

The internet has fundamentally shifted the course of how business is done – from retailers and groceries to pharmacies.
The gap between company and customer has shrunk to a seemingly non-existent distance. It is no longer a one-way channel. Customers can let the company know when they are happy with their products and services and when they are unhappy – and can tell them either publicly or privately.
Within the current business landscape, it is mandatory to have a digital store. Even if you have a physical store, you need an online equivalent.
The benefits are obvious – it gives your business a broader audience and as such a deeper potential customer pool, greater connection with customers, and ultimately drives revenue.
These benefits are true for pharmacies, too – even though there are greater and broader limitations and regulations involved compared to regular retailers.
Today we’ll focus on pharmacies with digital operations and look at some of the key features. No matter whether it’s a big pharma chain or an independent pharmacy, there is leverage to be had through tweaking an ecommerce platform and facilitating the growth of business.
With modern tech, customers are able to order medicine and prescription refills from their own homes – or any other place of convenience away from the physical pharmacy from their laptops or mobiles.
With a well-designed and well-functioning online drug store, pharmacies are able to improve their relationships with their customers as well as with their suppliers.
Increasingly, customers of pharmacies are coming to expect high-functioning ecommerce capabilities. Integrating new technologies into pharmacy businesses can help them stand out from its competitors. As consumers, we appreciate the ability to order medication at anytime from anywhere.
Also, ecommerce solutions fit for pharmacies can also help to reduce backorders by searching across multiple warehouses for products like medication.
But let’s look specifically at what pharmacies should provide in terms of digital features for their ecommerce website.
Pharma features
No matter whether your ecommerce website is hosted on WooCommerce or Salesforce Commerce Cloud, there is always room to elevate your online store with capabilities and features that fit the needs of your customers.
For digital pharmacies, have these features in mind when it comes to taking stock of your current setup and considering upgrades.
- Info updates & promos. It’s critical for any ecommerce store to consistently keep up to date with communicating the latest information to customers. This can include promotions, product availability, and recalls, but also information that is more specific to individual stores. Take, for example, that fact that many pharmacies offer discounts on cold medication during the winter months.
- Favorites. The ‘favorites’ feature is a key feature for all pharmacy websites that enable users to be able to quickly reorder their meds with little to no hassle.
- Online Prescriptions. Integrating an online prescription solution is an important step to improving the customer journey and helping them establish a reliable and resilient medication schedule.
- Mobile app. We, as customers, not only shop at our favorite stores both in person and online, but we also carry with us our favorite stores in our pockets like loyal followers. A mobile app accelerates the ordering process as well as bringing the company closer to the mind of the customer by having it displayed on their phone. Also, through an app, customers could be sent a push notification to remind them to take their medication. These types of value-added features can create a huge boost to customer loyalty.
PS: ArganoUV is one of the world’s leading pharmacy ecommerce agencies. Contact us to see how we can work together.