Why Every Pharmacy Needs an E-Commerce Website

The Internet has drastically changed the way business is done. Companies in every sector can now easily communicate directly with their clients. Communication is real-time, seamless, efficient, and even enjoyable for the users.

The Internet isn’t just about communication, of course. Research done in 2017 showed that nearly 3 billion people use the Internet on a regular basis. It’s become a place where people talk with family, friends, brands, businesses, and more. People work and play online, and more and more, they buy online.

This means that e-commerce is more important than ever. A good e-commerce solution gives your business a wider audience, which means acquiring more leads, which ultimately leads to more sales. The current state of e-commerce technology means that it’s almost as fast as brick-and-mortar sales. You can fulfill orders and receive payment in real-time, almost as though a customer were in your store with cash in hand.

This article focuses on just one type of business: the pharmacy. We’ll show you how a pharmacy can use an e-commerce website to reach more clients and increase sales. No matter how large or small your pharmacy might be, there are real e-commerce solutions for you that will help you grow.

The pharmacy is a perfect fit for e-commerce. With modern technology, customers can order drugs and prescription refills from the comfort of their own homes, or even on the go using a mobile app on their phone or tablet. A well-designed online drugstore is an excellent way to improve relations not just with customers, but also with suppliers and retailers.

More and more, customers expect the kinds of features that e-commerce provides. Leveraging these new technologies in your pharmacy business may help you stand out from competitors. Modern buyers appreciate the ability to order medication at any time, even while brick-and-mortar drugstores are closed. An e-commerce solution for pharmacies will also reduce backorders by searching multiple warehouses for medication, and offer other benefits as well.

Online Drugstore Feature List

If you’d like to start the development of an online drugstore for your pharmacy business, be sure to include these important features.

You should also have a good idea of what your finished store will look like before going too far down the road of development. Your business might just need a one-page WordPress site with images of products. At the other end of the spectrum, you may want a custom solution with a shopping cart, different payment and shipping methods, and more.

• Favorites. A Favorites feature is crucial to nearly any pharmacy site, so users can quickly reorder their medications.

• Online prescriptions. Integrating an online prescription solution is an important step to smoothing the customer journey.

• Mobile app. Remember that today’s customers can carry their favorite stores in their pockets. A mobile app speeds the ordering process and does much more. For example, an app could send a push notification to remind the user to take their medication. This kind of value-added feature creates a huge boost in customer loyalty.
• Information updates and promotions. It’s crucial for any online store to regularly update with the latest information. This can include manufacturer promotions, availability, and recalls, but also information more specific to your store. For example, many pharmacies offer a discount on cold medication during the wintertime. A pharmacy’s e-commerce site could tie it to a useful article on how to avoid the flu. During the summer, a pharmacy could do something similar with advice on traveling, managing allergies, and avoiding sunburns.

Benefits of E-commerce for Pharmacies

E-commerce is the future of any retail business, and the pharmaceutical industry is no exception. This became even more evident during the COVID pandemic, when more customers used online pharmacies instead of visiting local drug stores and waiting in line.

Revenue in the online pharmacy sector is projected to reach $22.59 billion in 2022, which means that the pharmaceutical industry will continue to grow. Indeed, the launch of an online pharmacy is crucial because an e-commerce website indicates business reliability and serves as an efficient tool to keep pace with the competition. Using e-commerce provides the following benefits:

• Convenient prescription ordering. An e-commerce website offers high-level customer service to your clients and provides them with the option of ordering prescriptions online with just a few clicks. Unlike brick-and-mortar pharmacies, clients can use e-commerce websites at any time of day. Also, this option may be attractive for customers who live far away from traditional brick-and-mortar pharmacies and for elderly and disabled people who find it difficult to travel long distances.
• Privacy and confidentiality. Buying medications in brick-and-mortar drug stores may not be convenient for customers who have sensitive requests. Ordering online allows customers to avoid embarrassment, since they do not have to place their orders or voice their requests when other people are present.
• Customer engagement. When customers purchase medications online, they can review extensive information regarding their medications, including their benefits and side effects. In addition, e-pharmacies can publish content related to various illnesses on their websites and provide links to reputable medical resources and government agencies. This information facilitates decision-making and saves time, which attracts more clients to online pharmacies.
• Greater operational efficiency. An e-commerce website is not only a marketing tool but also an optimal solution for organizing your internal pharmacy operations because it allows you to manage your products in real time from a centralized location, build consistent supply chains, and reduce warehousing costs.

How Do You Build a Successful Pharmacy E-Commerce Website?

The process of developing an online pharmacy store consists of numerous steps. It starts with determining the structure for your business and getting licensed, so you will need to review the relevant laws for your country. Another crucial step in building an e-pharmacy is identifying suppliers and delivery partners. You should complete several steps to develop your online presence, including the following:

Conduct market research

This step is essential because the information you collect while conducting market research will influence your course of action and determine the prerequisites for your e-commerce website. Market research will help you determine the products you will sell and provide information about your target audience, such as demographics and shopping preferences, and your competitors, such as their marketing activities and brand representation.

Choose a domain name

The domain name is the first element of your website that catches the attention of potential clients. It should be brief and appealing, and it should represent the specifics of your pharmacy business. Ask the following questions when choosing a domain name for your e-pharmacy:

• Does this name convey my line of business?
• Can I easily market the name?
• Can I trademark the name?

Select the perfect e-commerce platform

Whether you sell products only online or both online and offline, the e-commerce platform is the backbone of your entire business because it facilitates commercial processes for selling online. You should consider the following factors when choosing an e-commerce platform for your pharmacy:

• Cost of ownership
• Ease of integration
• Headless commerce support
• Speed and scalability
• Store functionality and ease of use
• Security
• Gateway support for multiple payments
• Personalization capability

As an Magento Development Services company, we recommend using Magento, a leading e-commerce platform that provides a robust and efficient software foundation. Magento offers many customization capabilities to help you stand out from the crowd, and it is flexible enough to integrate with different third-party services. To learn more about the benefits of Magento for your e-commerce business, read this article.

Pick your e-commerce theme

An e-commerce theme is important to ensure an up-to-date user experience. The theme directly influences your website’s loading speed, usability, and general look and feel. The following signs indicate that an e-commerce theme may be right for your business:

• A responsive and mobile-friendly design
• Customizable design options
• A shopping cart with automatic updates
• Simple checkout
• Cross-selling and upselling features
• Customer support

Add your products

As previously mentioned, product descriptions are crucial for engaging and retaining customers. The more information your product descriptions provide, the better. However, you should avoid long sentences and complex phrases. In creating your product descriptions, you should consider the clientele for the products and include basic details.

Test and launch your e-commerce website

Before bringing your website to life, it is important to ensure that it works correctly. Make sure that your checkout function works by submitting a test order. It is also important to ensure that your e-pharmacy performs on mobile devices, buttons are easy to click, etc. Your final step before the launch of your website should include providing your contact information and configuring the store’s settings, such as its language and time zone.

Dinarys Case Study – ASBAM

We have a great deal of experience with e-commerce for all types of businesses. One of our most recent projects was the creation of a new e-commerce website for the online drugstore ASBAM. In addition to the basic design, we implemented custom features such as

• User accounts with contact information.

• Searching for products across multiple warehouses.

• Management of multiple shipping addresses.

If you’d like to see what Dinarys can do for your pharmacy business, please click to fill out a contact form. We can’t wait to speak with you!