How Do You Make a Successful Medicine Delivery App Like Walgreens?

Online Medicine Delivery App

The online medicine delivery service is a platform that has gained enormous popularity in recent years, especially in countries like the USA, Japan, China, etc. Medicine delivery apps like Walgreen’s pharmacy app have enabled access to drugs to people who want them delivered to their homes at the most affordable prices.

While there may be several reasons for the rise in popularity of online pharmacy delivery app platforms, one of these can be attributed to the unavailability of certain medicines at physical pharmacies or the need to refill medications every month. Like on-demand food delivery services, competition is on the rise to meet the demand for same-day or fast delivery of drugs to the customer's doorstep.

Benefits of Ordering Medicines Online

Ordering medication via an app saves time, preserves privacy, and offers greater control over the process. A person may need to visit a pharmacy sometimes, such as when compound medicines are required, but mobile ordering generally provides more benefits when compared to in-store purchases:

Price comparison

Some pharmacies charge a higher price than others. Users can compare the price of online drugs with those being sold at physical outlets to find the least expensive deal.

Privacy

People may feel uncomfortable buying medication in front of others. They may prefer to purchase their medication online where no one can see them or make a judgement.

Travel cost and time savings

A mobile app for ordering medicine online saves time travelling to a location and standing in line. This is especially true for patients who live in remote areas.

Managing chronic illnesses

Patients with diseases requiring long-term medical care can order a supply according to the period of treatment. They can also avail of discounts when they purchase in bulk.

Automatic refills

Almost all online medicine apps and mail-order pharmacies allow automatic refills. Automated payments or scheduled notifications save people from running out of drugs or forgetting to renew a prescription.

Not just customers, medicine delivery apps help pharmacies too. They can widen their reach, attract more customers, analyze data from purchase history, and perfect their service based on customer insight.

How Does the Walgreens Pharmacy Delivery App Work?

The app follows a simple process.

• User browses through the available drugs online.
• Add the required medication to the cart and proceed to checkout.
• Make payment for the order.
• Track the order and get updates in real-time.
• Contact customer support if you have any questions.

Using an online pharmacy delivery app, pharmacies and customers can communicate directly, ensuring transparent and dependable service delivery.

How Can You Make Money with a Pharmacy Delivery App?

The goal of creating an app for prescription delivery is to increase revenue, reach a wider audience, and create a business advantage. There are a few approaches to monetization of a drug delivery app that you can utilize to turn on-demand medicine delivery into a profitable business.

Fees

If you allow third-parties to sell products on your platform, you can earn money by taking a percentage of sales.

Subscriptions

Customers who sign up for subscriptions may be eligible for free delivery or a discount on medicines.

Advertisements

You can place ads inside your application. Your app or website can promote medicine, other pharmacies, or third-party vendors.

Built-in promotion features

Third-party vendors can promote their own businesses inside your application, and you can get paid for placing their companies in the recommended section, showing medicine on the first page, etc.

You can implement either one strategy or multiple strategies depending on your business model. Choose the best strategy for your delivery app.

Features of a Medicine Delivery App

To develop a medicine delivery app, you will need three separate versions for patients, pharmacies, and your delivery partners. Let’s have a look at these features.

User Version

• Profile: A patient using the app needs to complete a profile containing their name, delivery address, and other details before they can purchase medicine online.
• Prescription: Patients have to upload their prescription online.
• Insurance coverage:: Users can avail insurance for certain medications. Hence, you will have to integrate your program with insurance providers.
• Search: Certain medications, their prices, and delivery accessibility can be found with a search system with autocomplete.
• Provider pages: There should be pages for each pharmaceutical provider with relevant details about the company and the medicines they provide.
• Payments: An online medicine delivery app is similar to any ecommerce site; users expect a cart (with dosage, quantity, and cost information) and convenient payment methods.
• Scheduled deliveries: Drug order apps usually offer a delivery window of three hours (or more). For orders that are high priority, deliveries can be scheduled sooner.
• Map: Integrate a navigational system to offer real-time tracking of orders.
• Notifications: Send notifications to customers to update them on their orders and also to remind them when it's time to refill their order.
• Ratings: Customers should be allowed to rate and review their experience to improve services.
• Contact form: It's important for people to be able to contact you if they have questions to establish credibility and trust.

Admin Version

• Editable pharmacy page: The information the customer needs to choose a pharmaceutical provider should include information about the prescription drugs available, their sources, and delivery methods.
• Order management: An electronic prescription management system should be able to receive files, accept or deny orders, and change dosages or item counts.
• Stats and reports: There needs to be a way for users to gather data on their usage of certain medications in order to effectively communicate with them.

Delivery Partner Version

• Registration/Login: Couriers should be able to sign up to add and update their details. Integrating social login can be helpful.
• Courier profile: Delivery partners can manage their profiles to keep their information updated.
• Push notifications:  Courier partners are updated about new orders and can monitor the status of ongoing orders.
• Navigation: The partner should be able to track the best possible routes to reach the destination without leaving the application.
• Delivery status: The partner can update the status of the order to keep the user and the pharmacy informed.

What Is the Cost of Developing a Pharmacy Delivery App Like Walgreen's?

The cost of developing a pharmacy delivery app like Walgreen's depends on the following factors:

• The number and type of features
• The complexity of the app
• Which platform do you want to develop your app on (iOS, Android, or both)?
• Location of your development company
• And finally, the type of services that you require. For e.g., market research, business analysis, etc.

The cost of developing a single app version (Android or iOS) for one app (client, courier, or admin) is typically between $25,000 and $40,000. You may need to spend around $35,000 – $150,000 depending on the number of platforms required.

How to Make a Successful Medicine Delivery App

Before you move ahead further into app development, you need to ensure that your medicine delivery app is compliant. Pharmaceuticals are regulated by various national regulatory agencies, such as the Food and Drug Administration in the US, the Therapeutic Goods Administration in Australia, and the General Pharmaceutical Council in the UK.  As prescription drugs have a direct influence on people’s health and well-being, people want trusted, secure, and registered platforms to buy their medicines from.

We described the various features of pharmacy app development. You can also include rewards and loyalty programs to boost user retention and user engagement. Walgreens offers a loyalty program where customers who pay with mobile wallets receive discounts.

Because the market does not have a plethora of medicine delivery applications, you can gain market share by developing a mobile solution for a country without one or a pharmacy that has just begun to embrace mobile health. You will need to analyze the existing applications and find a unique value proposition in areas with multiple strong competitors.

FAQs

How much would it cost to develop a Medicine Delivery App like Walgreen or PharmEasy?

The cost of developing a Medicine Delivery app depends on a wide range of factors. But building a basic online medicine delivery app will cost approximately $25,000 to $35,000 (Android/iOS).

What are the benefits of online pharmacies?

Some of the benefits of purchasing medicines through an online application are:

• Better pricing and price comparison
• Ease-of-access to medication
• Convenience
• Privacy and anonymity
• Better mobility

What is the estimated market size of a pharmacy delivery app?

The pharmacy delivery market is predicted to grow to $210.35 billion by 2028. Developing new solutions for medicine delivery therefore is an exciting business prospect.

What are the features of a medicine delivery app?

Medicine delivery apps consist of the following panels:

• Customer version
• Pharmacy/Admin version
• Courier partner version

How does developing a medicine delivery app help your business?

By making their products accessible online through the application, pharmacies can provide innovative services to their users, expand their reach and enhance their business growth at a faster rate.