Increasing Adoption of Smartphones and Growing Geriatric Population to Augment Growth of E-Pharmacy Market

 

ePharmacy, as we know it today, provides pharmacy services to its customers through the use of the Internet. This technology has been around for quite some time but it wasn't until some time ago that it started to gain popularity and slowly started replacing the traditional pharmacy. One of the advantages of using e-pharmacy over the traditional type of pharmacy is that there is no face to face interaction required between the customer and the pharmacists.

Market Dynamics

Increasing adoption of smartphones is expected to propel the growth of the ePharmacy market. For instance, according to the Pew Research Center, 76% of adults in the U.K. owned a smartphone in 2018.

Increasing geriatric population is expected to offer lucrative growth opportunities for players in the ePharmacy market. For instance, according to United Nations Population Fund, geriatric population in Asia Pacific is expected to triple between 2010 and 2050 to reach 1.3 billion people by 2050. Moreover, increasing investment in e-pharmacy is also expected to aid in growth of the market. For instance, in November 2020, Alodokter, an Indonesian telemedicine app, raised an undisclosed amount of funding from MDI Ventures, the corporate VC arm of Telkom Indonesia, in order to launch e-pharmacy.

Emergence of Covid-19 has had a mixed response on the-pharmacy market. The COVID-19 pandemic has shifted preference to ATM pharmacies as majority of countries are under lockdown. The pandemic has also affected the revenue of several market players.

Among regions, Asia Pacific is expected to witness significant growth in the e-pharmacy market, owing to growing e-commerce sector in the region. For instance, according to India Brand Equity Foundation, the e-commerce sector in India is expected to reach US$ 200 billion by 2026 from US$ 38.5 billion as of 2017.  Moreover, entry of new market players is also expected to aid in growth of the market in Asia Pacific. For instance, in November 2020, Amazon Inc. launched a pharmacy service in the South Indian city of Bengaluru.

Competitive Analysis

Major players operating in the global ePharmacy market include, CVS Caremark, Banner Health, DocMorris NV, Ro, Zur Rose Group AG, Right ePharmacy, PlanetRx.com.Inc., Lloyds Pharmacy Ltd., Dr. Fox Pharmacy, eDrugstore.MD, MediSave, SastaSundar, Walgreen Co, and Rowlands Pharmacy.

Major players operating in the global e-pharmacy market are focused on adopting expansion strategies to enhance their market share. For instance, in December 2020, India-based e-pharmacy, SastaSundar, announced its plans to expand into the northern and western regions of India while strengthening its presence in the existing markets in the eastern and north-eastern regions.