Offline pharmacies and online sales platforms "love and kill each other", the three major trends of medical e-commerce are pre-judged!

According to relevant data, the sales of retail terminals (including e-commerce) in 2020 will be 433 billion yuan, accounting for about 26%
.

With the exploration of prescription outflow in various places and the improvement of prescription drug carrying capacity in out-of-hospital channels, if the proportion of prescription outflow in the next five years reaches 10% to 20%, the transfer of retail terminal drug sales will increase by 150 billion to 300 billion yuan.

.

The author believes that the industry’s incremental market is sufficient for pharmaceutical e-commerce and chain pharmacies to enjoy industry dividends as a whole
.

So, what is the status quo of "love and kill" between pharmacies and online sales platforms? What are the future trends? What are the key points to pay attention to in pharmacy marketing?

The fading boundary between online and offline

From the perspective of national policies, offline pharmacies currently occupy the two main advantages of prescription and medical insurance
.

Category structure

Offline pharmacies and DTP pharmacies are based on special drugs for chronic diseases, common diseases and tumors.
They are highly professional and need to accept strong policy supervision and be equipped with professional pharmacy services
.

In online e-commerce, devices, family planning, health care, and OTC commonly used drugs account for a large share.
These products are more used for patient health management and care, and are biased towards consumer goods
.

But at the same time, pharmaceutical e-commerce is expanding into chronic diseases, long-term medications and new specialty drugs
.

Consumer groups

The majority of people who buy drugs offline are senior citizens and silver-haired people over 40 years old, accounting for nearly 60%; while those under the age of 45 who buy drugs from medical e-commerce companies account for more than 90%
.

However, as each business progresses, the boundaries will gradually blur
.

Consumer demand

The online category is comprehensive, convenient, and there is a lot of room for independent choice, and most of the drug purchase scenarios on the pharmaceutical e-commerce platform require consumers to have clear product and brand requirements
.

In order to meet policies and consumer needs, offline retail pharmacies, especially DTP pharmacies, are equipped with corresponding licensed pharmacists or pharmaceutical service personnel
.

Key points of countermeasure marketing for retail pharmacies

1.
Diversity

With the implementation of the new medical reform, the gross profit of national essential drugs and medical insurance drugs has decreased, and the profit level of related products in retail pharmacies has further decreased
.

Retail pharmacies should expand the categories of medical equipment, health care products, and cosmeceuticals based on the concept of big health
.
Retail pharmacies can rationally match product combinations according to the characteristics of different products, consumer purchase frequency and gross profit, and enrich the variety of products
.
The realization of diversified operations not only conforms to the laws of the market economy, but also better meets the diversified needs of consumers
.

2.
Chaining

The new medical reform plan clearly proposes "development of modern pharmaceutical logistics and chain operations" and "encourage retail pharmacies to develop chain operations", which shows that large-scale chain operations are the development trend of retail pharmacies in the future
.

The implementation of chain operations in retail pharmacies is conducive to accelerating the standardization and modernization of management methods, and promoting the improvement of market management, quality management and service management; it is conducive to giving play to the advantages of economies of scale and maximizing the role of capital, commodities, information, and technology
.

The experience of developed countries such as the United States, Europe and Japan also proves that the industry will eventually form an industry competition pattern with chain pharmacies as the main body and declining single pharmacies
.

3.
Specialization

Traditional pharmacies, especially community stores, meet the medication and health needs of surrounding residents for common and chronic diseases, and their advantages are convenience and timeliness
.
DTP pharmacies can also develop specialized and in-depth user relationship operations on this basis
.

Moreover, the outflow of prescription drugs from public hospitals will drive sales of more than 100 billion yuan, and pharmacies will undoubtedly be the biggest beneficiaries of the outflow of prescription drugs
.
In particular, new specialty drugs and products that require infusion services can share huge dividends by accepting prescriptions
.
However, for pharmacies to receive this dividend, they not only need to strengthen the integration of resources, but also need to promote their own transformation into a truly professional service
.

Prediction of the future trend of pharmaceutical e-commerce

Catalyzed by the 2020 epidemic, the "Internet + medicine + medicine" is developing rapidly, and the gradual opening of policies has pressed the "accelerator" for this.
At present, pharmaceutical e-commerce has occupied an important position in the pharmaceutical distribution industry
.

1.
Migrate the core business and extend to prescription drugs

The basic advantages of pharmaceutical e-commerce are: efficient delivery, complete categories and lower prices, and bring a "fast, comprehensive and economical" high-quality drug purchase experience
.

Early medical e-commerce companies started from equipment, family planning and health products with price advantages, and gradually penetrated into categories such as "hair loss", "acne removal", "contraception" and "weight loss", and then covered common diseases such as "cold", "digestion", and "gynecology".
The category is now fully extending to the prescription drug market
.

The focus of prescription drug extension lies in patients' long-term medications and family-prepared drugs, including many new specialty drugs
.
In the future, medical e-commerce is expected to be consistent with the offline pharmacy market, forming a drug supply structure that is more focused on prescription drugs than the current one
.

2.
Five years later, online or offline courts

In the process of purchasing medicines, users have generated demand for professional services related to diagnosis and treatment.
Therefore, a new model of professional service-oriented pharmaceutical retail that opens up the entire diagnosis and treatment process will become the industry standard
.
Industrial pharmaceutical companies at the drug supply side will also be taken over by pharmaceutical e-commerce and offline pharmacies to form new digital marketing channels based on the new marketing needs of reducing costs and increasing efficiency
.

From the current trend, combined with the online and offline competition in other industries, the growth rate of pharmaceutical e-commerce will maintain a double-digit growth for a long time, while the offline growth rate will be relatively stable and slow
.
Therefore, even if the total number of plates continues to increase, it is very likely that after five years, online and offline will be able to compete
.

3.
O2O will become the "rival" of physical pharmacies

Especially the O2O model, represented by Meituan Ele.
me and Dingdang Kuaiyao.
Although on the surface it is distributed from offline pharmacies, which helps increase sales offline, but decision-making, screening, tracking and payment are all done online.
Of
.
It is like Didi Taxi, which is ultimately delivered by a physical driver, but in fact it is a standard service that uses the Internet as an entrance
.

In the short term, these O2O platforms will use offline pharmacies as supply-side carriers.
Will they use their own warehouses or pre-warehouses for delivery in the future? Will they bypass pharmacies and directly purchase medicines from manufacturers?

The author believes that the future of O2O will be the "rival" of a large number of physical pharmacies, which will subvert the current industry competition pattern
.
In the future, perhaps some pharmacies will be like some taxi companies now, relying on local protection and subsidies to continue their operations
.

Concluding remarks

After e-commerce grows up, they will continue to invest in acquisitions, squeezing offline pharmacies, and offline chains are constantly building themselves or penetrating e-commerce on third-party platforms
.
It should be said that the two "love and kill each other" only reached the middle game, and the subsequent competition will be more intense
.
The end result is that the resources are concentrated to the top enterprises!