Online sales continue to grow and this is the ideal time for small pharmacies to invest in e-commerce. Data from the MCC-ENET index, developed through a partnership between Neotrust | The Buy & Trust Movement with the Metrics Committee of the Brazilian Chamber of the Digital Economy (camara-e.net), show an increase of 12.59% in the number of online sales in the first quarter of 2022 when compared to the same period of the year previous.
According to MyPharma's editor-in-chief, Jair Paulo Siqueira, the advantages of an e-commerce for small pharmacies are many, such as having more visibility, reaching more customers and expanding alternatives for accessing products and services.
"By adopting e-commerce sales, small pharmacies can offer useful information to users, such as informing about the rational use of medicines, for example. For this, it is necessary to develop an action plan and know the profiles of customers, such as access to technology and life habits,” he says.
To get to know this audience, Jair recommends field research. “If customers don't have internet access, the investment may not be worth it. In order not to invest in something that is not profitable, these small pharmacies need to know if e-commerce will reach the population”, he guarantees.
In this sense, anyone thinking of investing in this method needs to know the type of website they want to have. A static website, where the customer accesses a kind of "online catalog" of pharmacy options, for example, requires less investment, which fits into the budget of a small pharmacy that only aims at the digital presence. But if the website design encompasses online sales in an e-commerce format, in addition to the website being responsive, it also needs to provide fast and dynamic navigation, which can increase development costs.
Another important tip for anyone thinking of adopting an online sales system is to carry out a financial analysis of the implementation costs and the logistics involved, as each initiative requires specific costs. For this, it is necessary to assess whether the company has enough cash for the necessary subsidy.
Adapting sales to an e-commerce requires investment. Therefore, MyPharma emphasizes that it is important to maintain a physical store with the presence of a pharmacist during the period that this pharmacy is open for public service, that it is necessary to comply with some established health standards and that not all medicines can be sold online.
MyPharma
MyPharma is an example of e-commerce. The online sales platform for pharmaceutical products is the largest in Brazil, with a customer base of 600 pharmacies throughout the country — which means more than 20% market share in the sector.
In addition, the platform integrates with customer inventories and the inventory base, which allows managing more than 40,000 products, including medicines and perfumery, duly cataloged with an image, name and description.
"Our tool is 100% adaptable to the customer's needs, including the means of payment that this pharmacy makes available, all of this to facilitate the customer's shopping journey and store inventory management", concludes Jair.
