# Pharmacy display ideas for brands, from the counter to the shelf and the window > A pharmacy gives your brand three places, the counter, the shelf and the window, and one question comes first, what you sell. Which piece goes where, and what the rules say. By Arturo Martínez Bellot (https://www.linkedin.com/in/arturo-martinez-bellot/) · Published 2026-10-17 · https://bellto.ai/blog/pharmacy-display-ideas **The short answer.** POP in a pharmacy is split across three places. Small pieces fit on the counter, like a counter tray or a counter display. Shelf pieces go on the shelf, like a shelf frame, a wobbler or a shelf edge strip. And the window takes the pieces seen from the street, like a giant floor replica. The product decides before the place does, because a prescription medicine cannot be advertised to the public and a non-prescription one comes with its own rules. I have been in the POP business for close to 4 years, and the pharmacy is the channel where the most gets decided before anyone draws anything. Space is tight, each pharmacy gives you its own share, and the rules change with what you sell. This guide is for the brand or the lab taking its POP into pharmacies, place by place and piece by piece. Bellto is an AI agent that designs your brand's POP. Every example here was designed by Bellto for Solvera, a fictional pharmacy sunscreen brand I use on this blog, in a different campaign from the [summer launch case](https://bellto.ai/blog/sunscreen-display-ideas-pharmacy). ## Three places, and each pharmacy gives you its own A pharmacy has three places where a brand can put POP, and a fourth when there is floor space. Before choosing pieces, it helps to know how the channel is split. The figures below are from Spain, where I work. - **22,273** pharmacies in Spain on December 31, 2025 - **2,206** residents per pharmacy, on average - **86.9%** of pharmacies with a single owner All three come from the General Council of Official Colleges of Pharmacists, and for POP the last one matters most. Nearly nine in ten pharmacies have a single owner, and each one decides what it gives a brand. A pharmacy campaign rarely gets the same space in every store, so the brief has to say what each group of pharmacies gives you. | Place | What fits | What it does | | ------------------------- | --------------------------------------------------- | -------------------------------------------------- | | Counter | counter display, counter tray, showcard | keeps the product in sight while people wait and pay | | Shelf | shelf edge strip, wobbler, shelf frame, banner strip | makes the brand stand out within its category | | Window | giant floor replica, plinth, vinyl on the glass | works for people who have not walked in yet | | Floor, where there is room | floor display | holds stock near the entrance | In the Solvera campaign in this post, the counter and the shelf go to all 300 pharmacies and the window to 40. In its summer case, the floor display went to 60 out of 300. Sending a large piece to a pharmacy with no room for it means it sits in the stockroom. ## Before the place, the product Medicines, cosmetics and food supplements share the same pharmacy, and the advertising of each follows a different rule. It is the first thing I look at in a pharmacy brief, because it decides what the piece can say and, sometimes, whether it can exist. | Product | POP aimed at the public | What it has to meet | | --------------------------------------------- | ---------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ | | Prescription or publicly funded medicine | No | it cannot be advertised to the public | | Non-prescription medicine, not publicly funded | Yes, with no prior authorization | make clear it is a medicine, invite people to read the leaflet and recommend asking the pharmacist, with no gifts, prizes or contests | | Cosmetic, sunscreen included in the EU | Yes | never claim characteristics or functions it does not have | | Food supplement | Yes | its health claims follow the EU regulation in advertising too | The first two rows come from Article 80 of Spain's consolidated law on medicines and medical devices. A medicine can only be advertised to the public if it meets three conditions at once. It is not paid for with public funds, it is meant to be used without a doctor diagnosing, prescribing or monitoring the treatment, and it is not a psychotropic or narcotic substance. The same law ties non-prescription medicines to being dispensed in the pharmacy by a pharmacist, who informs and advises. So before you design anything, ask the pharmacy where it keeps your product. If it sits behind the counter, the piece has to sell without the shopper picking it up, and a showcard or a poster does that job. Cosmetics fall under Regulation (EC) No 1223/2009. Its Article 20 bars any claim of characteristics or functions a product does not have, in labeling, in making it available and in advertising, and sunscreen falls under it because in the EU it is a cosmetic. Food supplements carry their claims under Regulation (EC) No 1924/2006, which also applies to advertising. **Watch out.** Some words have no place on sunscreen POP. A 2006 European Commission recommendation asks brands not to claim 100% protection, “sunblock” or “total protection,” and not to say the product never needs reapplying. In the US, the same sunscreen is a different product. The FDA regulates it as an OTC drug, and its labeling rule treats “sunblock,” “sweatproof” and “waterproof” as false or misleading. The rules set the frame, and the final copy of each piece gets signed off by the brand's regulatory team before it goes to print. What saves rounds is a brief that says it from the start, with the product type, the claims already approved and what cannot be said. ## A Solvera campaign for all three places To show the pieces, here is Solvera's brief. It belongs to a sunscreen brand that wants to sell outside summer, with different space in each pharmacy. **Brief · Solvera (fictional brand)** - Product: SPF 50+ facial sunscreen, 50 ml - Channel: pharmacy - Stores: about 300 pharmacies in Spain - Dates: October to March - Space: counter and facial skincare shelf in all of them, plus the window for four weeks in about 40 - Material: acrylic on the counter, board on the shelf and in the window - Artwork: the brand's coral and white, with the line “Todo el año” (all year round) - Logistics: one shipment per pharmacy, placed by the pharmacy's own staff The goal is to get the facial sunscreen bought in winter, and that calls for being in all three places at once. All 300 pharmacies get a counter piece and a shelf piece, and only the 40 that give up their window get the big piece. Since Solvera is a cosmetic, the artwork can say “Todo el año” and SPF 50+, and it leaves out any claim of total protection. The material follows the life of each piece. The tray spends six months by the register, where shoppers handle it every day, so it is acrylic, the usual material for countertop pieces in pharmacies. The shelf frame only rests on the shelf edge and the replica stays four weeks in the window, so both are board. ## The counter, the smallest place The counter is the most fought-over spot in a pharmacy. It is the last thing a shopper sees before paying and the surface the pharmacist needs clear to work, so the piece has to take little room and show the whole product. ![Solvera clear acrylic counter tray with a coral front showing the logo and Todo el año, holding eight facial sunscreen tubes](https://bellto.ai/blog-media/plv-farmacia/bandeja.webp) *The acrylic tray, with its coral front and eight facial tubes in two rows. · AI-generated image made with Bellto · fictional brand* For Solvera, I would take this tray. It is low, in clear acrylic, with a coral front carrying the logo and “Todo el año.” The eight tubes stand in two rows and look exactly like the real ones, with their coral cap, their band and their SPF 50+. Being clear, it lets the counter show through and hides nothing behind it. **Solvera counter tray** - Material: acrylic - Product: eight 50 ml facial tubes, in two rows - Where: on the counter, by the register - Quantity: 300, one per pharmacy - Setup: placed by the pharmacy's staff The tray is one of three counter pieces. A counter display, like the one in the summer case, stands taller and carries a header. A showcard is a card with a fold-out back stand that holds no product, and it is the piece that fits when the product sits behind the counter. ## The shelf, inside the category On the skincare shelf, your brand shares space with everyone else in its category. There, POP works up close, and its job is to make your section read as one. ![Solvera white and coral shelf frame with the logo and Todo el año on the top bar, around one shelf of facial sunscreen tubes](https://bellto.ai/blog-media/plv-farmacia/marco.webp) *The shelf frame surrounds only Solvera's shelf, with the logo and “Todo el año” on top. · AI-generated image made with Bellto · fictional brand* A shelf frame goes around the product on a single shelf, with a bar on the edge, two side uprights and a bar on top. Solvera's carries the logo and “Todo el año” on the top bar and the coral of the tube on the bottom one. A row of identical tubes reads as one block, and the rest of the shelf stays outside. **Solvera shelf frame** - Material: board - Where: around the row of facial tubes on one shelf only - Quantity: 300, one per pharmacy - Setup: resting on the shelf edge - What it does: makes Solvera read as one block within facial skincare The other shelf pieces, the shelf edge strip, the banner strip and the wobbler, and when to order each one, are in the [shelf POP guide](https://bellto.ai/blog/shelf-strips-retail-pop). In the summer case, a wobbler and a shelf strip did that job on the sun care shelf. ## The window, the piece seen from the street The window is the only place in a pharmacy that works for people who have not walked in yet, and it changes with the season. A brand holds it for a few weeks, and for that time it is the brand's poster on the street. ![Pharmacy window with cut-out teeth and mouths stuck to the glass, a poster about sensitive teeth and boxes of mouthwash and toothpaste behind](https://bellto.ai/blog-media/plv-farmacia/escaparate-dental.webp) *A pharmacy window dressed for a dental care campaign, with teeth and mouths on the glass, a poster and the product behind. · Photo: Tauralbus · [CC BY 2.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/) · https://www.flickr.com/photos/25507134@N00/15023683156* In the photo, a dental care campaign takes the whole window. There are cut-out teeth and mouths on the glass, a poster on the left and the product behind, on a white stand. All of it reads from the sidewalk. For Solvera, the window piece is a giant floor replica, an oversized copy of the facial tube that holds no product and only communicates. Bellto came back with two versions. ![Solvera giant floor replica, an oversized SPF 50+ facial sunscreen tube standing on its cap on a white base](https://bellto.ai/blog-media/plv-farmacia/ficticio.webp) *Three-dimensional. A giant three-dimensional tube, standing on its cap. · AI-generated image made with Bellto · fictional brand* ![Solvera flat giant floor replica, a board cut-out of the facial tube with a back stand and a coral base reading Todo el año](https://bellto.ai/blog-media/plv-farmacia/ficticio-plano.webp) *Flat. A board cut-out with a back stand and “Todo el año” on the base. · AI-generated image made with Bellto · fictional brand* The three-dimensional one reads from any angle. The flat one is a board cut-out with a stand behind it, and it ships folded. For four weeks in 40 windows I would take the three-dimensional one, because from the street it reads as the same tube the shopper will find inside. The next step is to see it where it will stand. ![Solvera giant floor replica on a white background](https://bellto.ai/blog-media/plv-farmacia/ficticio.webp) *Before · AI-generated image made with Bellto · fictional brand* ![The same Solvera giant floor replica in a pharmacy window, seen from the sidewalk](https://bellto.ai/blog-media/plv-farmacia/ficticio-escaparate.webp) *After. I asked Bellto to “put it in a pharmacy window, seen from the sidewalk.” · AI-generated image made with Bellto · fictional brand* Bellto applies the change to the version you picked and leaves the rest as it was. The tube is the same, with its cap, its band and its copy, and what changes is the setting. With that image, whoever decides at the brand sees the window before 40 pieces get made. [Bellto designs this piece with you from your brief.](https://bellto.ai/#acceso) **Solvera giant floor replica** - Material: board - Where: in the window, facing the street - Quantity: 40, one per pharmacy that gives up its window - Setup: placed by the pharmacy's staff - What it does: makes the facial tube recognizable from the sidewalk ## How to order POP for a pharmacy campaign A pharmacy campaign goes to hundreds of small stores, each with its own space, and it also goes through regulatory review. Every missing detail gets multiplied by every pharmacy. This is what the brief has to carry. - The product type, non-prescription medicine, cosmetic or supplement, and the claims already approved - How many pharmacies and what each group gives you, counter, shelf, window or floor - Where the product sits inside the pharmacy, on the shelf or behind the counter - The counter and window sizes, if you have them - How many units of each piece, better as a range than as one number - Who places the pieces, and when - The artwork, with the logo, the colors and the message of each piece - The date it goes into pharmacies and the date it comes out With that information, a manufacturer can quote without coming back to you, and regulatory reviews the copy once, on the pieces that will actually get made. ## What Bellto does with pharmacy POP Bellto knows more than 55 point of sale materials by name. Ask for a counter tray, a shelf frame or a giant floor replica, whatever your team calls it, and Bellto knows which piece it is, where it goes and how it is held. With the campaign's shared brief, it creates every piece with your product, every piece has its own spec sheet, and every version stays saved in its piece, ready to compare. Once you pick a version, Bellto splits the piece's artwork into its panels, in 4K, so your team reviews it next to the concept. That is the moment for regulatory to read every line of copy. Once you approve it, Bellto exports it as vectors in PNG, SVG, PDF or EPS. Then it generates the 3D model of the chosen version and recommends manufacturers for each piece from the more than 300 in its directory, with the reason for each one. The job only reaches the ones you pick, and the quote comes from the manufacturer. [Bellto designs this piece with you from your brief.](https://bellto.ai/#acceso) I am building Bellto now. The waitlist is open to any brand, and I will soon start the first real campaigns with brands on the list, from start to finish. It opens by invitation, in small groups, with no card required. **Sources** - [Royal Legislative Decree 1/2015, consolidated law on guarantees and rational use of medicines and medical devices, Articles 19 and 80 (BOE, in Spanish)](https://www.boe.es/buscar/act.php?id=BOE-A-2015-8343) - [Regulation (EC) No 1223/2009 on cosmetic products, Article 20 (EUR-Lex)](https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX:32009R1223) - [Commission Recommendation 2006/647/EC on the efficacy of sunscreen products and the claims made relating thereto (EUR-Lex)](https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX:32006H0647) - [Regulation (EC) No 1924/2006 on nutrition and health claims made on foods, Article 1 (EUR-Lex)](https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX:32006R1924) - [FDA, Sunscreen: How to Help Protect Your Skin from the Sun](https://www.fda.gov/drugs/understanding-over-counter-medicines/sunscreen-how-help-protect-your-skin-sun) - [21 CFR 201.327, labeling of over-the-counter sunscreen drug products (eCFR)](https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-21/part-201/section-201.327) - [General Council of Official Colleges of Pharmacists, 2025 statistics on pharmacists and community pharmacies (PDF, in Spanish)](https://www.farmaceuticos.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/2025-Estadisticas-Colegiados-Farmacias_version-corta-11062026.pdf) ## Frequently asked questions ### What POP can a brand put in a pharmacy? It depends on the place and the product. Small pieces fit on the counter, like a counter tray or a counter display. Shelf pieces go on the shelf, like a shelf frame, a wobbler or a shelf edge strip. And the window takes the pieces seen from the street, like a giant floor replica. Bellto, an AI agent that designs your brand's POP, creates them with your product. ### Can you run POP for a medicine in a pharmacy? In Spain, for a non-prescription medicine that is not publicly funded, yes, and with no prior administrative authorization. The message has to make clear it is a medicine, invite shoppers to read the leaflet and recommend asking the pharmacist, and it cannot carry gifts, prizes or contests. A prescription or publicly funded medicine cannot be advertised to the public. ### What can't sunscreen POP say? In the EU, sunscreen is a cosmetic, and its POP cannot claim functions it does not have. A European Commission recommendation also asks brands not to claim total protection or sunblock, or that the product never needs reapplying. In the US, the FDA regulates sunscreen as an OTC drug, and its labeling rule treats “sunblock,” “sweatproof” and “waterproof” as false or misleading. ### Who decides which POP goes into each pharmacy? The owner of each pharmacy. In Spain, 86.9% of the 22,273 pharmacies have a single owner, so each one decides what it gives a brand. That is why a pharmacy campaign brief says what each group of pharmacies gives you, not just how many there are.