Without any doubt, online pharmacy has transformed the entire pharmacy business. The prior reason behind the rise in ePharmacy adoption is that it comes up with a convenient, flexible, and affordable solution. That’s the reason, its market is skyrocketing right now in every corner of the world. In this article, we are going to know about how to start an online pharmacy that can perform over 2030.
As per Grand View Research, “The global ePharmacy market size was valued at USD 60.0 billion in 2022 and it is estimated to reach USD 249.9 billion in 2030”.
The numbers show that it’s not easy to enter this highly competitive market. Means, you must need to do something epic and unimaginable in order to not let your online pharmacy business sink just like Titanic.
So, in this blog, we are going to share some extraordinary business ideas that will help you gain a strong market presence that will perform beyond 2030.
But first, let’s understand the two aspects of starting an online pharmacy business
Many entrepreneurs have misconceptions about starting an online pharmacy.
They think that their work is finished after launching the mobile or web-based application. But in reality, the real game starts after the launch.
And if you want to beat the competition without any hassle, here is what you need to follow.
- Implement trending and futuristic features in the app
- Use powerful and growth-driven technologies in the back-office work
This is the ultimate strategy for any online pharmacy to thrive at a rapid pace.
Things to consider for starting an online pharmacy (Phase – 1)
You are shifting online.
Means, you first need to select whether you want to launch a web-based or mobile app, or both.
After that, you just need to follow the below steps.
- Define the product and services you want to offer
- Do the comprehensive competitive market analysis
- Know what your target market is
- Create a cost structure
- Pick the profitable business model
- Define technology needs for your ePharmacy app
- Select the futuristic and powerful tech stack
- Create an online store with the help of IT professionals
- Don’t avoid the compliance laws
- Launch the app in the market
- Promote your business online and acquire more customers
- Analyze the performance of the business and app
- Keep your bulls eyes open for customer feedback
- Improve the pharmacy app performance
Implement futuristic features in the app (Phase -2)
Now your pharmacy business is online. So, the next step is to attract more customers or consumers to your ePharmacy app.
To do so, you need to sell experience. Not just a product or service.
Means, you have to offer something that gives the customers ultimate transparency and top-level satisfaction without affecting the purchasing costs.
Here are some emerging features that you should consider when starting an online pharmacy business.
1. Make your online pharmacy a telepharmacy!
Just imagine the outcome and revenue when a patient or user can get medical assistance and medicines in the same place.
It is one of the market-dominating moves that has changed the way online pharmacy and the entire healthcare IT works.
Telepharmacy is the combination of telemedicine and pharmacy.
Means, a patient can connect with the virtual care provider and pharmacist for their query regarding medication and health via chat, video, or voice call while at the same time can order the medicine at their doorstep using the app.
This gives the patients a top-level care experience and satisfaction.
As a result, it improves the customer retention rate and has the potential to boost your word-mouth marketing strategies.
And if you still have doubt about how it enhances the care experience then let’s understand it with a simple example.
What would you choose if you were a consumer?
- Travel to a clinic and then order medicine as per the prescription from the app
- Connect with the virtual healthcare professionals and order the medicine from the same app
You got your answer!
2. Offer online prescription
This is another powerful online pharmacy app feature that is helping greatly to consumers.
Let’s understand with a simple example.
For many drugs, a prescription is needed. At that time, if your pharmacy app doesn’t have the online prescription feature, there is a high possibility that patients will avoid buying medicine from your app.
But why?
Patients have to visit the clinic or hospital for a prescription note in order to purchase medicines and because they already travel long distances, they will buy medicines from the physical store.
On the other hand, if you have an online prescription note feature, patients simply need to connect with the virtual care provider and get the prescription note in the form of PDF or images via SMS or email.
Now, the user just needs to submit the prescription note and can purchase the medicine as per their needs.
3. Prescription refill in just a few clicks
This feature offers the ultimate user experience to the customer.
As users have already purchased the medicine from your online pharmacy, now he or she just needs to click on the prescription refill for reordering medicines.
However, this feature is only workable if the patient or user has purchased a minimum of one time from your online pharmacy app.
Now, these are some important features you should never avoid if you are looking to start an online pharmacy.
And as we said earlier, creating an online market presence is not the only way to thrive.
Use powerful and data-driven technologies in the back-office (Phase-3)
If you want to perform beyond 2030, how you generate revenue is something that matters the most.
And saving unnecessary costs in your back-office work is also one type of revenue stream.
To do so, it is essential that you implement a robust and outcome-driven technology solution that not only saves your costs but also saves time which initially helps you find more profitable ways to generate revenue as an online pharmacy.
Explore the top technologies you must implement in your online pharmacy.
1. RPA (Robotic Process Automation)
The workload is higher in online pharmacies compared to physical pharmacies.
But why? Because they have –
-
- Larger customer base
- Need to serve patients from multiple locations
The business is 24/7 is open
However, it is not easy to manage a large customer base, especially when there is a lack of technology solutions.
And the pharmacy ecosystem means – workers need to deal with tedious and time-consuming computer-based repetitive tasks.
This directly impacts your operational time, efficiency, and costs. What’s more, that they need to perform everything adds an extra layer of manual errors.
On a crucial note, manual errors can result in a life-threatening situation and directly influence your overall revenue stream.
But with RPA, you can automate computer-based repetitive tasks as per your needs.
It comes up with the benefits like –
- Saves time and costs in the pharmacy ecosystem
- Lowers the chances of manual errors
- Eliminates the need for paperwork and manual data entry
- Ensures operational efficiency
Gives you a higher ROI
2. CRM (Customer Relationship Management)
CRM is one of the most critical factors for not just online pharmacies but physical pharmacy stores too.
It allows you to understand your customers’ requirements closely.
As your pharmacy is now performing on an online platform, it is important to collect and manage all the patients’ information in order to make a customer-centric business decision and provide a more personalized experience.
Here is how CRM software or solution can help you elevate your online pharmacy business efficiently and effectively.
- Store customer information
- Identify sales opportunities using large-scale data
- Make data-driven marketing decisions
- Analyze what customers are saying about the services and find ways to fix or improve them
But what was the outcome of CRM in online pharmacies?
- Allows to provide customer-centric services
- Increases sales
- Improves the customer experience and retention
- Make data-driven decisions
- Centralized information that reduces the efforts of the operations manager
- Sales forecasting to make more effective decisions
Streamlines the communication methods with the customers
3. Supply chain management software
A traditional supply chain approach gives you no real-time visibility of your products.
Furthermore, you also need to do everything manually on paperwork which increases the chances of errors and time.
Means, the traditional supply chain management is full of chaos and if you are stuck there, the possibility is higher of providing the right supply to the right user in a given time.
This not only impacts the revenue but also gives poor customer satisfaction.
But with supply chain management software, you can easily avoid all this mess with ease.
It allows the inventory manager to get a real-time status of the supply along with can automate some of the repetitive tasks which initially reduce operation costs and time.
So, these are 3 technologies that can help you cut down unnecessary costs which you can use in attracting more customers and improving the performance of your online pharmacy app.
Apart from that, here are some other technologies that you can also implement in your back-office work.
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- Automated Dispensing Cabinets
- Prescription Drug Monitoring Program
- Medication Therapy Management
To sum it up
The first impression is the last impression!
So, if you want to start an online pharmacy then it is essential to first focus on the pharmacy app development.
Then after, you just need to focus on improving the customer experience which will directly help you in creating a strong buzz in the market!
And remember, never stop upgrading your online pharmacy because improving the business as per the time and customer response is one of the best ways to perform in a competitive market.