invaluable contribution included the massive production of first aid chemicals and the provision of unlimited supplies to the front line. In 1920, Jesse’s poor health forced him to sell Boots to the American United Drug Company and became a huge benefactor to the community, by making generous donations to institutions. A decade later, with the grandson of John Boot at the head of the company, the brand returns to the household name in 1933. John, Jesse’s son, with his leadership actively shaped further the image of the pharmacy retailer; by introducing a lot of new products, the famous Boots No7 range included, he turned the enterprise into a major national brand.

Last but not least, in the ‘60s, the pharmacy retailer expanded its endeavors furthermore, to pharmaceutical research and manufacture, with John Nicholson and Dr. Sir Stewart Sanders Adams inventing the Ibuprofen painkiller. Recent events led to a big merger between Boots and the European wholesale and pharmacy retailer Alliance UniChem, with executive chairman Stefano Pessina taking the company private and currently, being the largest single shareholder. Eventually, in 2014 Boots became a subsidiary to the Walgreens Boots Alliance company.

Read the full Boots retail case study here