Researching the Competition ….. Since we had
Post# of 7807
Since we had a system, Brickseek, for tracking CVS products I decided to see how well the competitors to ActiPatch were doing.
Icy Hot Lidocaine Patch - $11.49 - SKU 853333
Icy Hot Smart Relief TENS - $42.49 - SKU 961282
Omron Electrotherapy Max TENS - $72.99 - SKU 962890
Omron Electrotherapy Pain Relief TENS - $46.29 - SKU 906989
CVS Mini TENS - $30.49 - SKU 456218
I tracked the sales from 6/3 - 6/12 in 16 CVS stores in Southern California. This gives us a look at these 5 products over 9 days in 16 stores or 144 Store Days of sales.
The best seller was the lowest priced product, the Icy Hot Patch. It sold 9 units total, so if you divide 144 by 9 it took an average of 16 Store Days to sell each Patch.
Icy Hot does a lot of advertising so I was surprised at this modest sales number.
Second place went to the Omron $46 TENS unit which sold 6 units. 144 Store Days divided by 6 equals 24 Store Days per unit.
Third place went to the Omron $72 TENS product which sold 3 units. 144 Store Days divided by 3 equals 48 Store Days per unit.
I don't ever recall seeing an Omron ad but they have been around for 40 years and have a good reputation via their Home Blood Pressure products. They have sold over 200 million of them world wide.
The CVS Mini TENS sold 2 units and the Icy Hot Smart Relief sold 1 unit.
IMO this sales data is good news for the ActiPatch. People are not thrilled with TENS pain relief and the door is open for a new drug free pain relief device.
Lidocaine Patches, while not ingested are still drug based pain relief with the following possible side effects:
Asthenia, confusion, disorientation, dizziness, headache, hyperesthesia, hypoesthesia, lightheadedness, metallic taste, nausea, nervousness, pain exacerbated, paresthesia, somnolence, taste alteration, vomiting, visual disturbances such as blurred vision, flushing, tinnitus, and tremor.
Second place went to