Why Do Few Internet Pharmacy Start-Ups Fail?

Digital health is expanding rapidly, especially in this pandemic time.

One is the pharmacy business that is going online at a fast pace as patients’ pharmaceutical needs are getting higher and higher with each passing day.

But, is it that easy to build an online presence for a pharmacy business that will perform well in the market?

If yes, then how to maintain that for a long time?

As per the study, ninety percent of start-ups die within two to five years, internet pharmacy start-up is not an exception here.

What is the reason behind this, let’s discuss it here.

Where entrepreneurs are lacking while running an E-pharmacy, and what are those factors that Pharmacy shop owners are not taking into consideration while running their personal pharmacy app?

Let’s be straightforward and see what are some major factors that affect the E-Pharmacy start-up in a bad manner.

3 Major Issues That Cause Dissatisfaction in Users

●      Hard To Operate Because of The Bad UI/UX

There are a lot of applications, websites available in the market that provide medicinal service, therefore people have plenty of options to choose from. And if users find difficulties using your application or website, they would easily switch to another.

This happens, because of the lack of useful features and bad UI/UX  which are key elements that users want primarily in an online platform.

●      Data Privacy

A major and foremost requirement when anything goes online. Since it's an internet pharmacy that involves patients' demographics, their confidential medical information, your website and application must be compliant with data privacy law.

It is legally mandatory because it's about the crucial data of patients that shouldn’t be compromised, and now since the users are very well aware of data privacy, online platforms with non-compliant technology have no future.

●      Stick To One Stream And Not Adapt New Avenues

To sustain in the market, adapting new streams as per the people's demand would help to gain more revenue and a more customer base.

Pharmacy start-ups are not likely to go beyond the Pharmacy which somewhere deteriorates its position in the market. Though, few E-Pharmacy apps provide telemedicine service in the same E-commerce-pharmacy platforms.

Uber eats started delivering medicines, also some food deliveries start-up has started delivering groceries as well.

These three are the main parameters that should be taken care of to maintain the E-pharmacy start-up.

Now, Let’s Get Into Some Larger Perspective To Understand Why Pharmacy Health Start-Ups Go Bust?

1. Forgetting Patients and Less Diversity in Medicines

People prefer using online shopping to avoid human interaction especially in the pandemic time, or if they are not feeling well enough to go outside. Therefore, they expect to get their product from online shopping, but when it's available online, they get disappointed even if there are other multiple options for the same product. People want what they want.

In the case of E-pharmacy, there are “n” numbers of medicines from different brands available in the market, and patients follow the same brand throughout their course, but when they don't find that particular product, they quickly shift to another product.

Few Pharmacy apps have a lot of women's skincare products but not for men, this reduces the customer base of men. Though, availability depends on the customer demands, providing a few products will help to maintain the base.

2. Digital Literacy

A lack of market research is responsible for the failure of pharmacy start-ups, as it's important to know what your customer wants and which disease is common in that domain where your app can add value to it.

Most importantly, a start-up should know whether their target audience is educated to use the digital platform, as the literacy rate changes from region to region. And therefore market research in terms of digital literacy and medicinal needs is required.

3. Not Having A Good Social Media Presence

There are 4.55 billion social media users, everyone knows the reason for its popularity. Also, this is one of the best platforms for promoting your business irrespective of online or offline.

Patients, doctors, healthcare fraternity from all areas use social media to get updated with the latest news, creativity, and innovation. Star-uppers who want to make a strong customer base should start with social media.

4. Struggle To Manage The Company Cash Flow

As per the data, it shows that 29% of start-ups struggle to manage the cash flow, a factor that can help to achieve success. Most promising entrepreneurs face this problem to keep their businesses on track.

Start-ups should try to keep their costs low and try to develop a smooth cash flow that doesn't complicate inflow and outflow of cash.

5. Not Having Knowledge About The Online Market and Technology

Though it applies to all businesses who want to go online for their business, and the same goes to internet pharmacy start-ups.

Pharmacy is a very different business that involves doctors, medical staff, patients, healthcare front-liners, covers rules and regulations of HIPAA and ADA. Taking all these areas into consideration, designing a Pharmacy app and website is tricky and demands huge knowledge of technology.

However, a good and qualified app developer can develop an app as per the business needs but as per the start-up perspective, it is essential to know what kind of technology is on trend and how online markets work. Many technical aspects are connected when it comes to building your business online, and it is important to know such aspects.

Conclusion

Internet Pharmacy or say pharmacy app development has been taking lead into the healthcare industry, making a patient’s life easy and smooth. Starting from delivering medicine, e-pharmacy is also providing telemedicine service on the same platform to generate more customer base and revenue.

Therefore, starting an E-Pharmacy is undoubtedly the best move, but on the other side it's also important to know the reality about the existing online business, how are they performing and if not performing well, what mistakes are they making and what’s missing in their business model.