Uber for Pharmacy Delivery App: Start Your Own Medical Delivery Business

Want to take a leap into the world of entrepreneurship, but you also desire to serve the people better so that they can lead a happier healthier life? Setting up your own medical delivery business with a medical delivery app development on the way can give you a chance to fulfill both of these dreams of yours, where you will be able to not only fulfill your entrepreneurial dreams but also achieve the satisfaction of helping people lead a better and healthier life. The idea behind an online pharmacy is focused around the concept of offering a wide choice of non-prescription OTC (Over The Counter) drugs and medications, filling out prescriptions, delivering those drugs to patients on time, thus making their lives easier to a great deal.

And still, the concept of online pharmacy – also known as a distance-selling pharmacy – is largely an under-explored, surprisingly an underrated business even today. In 2016, prescription drugs to the tune of $158 billion were sold online in the USA alone. Compared to the entire pharmacy market, which is estimated at a little above $100 billion, the online sales stand at a mere 0.15% of the entire pharmacy business. This suggests huge untapped potential.

 Why the need for a medicine Delivery App?

The widespread application of eCommerce has benefited ePharmacy to attract a wide customer base both in the developed and developing countries. Based on the world population prospects, approx 2.05 billion people of the world population use eCommerce for the procurement of commodities out of 7.8 billion.

The number was 1.32 billion in 2014 and was foreseen to reach 2.14 billion by the year 2021. Moreover, there are a number of countries where 70 to 80% of internet users make purchases from online stores.

Online medicine delivery app is way more essential to ill patients and elderly citizens because it reduces their dependency on a third person. The app delivers the ordered medicine and healthcare supplies at customers’ doorstep with an online payment facility. A fresh example is the current situation of the world during the pandemic of Coronavirus.

Right now where people are lockdown into their houses and forbidden to come out to stop the spread of this COVID-19 virus, the government has allowed eCommerce to be active. So, during these days, people are ordering medicines, sanitizers, and other healthcare supplies on pharmacy delivery apps.

The increasing growth of the ePharmacy market and numbers of internet users, state that the demand for e-prescription technology and on-demand medicine delivery services are going to be high on the demand draft. Therefore, investing in a medicine delivery business can generate a huge profit in the future.

Even if there is a drug store nearby, there is little guarantee that all the medicines are available. What if this problem is eliminated by listing all the available drug stores in a common marketplace like the mobile app and buying medicine with just a tap on the mobile.

With ordering and delivery app for medicines, you no longer need to wait in the drugstore to buy medicine. This saves you time and money.

Benefit for pharmacists are...

Pharmacists who have a small outlet can improve their growth by listing their drug store in the medicine delivery app marketplace.

Now that you are aware of the online medicine market, let us get you to the point without further ado. So, all ears here!

The Business Model for the Medicine Delivery App Development

The premise sounds simple. Just like any other eCommerce business, you can sell products online – OTC and prescription drugs in this case – and make a profit.

Online pharmacy store business models are mostly classified into two categories, based on how they operate and make money.

The first kind is where the online pharmacy store itself stocks a huge number of medications. A customer-first submits a valid prescription for the medicines they wish to purchase. The online store confirms the availability of the items required and the customer makes the payment. The online pharmacy then ships the medicines to the customer.

The second kind is different in that they don’t stock the medicines themselves. Instead, they partner with local brick-and-mortar pharmacies. When the customer makes an online request the online pharmacy store checks which partner pharmacy is closest to the customer’s shipping address or can best deliver the order. They collect the payment, instruct the partner physically deliver the drugs, and share the revenue as per conditions agreed upon.

Startups are bringing in various changes to introduce in different levels of value additions. For instance, while online pharmacies require customers to submit the prescriptions online, some startups also arrange to have the prescription physically collected from the customer’s location. Apart from value addition, this method lets the pharmacy better verify the authenticity of the prescription.

Features of an Online Pharmacy Store

An online pharmacy, at the end of the day, is a commercial enterprise. That means it must have all the features that are common to the business.

The following features are the ones that are unique to online pharmacies.

Display clearly your must-have certifications

Firstly, you must build trust about your legitimacy. On your website, display all affiliations and licenses clearly so that first-time visitors can easily find them.

Show complete product information

Display as much information as is required and advisable. Customers, present and potential, should be able to spot products easily. Highlight all that information that is statutorily required as well as information you, as a pharmacist, belief should be shared with consumers of medical formulations.

Carry a customer credentials section

Customers base many decisions on genuine reviews. Place the reviews so newcomers can check out what kind of service you are offering.

Instill trust by safe payment features

Customers must feel completely safe when they may payments. Show prominently how your payment gateway is superior in terms of ease and safety.

Consider having an app

An online store can be wonderfully complemented by an app. Customers will find an app a lot easier to buy from. At some stage you’ll want an app, so why not earlier than later?

Highlight events

Part promotional, part social responsibility. You can have a section or run a banner dedicated to health-related events or articles. This can include schedules of vaccinations, notifications of flu in a particular area and so on.

Respect privacy

Your customers buy online because they want convenience. A number of them also seek privacy while buying from you. Make sure your systems are geared towards ensuring the privacy of your customers. This is not only ethically appropriate but also legally required.

Act responsibly and ethically

Respect the law of the land. Take every reasonable precaution that you’d take if you were a physical store.

Offer to stay connected

An online pharmacy can offer newsletters for better engagements. In return, it will connect email addresses to build a mailing list.

Essential Features of a Medicine Delivery App

The set of features is the frontline of any mobile application. At this point, you will know what features a medicine delivery app must have and some advanced features that can enhance your app functionality.

Features of the Customer Panel:

Registration

Users can create a new account with an email or they can use social media credentials to log in to the app.

Explore Medicines

There are thousands of medicine available in the app stock. Users can search and order the preferred medicines with just a few taps on the app.

Upload Prescription

Users can upload the prescription on the app so that they can order medicine in a better and the convenient way in the future also.

Add to Shopping Cart

Users can add the required medicines into the cart and can purchase them whenever they need it.

Chat with a Doctor

Users can discuss their health problems with the doctor or an expert directly from the in app communication feature.

News and Blogs

Users can view all the latest blogs and pharmacy-related news, various articles and researches related to fitness trends.

Track Order

Users can track the real-time location of the delivery executive. They can also check the order of status whether it is accepted or out for delivery.

Multiple Payment Options

Users can pay for their order by cash or by various integrated payment gateways like e-Wallet, Credit/Debit Card, etc.

Refund & Return Policy

Users can return the medicine if it is not appropriate for them and they can also ask for a refund.

Push Notification

Users are notified with their order status, trending fitness articles and latest discounts & offers by in-app notifications.

Loyalty Reward

The app allows users to earn loyalty and reward points by referring the app to friends and relatives.

Rate and Review

Users can rate the services of the pharmacy and the delivery executive for a better future experience.

Features of the Pharmacy Panel:

Registration

Similarly, like the user, the vendor can also register with an email id or social media credentials.

Maintain Information

The retailer maintains all its information as well as the user’s information to provide the best services to them.

Listing Products

The store manager lists the available products according to category and deletes the unavailable items from the list for better user flexibility.

Maintaining Product Details

The vendor manages all the information and details related to the product and its benefits.

Filtering Similar Products

The store displays related items based on the user’s search. This allows the user a better experience while shopping.

Managing Orders

The pharmacy manager can manage all the past and ongoing orders with the help of the medicine delivery app panel.

Maintaining Cost

The store owner manages and sets the price of the medicines according to market policies.

Providing Discounts

In order to keep your user engaged on your app, you can provide offers and discounts on medicines from time to time

Reviewing Users

Dealers can keep track of feedback on the customer, on delivery executive and even on the products that the customer has purchased.

Features of the Admin Panel:

Admin Dashboard

The admin manages all the pending requests, orders, customers, and the store details from the dashboard.

Promotional Tools

The admin controls all the marketing templates, advertisement and campaign activities from this section.

Controlling Payments

All the payments made by the users through COD or by the in-app payment methods are verified by the admin.

Maintaining Users and Dealers

All the registered users, pharmacy dealers, and manufacturers are managed by the admin.

Notifications

The admin notifies the users and the dealers with the latest updates and news related to the app with the notifications being received through SMS or email.

App Analysis

The admin keeps a real-time analysis of the app by maintaining reports about total orders received, user feedbacks and, retention rates for managing the growth of the app.

Value-Added Features

Apart from the above-mentioned features, there are some other features that you can integrate into your app to make it more interactive and user-friendly. So binding your app with these features is surely beneficial for your business.

In-App Camera

Using the phone camera to take a picture of a prescription and then later upload it from your phone gallery is a tricky cumbersome task. The in-app camera feature will help users to directly upload the picture of the prescription in an easy manner.

Multilingual

The users of the app will be from every corner of the globe. So you should integrate a multi-language feature in your app, to achieve flexibility. This can be achieved by allowing users to choose their preferred language to use the app.

CMS

Editing or managing the content of the website is quite exhausting. An adaptable CMS or Content Management System will help the admin in maintaining and managing the content of the website and the app.

CRM

In order to keep your app users engaged, it is important to have a good relationship with all your users. A CRM or Customer Relations Management system helps you in keeping a long relationship with users and customers of the app.

Chabot

Sometimes users are not able to understand some features. In this instance, users can get answers for all of their queries and FAQs from the Chabot.

Smart Searching

This feature helps users to search for nearby pharmacies, diagnosis centers, and medical shops easily. Users can also search the preferred medicines by directly entering the name of the medicine.

User-Friendly

Integrating the app with the latest features makes it more flexible and user-friendly. This will help users to easily order their preferred medications.

Lab Aggregation

With this feature, users can easily search the nearby diagnosis centers for various categories such as a blood test, full-body checkups, regular checkups, and many more. The user will also be able to get the approximate fee for a particular checkup.

Reminder

The most beneficial feature of these apps is for aged patients. They can set a reminder in the app and the app will remind them when they have to take their medicine.

How does the application work for customers?

For using the app, here are the steps you should give a quick view about, to users to follow:

• Download the app and register yourself first. Users can register themselves in the app that is free of cost. They will have to enter their details such as contact number, email address, and come up with a unique password. Once they have completed the registration process, they will have to log into the app using the same email id and password.
• Create a profile by adding all the basic information that is required such ascontact number, name, addresses, etc. Also, mention all the details of the drugs that you consume every day. You will have to give access to the pharmacies, so that the doctors can review the prescriptions. They will then deliver them as per the dose that they want as committed.
•  Submit the doctor’s prescription by uploading the document online. Doctors can easily connect with their patients using the app in real-time with the data that they can get from the prescriptions uploaded by you.
•  Choose the drugs as per the prescription and order them online.
• You can also choose to cancel the order if you don’t need them.
• Once you have selected the drugs, you can add to the cart to complete the Booking.
• You can complete the payment by choosing your preferred payment methods to get the drugs delivered at your doorstep.

In the case, if you are confused, you can get in touch with our expert nutritionists or doctors to discuss further the medicine, and then place your order. Using the online map feature, they can find nearby pharmacies and visit the medical store personally. This will help you during emergencies to fetch medicines immediately. With an intuitive feature, users can get a reminder for their medicine time.

When it comes to health-related data, you have to ensure that the data never gets manipulated. And hence, the app features have a two-factor authorization security protection option for all the user accounts. Moreover, you can keep your data encrypted, so that any third-person can not use the data for their benefits.

 How does the application work for administrators?

For all administrators, they will have to follow the below steps:

Dashboard – The admin will have to verify the requests that customers are placing and for that, he or she can easily find it on the dashboard. Once he or she has registered, he/she can see the requests from customers on the dashboard.

Tools – Admins will get access to marketing tools like banners, posters, etc. They will have to provide the same to the owners who are requesting it.

Manage Payments – Admins will have to manage various payment modes that are made by the customers and clients. Moreover, they can also save the list for all the clients.

Team Structure and Technology Stack for the Medicine Delivery App Development

Selecting an eligible firm for the development of your app is a quite difficult task. You must choose a company that has previously worked on these projects and that can understand your requirements easily. For developing a robust Medicine Delivery Application, choose a company with a team of experienced and skilled developers.

Here is a list of most prominent members required for developing an on-demand medicine delivery app.

• Project Developer
• Android Developer
• iOS developer
• UI/UX Designer
• Backend Developer
• Tester

Various technologies have been introduced in the market. So sometimes it’s difficult to choose the right technology stack. We have come up with the best technology stack you can use to develop a robust and interactive Medicine Delivery App with the most advanced features.

For Front End Development: Swift, Java, CSS, Bootstrap

For Backend Development: JavaScript, Ruby, Angular JS, Python

• Twilio, Push.io - Push Notifications
• Nexmo, Twilio - SMS and Phone Verification
• Braintree, Paypal, e-Wallets - Payments
• MongoDB, Postgress,  Cassandra - Database
• AWS, Google, Azure - Cloud
• Hadoop, Cisco, IBM, Big Data - Real-Time Analytics

Let's Do The Cost Estimation! 

After the technology stack has been confirmed, comes the cost estimation part. Calculating the exact cost of developing an On-Demand medicine delivery mobile app is not an easy task. As the cost depends on various factors like features, platform, functionality, complexity and many other dependencies, An app with basic features will cost you less, but an app with most advanced features will probably cost you significantly more.

To know more about these factors in detail that can give you a fair idea on the complete cost estimation of Bus Booking app development, please go through our blog, 

How Much Does An APP DEVELOPMENT COSTS? LET’S ESTIMATE!

Are you ready to Kick Start Your Entrepreneurial Dreams with Your Own Uber for Pharmacy App?

We have reached the very end of this lengthy discussion of developing a robust Medicine Delivery App. The era for the flourishing of the ecommerce industry has entered a new phase with medicine delivery apps paving the way and we with our expert team of designers and developers are here to guide you every step along the way and deliver you the app of your dreams. 

Want to create an app just like 1mg or Medplus? Get your Quote and Lets jump start brainstorming!