How to build a Medicine Delivery System for pharmaceutical business

With the ever-growing demand for medicines and healthcare products, it’s quite challenging for brick and mortar pharmacies to meet the increasing consumers’ needs. In addition to that, another critical factor in the continuous growth of online medicine delivery app solutions is that consumers no longer need to visit them physically. What’s more, customers nowadays prefer to buy medicines online, because they get lucrative discount offers, quick and comparatively faster home deliveries. Not only US-based customers but also people from all around the world are becoming chained to the rhythm of online pharmacies.

According to Statista, the global online pharmacy or e-pharmacy market was worth 52.6 billion U.S. dollars in 2019, and it will reach up to 333 billion U.S. dollars by 2025.

Having that in mind, we can conclude that the digital health industry is growing rapidly. This means the online pharmacy stores can cater to massive global needs. And this very reason why many pharmacy businesses and enterprises are planning to launch online medicine delivery systems that allow the customers to easily order their prescribed medication in one click. Sounds impressive, right? So let’s delve into the details about how to create a medicine delivery system for your pharmaceutical business.

What's exactly a medicine delivery system?

From its name, a medicine delivery system is a solution designed specifically for users who want to order pharmacy products online and get them delivered. Not only can users browse many categories of medications, but they can also upload prescriptions, find generic alternatives and make a payment. All that can be done in one single medicine delivery app solution that provides an attractive alternative to buying medicine offline.

Why do you need a medicine delivery app solution?

Having conducted thorough research, we have identified key reasons why pharmacy businesses need a medicine delivery app. Let’s take a closer look at them below:

• Push notifications: with an online medicine delivery app, users get scheduled notifications that save them from running out of medicine and forgetting to refill their prescriptions.
• No travel expenses: users can get medications delivered to their doorstep without the need to wait in line. Not only does it save their time and money, but also they can avoid getting sick with the infectious diseases.
• Information about medications: users have more time on browsing necessary medications and studying all the instructions using a medicine delivery app solution.
• Price comparison: with a comparison search, users can find the best deal by ordering cheaper drugs.
• Return policy: users can return the medicines, make a complaint and get a refund as quickly as possible.

With a medicine delivery application solution, pharmacy businesses can attract more loyal customers to their brand, retrieve statistical data, and reduce medical waste. When planning your home-delivery medicine solution development, you can focus on a particular traditional brick and mortar pharmacy or partner with different pharmaceutical providers to create a new service. However, pharmacy businesses that tend to sell medicine through home delivery services must have a valid license. What’s more, they must sell medicine only on the basis of receipt of prescription that can be uploaded into the system or sent through email, and then must be validated.

How to develop a medicine delivery system

Having a vast experience in delivering a variety of custom solutions for different business verticals - logistics, healthcare, e-commerce, recruiting, CRM, e-learning, fintech, we, at DDI Development, were requested to develop a medicine delivery application solution for the pharmaceutical business. At the very beginning, it’s imperative to choose a business model for a medicine delivery system and then define its key features and functionality. Let’s start with the business models:

Business models for a medicine delivery system

Below you can find information about business models that helps you in developing a medicine delivery app solution.

First Model: with that model, pharmacies store a variety of medications. Once a consumer submits the prescriptions for the medicine they want, a pharmacy manager checks the validity and availability of the order received. Only after making payment can a pharmacy manager submits the medicine delivery.

Second Model: instead of storing medications, you can partner with the brick and mortar pharmacies. When a customer makes a request online, the medicine delivery system checks whether requested medicines are available in the nearest pharmacy. Once the customer pays the bill for the drug’s, a pharmacy manager instructs the delivery partner to deliver the medication to the doorstep or a courier gets a notification about the order. at the customer’s address physically and shares the revenue based on the agreed terms and conditions.

Key features of a medicine delivery application

We suggested four user roles: an administrator, a user, a pharmacy manager and a courier. Each type of user has access to a certain feature stack. Having that in mind, we have developed a concept of a medicine delivery system that helps you to easily run your pharmacy business online. So let's take a closer look at the features included in each module to catch everyone up to speed.

User module

Below you can discover some necessary features that should be included in the user module of the medicine delivery app solution.

• Profile: To get the authentication, customers need to fill some of the required personal details such- an email address, or/and phone number.
• Select the medicine: users can choose the necessary medicine and select them or save them for the future.
• Filters: users can use filter and list options according to prices, ratings, delivery time, products, items, and radius.
• Prescriptions uploading: users can upload pictures scanned with their cameras from their galleries so that a licensed pharmacist can review them.
• Medicine details: users can read a detailed prescription of each medication, see the manufacture, etc.
• Map View: users can see all active service providing outlets on Google Maps with real-time locations of each.
• Search for substitutes: users can find generic alternatives to name-brand medications.
• Notifications: users can get notifications from the pharmacy about their order confirmation, status updates, discounts, etc.
• In-app payment: users can pay the bill online for getting the drug’s orders at their mentioned place or select the cash on delivery option.
• Exciting offers: users can get the prescribed medicines at a discounted price.
• Order history: users can see all the information including the current and completed orders’ details along with details of stores and delivery providers fast and easily.
• Reorder from history: users can reorder the items from their order history with updated prices of the items.
• Real-Time Tracking: users can track the delivery provider’s real-time location as soon as their order gets delivered.
• Order Cancellation: users can cancel the order by providing an appropriate reason for cancellation.

Courier Module

Below we have outlined the key features for the courier version of the medicine delivery application solution:

• Sign-in: this feature offers the authentication after filling the required details like a smartphone number, or a valid email address.
• Status: it allows the couriers to mark their working status as available or unavailable.
• Orders list: a courier can get the complete list of all the drugs that are going to be delivered.
• Multiple online payments: it allows them to receive the payments in cash from the users after transporting the drugs.
• Delivery status: a courier can change the delivery status from in progress to delivered.
• Push notifications: a courier can receive a notification once a user places an order.
• Navigation: a courier is provided with information about the customer’s location for easier navigation on Google map with an estimated time of arrival.
• Route optimization: they can find the fastest path to delivery or pickup location.

Pharmacy manager Module

Here you can read about the key features that should be taken into account in the pharmacy manager module:

• Order notification: pharmacy managers can get new order requests online and manage them in real time.
• Digital prescriptions: pharmacy managers can view prescriptions online.
• Order management: pharmacy managers can streamline order processing, returns and refunds.
• Online payments: pharmacy managers can receive payments online and track all the payment details in real time.

Admin Module

Below you can reveal some necessary features for the administrator version:

• Delivery Management: an admin can manage all deliveries along with details of all users, invoices, and reviews.
• Inventory management: an admin keeps track of the inventory, orders, and medicine storing properly, gets notified about expiration dates and/or low stock by preventing medicine shortages and avoids confusion.
• Store Management: an admin can manage the profile details with all rights of adding, editing, or declining registration requests.
• Check Documents: an admin can set essential documents required for the registration process and also possesses the authority to check and edit uploaded documents.
• Cart info: an admin can see the active order request and cart order information with every single detail.
• Manage app features: an administrator is responsible for managing features of using referral codes, email and phone verification, document upload, etc.
• Analytics and reports: an administrator can see how well the business runs by bringing together all the operational data and statistics reports.
• Export reports: an administrator can track and export the performance report and compare the report with existing data.
• Earning: an administrator can manage daily, weekly earning details with the provider and store’s earning details with profit rate.

In addition to the above-mentioned features, you should also think of a CRM (Customer Relations Management) system that helps you to keep long-term relationships with the customers or a CMS (Content Management System) that will help the admin to manage the content of the medicine delivery app solution. More importantly, you can add a chatbot that can operate 24/7 and solve users’ queries and answer FAQs.

Once you have all your features, you can create wireframes that help you to better understand the users’ journeys when using a medicine delivery product. More importantly, wireframes will give you a comprehensive look at your users’ experience (UX) with your product. Then you can work on UI design. At the development stage, a development team starts the coding process - all the tasks will be broken down so the project can be built in pieces. Another important phase is testing. It helps you to find bugs and fix them to successfully launch your medicine delivery solution and show it to the world.

How the medicine delivery solution works

Below we have provided a step-by-step process to give you an understanding of how the medicine delivery solution works.

1. Once a user registers or signs up, he/she can upload the valid medicine prescription or enter the medicines in the search field.

2. Based on entered information, the system provides you with a medicine list you were looking for.

3. At this step, a user can place an order, choose a delivery time, add to the cart, or make payment.

4. Once a user places an order, a pharmacy manager will get notifications about a new order.

5. An administrator verifies medicine prescriptions and confirms the order.

6. A pharmacy manager prepares all the necessary medications to be delivered.

7. Only after order confirmation can the administrator assign an available delivery partner or in-house courier to deliver medicine.

A medicine delivery application solution is more complicated than it may seem at first glance. Not only should each customer provide a valid prescription, but also a licensed pharmacist checks it. Nationally regulated systems officially and legally control the rules around electronic prescriptions and online prescription exchange. That’s why it’s imperative to ask for a prescription that must not be eliminated when developing a medicine delivery platform.

The top medicine delivery solutions

Thankfully, some medicine delivery solutions rise above the rest, and we’ve gathered the best ones below:

• Pharmacy2U: designed to deliver a repeat prescription service and provide a speedy, super-efficient and hassle-free delivery to any UK-based address. Moreover, it even notifies you when your next prescription is due.
• PharmEasy: built specifically to let users buy medicines and other healthcare products online and get them delivered to the doorstep.
• Zipdrug: with that solution, patients have access to the lowest-cost prescription drugs. What’s more, it provides free home delivery from top-quality pharmacies that saves time and money.
• Practo: with that solution, customers can find diagnostic labs, clinicians, health practitioners, book appointments, and have online consultations. In addition to that, they can order medicines online.

What are the advantages of the medicine delivery system

Here we have identified the main advantages of the medicine delivery system that you should take into account:

• Quality services: with that solution, you can offer high-quality services including medicine selection, ordering, making payments, delivery options, etc. that helps you to keep the customers happy.
• Improved supply chain: thanks to a medicine delivery system, streamlined delivery process with auto dispatching orders and route optimization.
• Boost delivery experience: you can enhance your customer's experience and make their life easier.
• Satisfied patient demands: fast medicine delivery, easy communication with the courier and real-time tracking increases the customers’ satisfaction.
• Enhance productivity: the advanced algorithms of pharmacy delivery solution enhances delivery operations and minimizes the overall delivery charge.
• Prevents further illness: decreased infection risk: with medicine delivery services, you can avoid visiting pharmacies that will reduce the amount of time spent around other people who may be sick.
• Health Information privacy: sometimes, people avoid visiting the brick-and-mortar pharmacies to keep a disease they are fighting private. With a medicine delivery solution, such people can take advantage of pharmacy delivery services and get the products delivered right to their door.

What are the disadvantages of the medicine delivery system

Below, we have highlighted the main disadvantages associated with implementing the medicine delivery system in your pharmacy business.

• Massive order influx: with the increase in volume, tracking and processing medicine orders may be time-consuming to your pharmacy business.
• Multiple deliveries: in busy times, it’s impossible to get the orders delivered individually — your couriers will have to handle multiple deliveries in all parts of the town.
• More data to manage: the medicine delivery system should work correctly and keep track of all the users’ data to assure the right medicine gets to the right place at the right time.
• Operational complexity: adding new features or functionality may lead to errors or become a big concern. So make sure you can handle an especially large range of scheduling problems and stay on top of your operations.

Bottom line

Medicine delivery solutions are revolutionizing the pharmacy industry. People are looking for convenience and ease in healthcare facilities as well. Rather than standing in long queues at a pharmacy store, they opt for doorstep medicine delivery instead of traveling to a pharmacy for medicine. Now you can do it in a click by grasping the medicine delivery solution that helps your customers get their medicines delivered in the shortest available time.

With a medicine delivery app, not only will each user have easy access to your healthcare products, but you will also have the ability to push notifications that keep your pharmacy business up to date. What’s more, a well-designed medicine delivery solution enhances accessibility and makes your brand recognizable. We, at DDI Development, have a great experience in delivering a variety of digital solutions that meet your business needs and help grow your business. Let us know, and we will help you to develop and implement a medicine delivery solution that will give your business a significant boost.