Explain the three challenges pharmacies are about to face in 2021

The outbreak has changed the traditional way customers buy drugs and the habits of buying drugs, which has brought about a lot of changes in the pharmacy industry.
these changes are out of the control of pharmacies themselves, and even in a sense, pharmacies can only passively adapt to customers' adjustments to their own consumption.
enough to make these changes? What uncertainties and new challenges will we face in 2021? The author has been thinking about this issue recently, the following is my understanding of the three major problems facing pharmacies in the new year.
1, Challenge 1: In the face of channel differentiation, how to retain customers? According to the relevant statistics of Minet, in 2019 China's online pharmacy pharmaceutical retail sector of about 125.1 billion, accounting for nearly one-fifth of the overall sales of pharmacies.
Health disclosed in its prospecto that it had a turnover of 8.8 billion yuan in the first half of 2020.
e-commerce has become a force to be reckoned with in pharmaceutical retailing.
that online e-commerce sales will be the fourth terminal in the pharmaceutical retail industry.
shows that channel differentiation and diversity in the pharmaceutical retail industry are inevitable.
addition to e-commerce platform, there are supermarkets, post offices, Sinopec, Suning electrical appliances cross-border robbery tide! The rapid development of Internet healthcare and the electronic prescription flow it brings will also take away a big wave of traffic.
in the traditional pharmacy industry has increased year by year, and the proportion of prescription sales has increased in recent years, largely masking this fact.
In a sense, if you face a certain competition alone, pharmacies on the basis of a stable basic plate, is not afraid of such competition, and even competition will drive the development of the entire industry.
such as the O2O platform.
but the tiger can't stand the wolf, every competitor bites a piece on you, reaches the break-even point of the industry, you can't hold on.
is a major challenge for the pharmacy industry, a trend that is not stopping in 2021 and is likely to grow in size and scope.
2, Challenge 2: How to maintain gross margin in the face of medical reform? In addition to the diversification of pharmaceutical retailing, the pharmacy industry will continue to face pressure for pharmaceutical reform in the new year.
The good news is that the pressure from reforms such as volume sourcing is incidental to the pharmacy industry, with lower drug prices in the form of national procurement negotiations in preparation for the division of medicines, the biggest beneficiaries of which are pharmacies.
this benefit is the transfer of prescription outflows from hospital channels to pharmacy channels.
you don't benefit for no reason, because the price of these drugs has come down.
The price of medical-related goods sold in pharmacies before you has also come down, this change also has an impact on the entire commodity system, there is no doubt that the price of drugs in the pharmacy industry will usher in the era of parity or even low prices, at least in most prescription drugs ushered in the era of low prices.
balance the decline in gross margins in the pharmacy system in the face of low prices? State negotiations on volume procurement are not over, and more batches will be included in the low-cost system in the future.
on this trend, if health insurance stores continue to decline, how will pharmacies maintain the current gross margin system? That's not counting the competitive pressure e-commerce companies put on stores online through low-cost models.
The author said above that e-commerce hundreds of billions of pharmaceutical sales, the vast majority are from pharmacy sales of non-drug shares, that is to say, e-commerce has occupied the pharmaceutical retail highlands in non-drug sales, the next impact is the drug category! In 2021, the pharmacy industry is facing a reduction in gross margin, how to build a commodity system to maintain gross margin? 3, Challenge 3: In the face of the Internet offensive, how to maintain the independent development of the industry? The Internet's competitive offensive against traditional pharmacies is manifested in the following areas.
is e-commerce retailing, which competes head-on through online pharmacies in the form of its own or third store.
e-commerce companies to lock in online pharmacies and customers by attracting customers online through their own subsidies, logistics and big data advantages.
2 is through the O2O e-commerce platform, the offline drugstore flow to the line, while through subsidies and other means to high-frequency platform merchandise sales conversion and lock traffic, and ultimately let offline stores become their storage or distribution point.
3 is to open their own large pharmacies to empower, Internet cooperation to join and other ways to expand the traditional channels, through the channel distribution of the way with traditional pharmacies in the O2O platform competition, further increase the bargaining chips or partially replace the other side.
is that the above speed is too slow, through the capital injection and other models, increase the control of traditional pharmacies, for e-commerce system to build to provide offline control and voice.
5 is through the Internet medical model, through prescription flow, online sales of prescription drugs and other ways, and then the next step to seek online health insurance swipe card, comprehensive prescription transfer and other models, in the competition with pharmacies occupy a comprehensive active position.
the five trends listed above by the author may become more pronounced in the new year.
pharmacy industry in the face of competition in the Internet industry, whether to independently develop the Internet as a tool, or become a vassal, which is a huge challenge.
the three mountains in April and 2021, how will pharmacies face them? Facing three mountains, how do we deal with the surge in pressure on the pharmacy industry in 2021? First, for channel diversification, the pharmacy industry can do is to try to retain their customers.
to keep customers in the market is to sell the core part of the drug well.
good drug sales means to work professional and service.
According to the author's own guess, the trend of national medical reform requirements in fact is also this meaning, so that pharmacy transformation professional more professional, through professional services in chronic diseases, DTP and other special services to work hard, medicine after the pharmacy can assume the responsibility of prescription exoded channels.
another direction is to make the market more market-oriented.
through the transformation of pharmaceutical makeup shops, equipment stores, Chinese medicine museum and other market-oriented distinctive personality services, for a new track, the long board to do long.
second is against a decline in gross margins.
We have to look in two directions, if pharmacies adhere to health insurance-oriented, even in DTP, chronic disease and other directions, in the professional efforts, want to bear the future prescription outflow for the purpose of pharmacy development direction.
the future gross margin of this model will not only not rise, but may continue to decline.
because the purpose of the current medical reform is to reduce prices and increase efficiency.
specialized pharmacies face a decline in gross margins, the promotion model is to increase sales through more professional services, through the volume-for-price model.
according to current development, even if to undertake prescription outflow, pharmacy profits will not be too high, stores to survive, or through specialized services, through large-scale sales to obtain sufficient profits.
the development of market-oriented transformation pharmacies, through the Internet e-commerce, specialty store commodity system, new marketing model to open up passenger flow is a new way to grow gross profit.
wednesday is an ongoing offensive against the Internet, and pharmacies need to stay awake.
group heating will be the trend of the future.
In order to develop independently, the national chain has begun to lay out key areas, in the next year or two, the "four kings" as the representative of the big chain may have to break through 10,000 stores, down to the county-level market.
and regional small and medium-sized chains and monostores, in order to develop may be regional alliances as a link, in the operation, procurement and other aspects of group heating.
the Internet giants through industry or third-party Internet cooperation.
year may be the first year of the development of the pharmacy industry to build its own Internet e-commerce platform, especially the O2O platform, but also the pharmacy industry in the Internet e-commerce traffic competition, the key year for Internet autonomy! Pharmacy industry is a long-standing industry, in recent years because of a variety of subjective and objective factors caused a lot of development problems, especially the rapid development of Internet e-commerce, is to become the Pharmacy Industry under the Internet or to make pharmacies successful Internet is the focus of development.
is the question of whether the pharmacy industry can develop independently.
In the author's opinion, after the two sides in recent years saw, the pharmacy industry as long as in the development of the Internet to remain sober, integration rather than guidance, development rather than closed themselves, the goal of independent development of pharmacies is not difficult to achieve!