The advent of the internet and, above all, electronic commerce is not fashionable, nor is it crawling. Presently, a whopping of people around the world already research prices online even before going to a physical store. This is not in any way different among many in Bangladesh. In the area of pharmacies and drugstores, it is no different too, as many pharmacies are already losing space for underestimating the internet and online medical store in Bangladesh.
In most cases, a reasonable number of these pharmacies are skeptical of the possibility of running an online pharmacy in Bangladesh, either because of the nature of the services rendered by the sector or because of the dangers it might impose on both the sector as well as patients. However, the levels of organizational involvement, methods of operation, and technological facilities offered by the internet have, no doubt, accelerated the pace of online pharmacy in Bangladesh.
Hence, it is worth knowing that the cost of opening new physical stores is much higher with fewer potentials than growing an online medicine store in Bangladesh. Hence, care is needed, as taking a step higher than the leg when setting up e-commerce for pharmacy, can turn your pharmacy into real chaos.
How to Set Up a Feasible Online Pharmacy in Bangladesh
Presently, the online medicine store in Bangladesh is increasingly competitive. For this reason, companies from different regions of the country are now migrating to digital platforms, intending to expand their communication and sales channels. In other words, online pharmacy in Bangladesh is already considered an important part of the pharmacy’s income, but, as mentioned above, it deserves special care and attention.
Therefore, to achieve the best out of an online pharmacy in Bangladesh, before opening an online pharmacy store, it is essential to first set a feasible online business goal and be able to answer some questions like; Have you set your pharmacy growth goals? What do you expect for the next few months or the next few years?
Have your goals tied to concrete metrics, but not abstract metrics? For instance, instead of setting an abstract goal like, I want to open more stores, hire more employees, increase sales, decrease expenses, you rather set a goal that is tied to concrete metrics – I want to Increase pharmacy sales by 60%, Decrease expenses by 15%, Increase the profit margin by 10%, Increase the average ticket by 20%.
By defining concrete and realistic goals, you can be able to analyze where the online medicine strategy might lead your business to.
Mapping Out Risks and Opportunities Before Setting Up Online Pharmacy in Bangladesh
What are the risks when setting up a virtual store? What kind of structure will you need to assemble? What will you have to invest in?
Being a new concept that requires a lot of commitment to be successful, the online pharmacy in Bangladesh has been faced with a lot of challenges. Firstly, think of e-commerce with a wide range of deliveries, of which their costs are to be absorbed or added to every sale. Since the number of prescription drugs is usually low, little efficiency is possible for home deliveries. Besides, a large number of people obtain prescription drugs only when they become ill, and need medication right away. For this category of customers, an online pharmacy might not be totally efficient.
So, this requires a broad structure to scale and maintain quality of service. Even large pharmacy chains have difficulty with this type of operation.
For setting up an online pharmacy in Bangladesh, therefore, it is necessary to:
- Integrated logistical structure with couriers and carriers;
- Reverse logistic structures for returns;
- Planning to guard against tax and legal complexities related to deliveries outside your state;
- quick communication channels for easy communication with customers;
- Very high investment in digital marketing, in addition to giving up a good part of the profit margin, to compete in space and price with the big pharmacy e-commerces;
- Hire and train employees to meet the above demands.
Once you have a large capital saved and structure to take risks and operationalize all this, it may be worthwhile to set up an online pharmacy in Bangladesh, which is presently competitive.
We know, however, that this is not the reality of most pharmacies, as small and medium-sized pharmacies, including small chains, work hard to gain space in their neighborhoods and cities. Hence, this presents a better opportunity for small pharmaceutical stores that could not afford nationwide delivery to harness the potentials of online pharmacy in Bangladesh by limiting their services to a particular region or city. We firmly believe that this is the way.
