All About Selling

How to start your own e-store for medicines

by Francesca on 12/6/2018

E-commerce has opened its doors for a world of products to sell online. Of these, pharmacy is an industry that has still to be explored for its potential. If you’ve been looking for a niche market and are willing to go that extra mile in investing your time and energy, selling medicines online could just be the self-sustaining business for you.

But before we plunge into the basics of getting this business up and running, we recommend you check out Amazon’s Affiliate Program – a platform that can leverage your products efficiently to gain the eyeballs and revenue you are aiming for.

So let’s get you equipped with all you need to know about starting your own online pharmacy store:

Understand the laws of your country

According to the Indian laws here what is mandatory:

You must have a registered pharmacist on board.
You must have authentic and valid prescriptions for accepting orders.
All bills should be signed by a registered pharmacist.
Ensure you have a registered pharmacist overseeing all the orders before they get shipped.
Finally, the medicines should be sent from a chemist shop bearing a retail license.

Apart from this, there are additional business licenses you need to acquire to legally put up medicinal items for sale online.

Types of models

The industry currently works on 2 business models:

The first one operates just like a local pharmacy storing huge amounts of medicinal products to sell online. Once a customer orders a medicine with a valid prescription, the order is shipped to their doorstep.
In the second one, the online pharmacy store gets the order submitted with a valid prescription, sends it to the closest chemist store that matches the buyer’s address. The online pharmacy’s personnel fetches it from there and gets the delivery done.

Some online pharmacies send their personnel to the purchaser’s address in order to vet the prescriptions. After all, it’s safer to be sure than sorry

How you earn

Apart from the commissions, you earn from the price margins, setting up your own online pharmacy store allows you to welcome manufacture brands to have a share of the display space on your website. While you earn a tangible revenue from these display ads, you can also set up a blog space, another lucrative platform for big brands to showcase their newest products or supplements and harp on their benefits.

Value additions

Here’s a great advantage that you can bestow on your customers. In case they don’t have a valid prescription you can offer to set up an on-call appointment with a medical practitioner or a doctor evaluate their need and prescribe or vet the old prescription for free or a minimal charge. This will surely boost your revenue and create an unparalleled brand recall in their minds.

Geared with these facts how about registering as an e-seller with Amazon today? A world of opportunities to get your revenues sky-high await you. So go ahead, and reap the benefits of this incredible platform.

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