E-Pharmacy vs offline pharmacy, Which segment to invest in?
This global pandemic has made us realise that the internet is a boon to mankind. Almost 85% of the work can be done through the internet. So now the question arises that should healthcare products adopt this stream. As everything has some positive as well as negative points. So E-pharmacy has some points to attract business owners as well as customers but also it falls short in some strands in comparison to offline pharmacy. So tallying between these two will result in adopting whichever is possible according to personal situations and preference.
What E- pharma can provide better?
Confidentiality -
In offline pharmacy, you need to disclose your identity in order to talk to the doctor and some shy people become awkward when sharing some personal problems. In E-pharma you can talk to the doctor remaining anonymous. That provides comfort to some kind of people to share their issues more frankly.
Cheaper-
Online pharmacy in India is cheaper than offline. This attracts more of the customers. On the other hand, E-pharmacy companies in India also earn more profit than offline. So online medicine stores in India have benefited both the customers and the business owners equally. In case of offline, the owner gets a 15-26% margin while online franchisors keep 40-50% margin. Even after giving 20-70% discount, they still make sure to keep more than 15% of margin which is fair enough.
Expand consultation-
The most positive point about E-pharmacy is its expansion of consultancy. You don't have to wait in a long queue in order to meet the doctor or a pharmacist. Besides, you can talk to the doctor any time you need 24×7, you don't have to fix it only in the business hours. So that gives convenience to the customers in order to face towards buying healthcare products online.
Regulations-
As per E-pharmacy rules, every Online pharmacy company gets registered. This creates trustworthiness and confers the genuinity of the company. They remain abided by the rules and regulations as per the authority.
What offline pharmacy provides better?
Apart from all the good points mentioned above about E-pharmacy, it has less consumer acceptance because of late delivery. Consumers need medicines and healthcare products as soon as possible, that's why they rely more on local medicine stores. But even in case of best online medical stores in India, it will take 2-3 days depending upon the address which is not preferable by the customers. So in spite of all the positive aspects of E-pharmacy, people still go with offline medicine stores.
Conclusion-
Customers have already accepted the offline version, so E-pharma owners have to invest in innovative marketing. If you want to invest in offline pharmacy, you will definitely have less stress but if you will invest in E-pharmacy, you should think of innovative ideas to market yourself. Moreover, E-pharmacy has started gaining acceptance of customers but investing in this requires skill sets and innovative ideas.