How to sell medicines online in India:
So let’s get you equipped with all you need to know about starting your own online pharmacy store:
Understand the laws of your country
According to the Indian laws here what is mandatory:
You must have a registered pharmacist on board.
You must have authentic and valid prescriptions for accepting orders.
All bills should be signed by a registered pharmacist.
Ensure you have a registered pharmacist overseeing all the orders before they get shipped.
Finally, the medicines should be sent from a chemist shop bearing a retail license.
Apart from this, there are additional business licenses you need to acquire to legally put up medicinal items for sale online.
Types of models
The industry currently works on 2 business models:
The first one operates just like a local pharmacy storing huge amounts of medicinal products to sell online. Once a customer orders a medicine with a valid prescription, the order is shipped to their doorstep.
In the second one, the online pharmacy store gets the order submitted with a valid prescription, sends it to the closest chemist store that matches the buyer’s address. The online pharmacy’s personnel fetches it from there and gets the delivery done.
Some online pharmacies send their personnel to the purchaser’s address in order to vet the prescriptions. After all, it’s safer to be sure than sorry
How you earn
Apart from the commissions, you earn from the price margins, setting up your own online pharmacy store allows you to welcome manufacture brands to have a share of the display space on your website. While you earn a tangible revenue from these display ads, you can also set up a blog space, another lucrative platform for big brands to showcase their newest products or supplements and harp on their benefits.
Value additions
Here’s a great advantage that you can bestow on your customers. In case they don’t have a valid prescription you can offer to set up an on-call appointment with a medical practitioner or a doctor evaluate their need and prescribe or vet the old prescription for free or a minimal charge. This will surely boost your revenue and create an unparalleled brand recall in their minds.
How To Sell Medicines Online?
How to sell medicines online?
Due to advancements in technology e-pharmacies are growing at a rapid pace. The already increasing e-pharmacy market is predicted to grow further by almost 5 times up to $ 128 billion by 2023. Due to these factors, This is the perfect time to join this revolution and start taking steps toward your online presence right now.
Moreover, the Heavy investment of tech giants like Facebook, Google, and Amazon in the pharma tech business prompts many people to wonder how they can sell medicines online.
Many people hesitate to sell medicines online not because they do not want to, but because they do not know about relevant rules and regulations, and how to set up their pharmacy shop online.
So, in this article, we will try to answer this particular question and also explain the importance of having a mobile app and website. And in the end, some tips that help you to grow your business are waiting for you.
This guide will enable you to understand the steps, and the sequence required when you are setting up an online pharmacy store.
1. Understand The Laws Governing Online Pharmacies
Owing to all these complexities, different countries already have set up laws and rules intended to control the sales of pharmaceutical items. However, they are solely focused on physical stores and not on online pharmacies. Thus, there are many gray areas in the laws of certain nations. Your premises should have to be approved by the local statutory body before you make the first sale.
2. Select And Secure Your Brand Name And The Domain Name
This is one thing you'll need to do as right on time as possible. If you've chosen a proprietary or partnership structure for your business, you'll have to independently register your brand name.
3. Decide The Structure Of Your Business And Get Licenses
If you are a registered medicine specialist, fantastic! If you aren't, you'll have to get one. The medicine specialist might be a paid representative, a business partner, or a board member. Look at the laws prevalent laws in the nation you will be working from, to see whether there is any limitation in regards to this.
4. Pick The Right Platform For Online Pharmacy Store
After you understand the regulations, it's an ideal opportunity to handle all the features on various technology platforms. Pick the best e-pharmacy platform for your online store.
5. Identify Suppliers and Delivery Partners
Since your online pharmacy store will sell sensitive products, medicated formulations, health supplements, and OTC medications - it's incredibly critical you select your suppliers and other partners responsibly.
6. Build up The Workflow And Systems For Your Online Pharmacy Store
One challenge that online pharmacy needs to overcome is how they will handle a medicine order and verify its legitimacy. While dispensing out medicines, you'll need a solid system set up to ensure there are no errors.
Now, you might have already seen how easy this process seems if you have the right planning and the correct agencies that can help you through the pharmacy website development and design.
Why Website is necessary?
One of the first steps you need to take is to contact pharma software providers. Having a working website means that you are ready to open the gates of your pharmacy to wider audiences. With the help of a website, you can take orders from the customers directly and deliver the medicines. However, with this, you need to ensure that it is an interactive and user-friendly website so that the prospective clients do have any problems finding the products that they desire. A good website ensures that your clients are happy with your service and increases their chances of coming back.
Why Mobile Application is necessary?
Smartphones have become the go-to platform for users to make orders. Low-cost internet data plans have enticed many people to come online. According to current statistics, 88% of internet users prefer using mobile apps to buy things. So, to capture the wider customer base, You need to have a pharmacy android as well as an iOS app.
How to increase sales?
Send Promotional offers:
After you have made apps and websites, you need them to stick to your platform. To achieve this, you can set up a refer and earn campaign where customers earn some wallet balance after a customer joins your platform by their referral. You can promote offers on social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, etc. Do not forget to send regular notifications, alerts offer to all your clients.
Online Marketing Strategies
It is evident that once you have the chemist app ready and the pharmacy e-commerce website running, you need to have proper online pharmacy marketing to make sure people know about your website and there is increased traffic to it. This is where a Pharma IT Company like EMedStore can help you out. It is a premier Healthcare IT company that not only helps you with your online medicinestore mobile app development but also gives you online pharmacy sales tips. Mere development of websites and apps will not reap the benefits of the expansion of your business. You also need to take all the efforts towards marketing it well. The recent market trends have pointed towards going online.
How to sell medicines online In India and set up an e-pharmacy
