If you’re the owner of a pharmacy, you probably want to know how to attract more customers. The task isn't really easy, because there're a lot of drugstores in the healthcare market, and each one does its best to interest a maximum of clients. A good solution in such a case is to use advanced software, namely, an online pharmacy.
We're talking about special "online offices" of pharmacy companies: mobile and web platforms that allow interacting with drugstore customers remotely (which is especially important after the 2020 pandemic). Users of these apps solve a lot of problems associated with the need to go to the pharmacy; and you, as the owner of the software in question, improve your service quality.
Do you want to know more? Then read our article to find out 7 reasons to start pharmacy application development.
Why Does Your Drugstore Need Healthcare App Development?
“I intend to get what I need here and now, without delay” - that's what most modern consumers think. And why not? The leap in the development of digital technologies gives us a great opportunity to automate a lot of boring processes and increase the comfort of our lives. Among other things, we can now order any product online (with home delivery, of course!), and pharmacy items are no exception. And this leads to the issue of medical app development.
By the way, online pharmacy is beneficial not only to consumers but also to business owners! And your drugstore would profit from it either.
As you’ll soon discover, online pharmacy is good at:
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increasing the number of solvent buyers;
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responding to user feedback instantly and non-stop;
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bettering business profitability;
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reducing overhead costs;
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personalization customer offers (thanks to the analysis of user behavior);
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making you, eventually, a market leader.
That’s why you need to order online pharmacy app development! Still not convinced? Okay, let's discuss your benefits in more detail.
The Benefits of Having a Mobile App in Pharmacy
As promised: here are the 7 main benefits of having a pharmacy online. Read them carefully.
#1. Digital marketing platform
Medical mobile app development will allow you to get an innovative tool for promoting your pharmacy service. And you’re free to use it with convenience, as and when you want!
Moreover, you'll be able to find out what your customers really like and dislike when it comes to your drugstore. As a result, you'll be constantly perfecting your product (which leads to increased customer loyalty).
#2. Gaining more customers
The real chance to communicate with your customers is a huge advantage. You don't just meet their needs and satisfy their desires, you become closer and clearer to them, and you are always "at hand." Use your pharmacy app to the maximum by interacting with the client through push notifications and timely informing him about discounts and promotions... in other words, turn users into loyal customers.
#3. Improved competitive ability
As you might have already guessed, pharmacy apps are just perfect for growing the competitiveness of the company they belong to. There is nothing surprising since these services help you communicate with customers in real-time, when and where you need to.
#4. Recognizable corporate brand
It won't be superfluous to create a recognizable pharmacy brand to embody the company's image. And the mobile app with an appealing UI design might help to implement the idea by becoming a logical continuation of the pharmacy chain brand.
#5. Online sales of drugs
Online drug sales are another reason to initiate healthcare mobile app development. Roughly speaking, we're facing a classic win-win situation where both parties to the process are satisfied:
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consumers are used to buying almost everything online (especially during the quarantine and forced self-isolation);
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by satisfying one more request of your consumer, you increase the level of sales and, accordingly, income.
#6. Non-stop business development
Moving is living, as they say. And this rule applies, among other things, to the pharmacy business. To keep your company afloat, you need to meet (or even anticipate) the expectations of your customers. And the pharmacy drug app is a great tool to understand your target audience.
What you should do is add analytical features to the application and study user behavior. With such a smart approach, you'll receive a lot of useful information to continue to grow your business.
#7. Improved patient care
Of course, a drugstore is hardly a hospital, and you cannot really treat your customers. However, pharmacy apps are still able to provide some help to patients. How about background materials on various medications and their health effects? Or why not add an online chat to allow users to consult with your experts?
Though, we'll discuss your opportunities later when describing pharmacy app features at length.
Of course, the list of benefits can be expanded and supplemented with other ones. In fact, there are far more reasons to take advantage of pharmacy application development. But, hopefully, we’ve already convinced you of such an urgent need. Now it's high time you thought of what features your mobile app should have in order to invite as many consumers as possible.
Pharmacy App Features
We suggest dividing the app features into two parts, each of which is focused on a specific group of users.
#1. Buyer-focused Features
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User Profile. The user registers in your application and creates his profile with basic personal data indicated (such as age, sex, name, etc). However, the registration step should be optional (not everyone likes to waste time on registration if all he or she wants is to place an online order). But you can convince the consumer to become a registered user by explaining to him that his personal page provides better access to the rest of the pharmacy app features.
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A Detailed Catalog of Goods. Such a helpful feature allows a user to study the assortment and prices independently and in comfortable conditions.
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Upload Prescription. The user would be happy to have the possibility to upload and store the doctor's prescription among other personal information in order to have quick access to it. Thus, he can more easily find the medicine he needs in your drug database.
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Smart Search. An incredibly important feature, without which no online pharmacy would do. And be sure to supplement your search engine with a special filtering system.
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Drug Info. Detailed information is needed about each drug, which implies:
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full drug description: medication regimens, side effects, dosage, and so on. It is also advisable to add the drug image (both in and without packaging) to the text description.
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the ability to leave a review about the medicine. The user can describe his impressions of the purchase made, as well as rate the drug. This will help other consumers make the right choice.
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obtaining product information by scanning the barcode with your phone’s camera. Thanks to such a feature, the pharmacy shopper doesn’t need to enter the name of the drug manually. He may check the barcode placed on the package with his phone's camera and wait for the pharmacy app to recognize it and provide all the data.
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Drugs Comparison. Also, the user would appreciate the possibility to compare different drugs (their effectiveness, price range, etc.)... which leads us to the next item.
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Substitute Search. Sometimes the required drug is unavailable or too expensive, and in this case, the user needs to be able to find an effective substitute. That's when he needs a Substitute Search tool.
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Refilling Prescription. The next example of important pharmacy app features is the opportunity to refill prescriptions. Be sure to include it in your application.
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Making an order online. It makes no sense to start medicine delivery app development if you have no intention to provide a user with the chance to order drugs remotely. It means the customer can fill his virtual "basket" with the medicines he needs without losing time in waiting lines.
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Order Tracking. It’s not enough to place an order. The consumer would definitely want to be aware of what stage the order is at.
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Online Payment. Remote purchase of drugs and their delivery to the user's home also involves remote payment. Of course, the buyer can pay for the purchase to the courier when the latter delivers it, but the online payment option should be available anyway.
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Analytics. As we said above, pharmacy apps provide an opportunity to study user behavior. The information you get from this would help you figure out your client's preferences (therefore, you may offer him the best level of service).
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Smart Notifications. Stay in touch with users via push notifications, which must be of the following types:
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Notice of sale. If the drug the user was willing to buy was unavailable, you can send him a notification when the situation improves (of course, with his consent).
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Drug regimen reminder: inform the user it's time to take the drug, order more medication, visit the doctor to get a new prescription, etc.
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Discounts and promotions. Let's say your online pharmacy offers a good discount on a drug that a particular user has bought in the past. So why not inform him of the great opportunity to purchase the same medicine much cheaper?
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Social Media Integrations. The feature would be handy in many ways, such as:
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simplified user registration. The consumer doesn't need to fill out the fields of your questionnaire, all he has to do is to indicate his account in the FB (or another network), and the data would be obtained from there;
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sharing and promotion tool. The user can share impressions about your service through social networks, which can be especially helpful to promote your pharmacy drug app.
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Feedback. Instead of attempting to find a request book, a client expresses his dissatisfaction (or gratitude) by using your pharmacy drug app. He may complain about the level of service in a particular pharmacy or the quality of goods (and so on). On the other hand, if the client was happy with the purchase made, he’ll have a chance to voice his satisfaction either.
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Location. The feature includes an interactive map with an automatic determination of the pharmacy location (so that the user won't face any problems when planning his route).
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In-app Communication. Mobile chat is an important feature of pharmacy apps too. It'll simplify the communication process between users and your pharmacy. Customers can ask a question of interest to your employees without unnecessary trips to the drugstore itself.
#2. Admin Features
Previous features were targeted at drug buyers, however, there is another group of users either, namely the pharmacy staff. Your employees should be able to manage application content, update data, and perform other similar functions.
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Management Center. Of course, you have to manage your mobile service, and admin features include such an option (obviously!).
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Inventory Management. In addition to interacting with customers, your employees need to work with inventory too, do you agree?. And there are many great pharmacy app features to help your staff manage the arrival of new drugs, control stock-in-trade, quickly respond to supplier price swings, and so on.
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Pharmacist Integration. It’s about the creation of a large manageable network of experienced pharmacists.
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User (Client) Management. Of course, you should also have a client database to store the personal data of each user and manage that information as needed.
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Order Management, or, more precisely, a single system designed to manage orders users have placed.
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Logistics Process Management. During healthcare app development, don’t forget to connect special libraries and extensions to activate and integrate logistics solutions. They’ll help you manage the logistics system of your pharmacy company faster and easier.
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Payments & Offers. As you remember, the feature is on the customer-oriented list either. Though, your staff must also have access to it.
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Content Management. Content means any textual, graphic, video, and audio information.
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Analytics & Reporting. We’ve already mentioned the analytics feature. Its primary role is to enable you to analyze user behavior and, if the findings indicate a need for improvement, change your business strategy accordingly. Besides, it'd be useful to add the possibility to create custom reports.
Pharmacy App User Retention
If you managed to convince a consumer to download your pharmacy app, it's only half the battle. And now your task is to prevent the user from deleting it.
We’ll give a few pieces of simple but effective advice:
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User-friendly interface (below, we’ll explain what your app interface should look like)
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Compatibility with different platforms. You need to have pharmacy apps for Android and iOS, because you never know which devices your customers prefer.
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Always new. Users love updates, so be ready to offer them new interesting features on a regular basis (or, at least, make every effort to improve old ones).
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Security. Security plays a huge role in creating any type of application, and pharmacy app development is no exception.
Basic Pharmacy App Development Steps
Now you know a great deal about online pharmacy. You see its business benefits and understand how to invite the maximum number of users. But how to get started, to begin with? What should you do first?
Okay, let’s discuss the issue properly. So, the pharmacy app development process consists of the following stages:
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Task definition. Awareness of what exactly you want to receive as a final product.
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Requirement collection. The second stage is the collection of your requirements regarding the application. As you understand, discussion of your wishes is impossible without personal or online meetings with a team of experts.
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Discovery phase. And in no case miss the Discovery phase! It is at the Discovery stage that market research, analysis of the target audience (with the definition of the needs of pharmacy customers), and preparation of a primary action strategy are being carried out (we write more about the Discovery phase in another article).
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Prototyping. When future product features are defined, we create an interactive app prototype. It visualizes the process of user interaction with your pharmacy drug application.
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Full UI/UX. Now it's time to create a pharmacy app design. The goal is to have an easy-to-use, user-friendly product that is in line with the latest UI/UX trends.
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iOS & Android development. At this stage, mobile developers are being engaged to work on the project. You’ll have to hire Android and iOS experts (or specialists who understand hybrid or cross-platform development).
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Backend development. We've reached a rather delicate medical mobile app development stage. Special developers have to create the back-end of your pharmacy application, which is extremely complicated and important work.
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QA testing. The purpose of the next step is to guarantee the smooth operation of your mobile service. Only a qualified team QA can perform all the required testing techniques.
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Upload to application stores. It's not enough to create a pharmacy app for patients. You need to launch your online pharmacy properly and support its successful life afterward.
Well, you have to admit: you can't handle pharmacy app development on your own. And why should you? We each have a job to do. So you had better hire a team of experts.
Contact us if you want to be sure of your mobile application’s effectiveness. We have a lot of experience in app development, which is the best guarantee of your getting a stable pharmacy app with a predictable visual response. It’ll work exactly as your users expect!
