Of course…The pandemic boosts the pharmacy business, but it is evolving consumer needs. It is continuing its rapid growth and becoming increasingly digital. It means the competition is on the rise and you need to be prepared for it.
Like any other business, the pharmacy business needs more concern as it is part of a life-changing business area. It should have a robust, controlled, managed, automated software system to ensure better management and enhance your profit potential.
If you own a retail pharmacy store, you need to know how technology can be of great use and become competitive with the technology.
Content…
- Role of retail pharmacies in current market condition
- 10 Ways : How to Improve Your Pharmacy Business and stay competitive in the market
- Wrapping Up
Role of retail pharmacies in current market condition
Virtual patient care is becoming a standard aspect of healthcare delivery, and pharmacists are increasingly turning to e-platforms for convenient, contactless ordering and invoicing.
Consumers have high expectations, regulatory changes, and pressures to lower prescription prices are driving the growth of pharmacy e-commerce.
Pharmacy owners must address technological challenges to choose appropriate steps and to take advantage of the prospects presented by a digital service model.
Let’s explore the present and future of Retail Pharmacy.
The need for organized, optimized, technology-enabled retail pharmacy space in India has been steadily growing in the past decade.
According to business data platform, Statista,
- India’s retail pharmaceutical market was valued at around 25 billion U.S. dollars in 2017, with a projection to reach 59 billion dollars by 2023.
- With over 800 thousand pharmacies spread across the country, retail pharmacies are still the dominant medical distribution channels.
- Offline drug stores account for over 85 percent of the overall pharmaceutical sales. They include the sale of over-the-counter drugs, prescription drugs, and various FMCG products.
Retail pharmacies essentially provide branded and generic drugs under one roof. They have many responsibilities, from purchasing drugs to fulfilling the patients’ demands at the right time. As health is important thus, it is an essential part of any country’s economy.
But now healthcare industry is facing many challenges, not due to pandemics but the rapid development of medical technology that affects every aspect of medicine and healthcare.
As technologies like artificial intelligence and virtual health drive exponential development, the role of the pharmacy and pharmacist in the health care ecosystem is expanding. Their responsibilities increase, and hence they face massive competition in the market. Thus, the retail pharmacy must cope with the changing pharmacy’s future. For this,
- Independent pharmacists must try to boost their bottom line.
- They should adopt pharmacy software as a game-changer.
- The technology integration establishes a function more effectively, boosts profitability, and provides better patient care in their communities.
- The software enhances medical billing and claims reconciliation to patient management business intelligence and improves small, independent retail pharmacies’ clinical, financial, and operational performance.
If your pharmacy is still not ready for market challenges and pharmacy future business opportunities, read below.
10 Ways : How to Improve Your Pharmacy Business and stay competitive in the market
Adding More Capabilities to Your Pharmacy Management System
In today’s business scenario, having a robust Pharmacy Management system is needed. It helps pharmacies handle their daily store tasks and identify where they are lacking. The primary purpose of a PMS is to help the pharmacist in the safe and effective delivery of drugs. Thus, it is required for pharmacy software to must have some core capabilities and always be open to adding new capabilities to cope with the future market demands. Let’s look into some core features of Pharmacy management software-
E-prescription management: The pharmacy must have e-prescription management that works to eliminate the confusion among patients and dispense the right medicine. E-prescriptions provide a user-friendly option for the patients and reduce the risk of errors.
Reporting & Analytics: Pharmacists interact with many patients regularly. Thus, it is required that they have proper reporting for customers’ data, drug stocks, sales, and other expenses. So, it is required that you have a pharmacy system that gives accurate reporting & analytics to know the future business requirements.
Alert via SMS & Notification: When your pharmacy management system has an alert system, the pharmacist can quickly evaluate when their store needs more assistance. Also, the pharmacist can schedule text messages to be sent to patients intimating them before their prescriptions run out. This way, the pharmacist can have better tools to interact with customers and vendors and gain trust.
Restore & Backup System: This is the most valuable tool to save pharmacy data when data is suddenly lost. A restore and backup system avoids unnecessary data loss and eliminates technical errors quickly retrieving data. The pharmacy management system provides automatic data backup regularly and avoids interruptions in the business functioning.
Integration with third-party software: It enables efficient data flows for prescription and inventory data. The integration with third-party software improves visibility and clarity. The solutions optimize pharma stores for effective online drug ordering and billing services.
Reducing costs with automation
If you want to keep up with the competition in retail pharmacies, automating the manual task is the best way. The automation lowers the cost per prescription by eliminating manual tasks and eliminating errors in drug counting and other accounting.
This way, you can-
- Count, fill and verify prescription/drugs
- Manage drug inventory
- Know patients’ demands & more
This way, you offer patients better care.
Streamline time-consuming tasks with technology
Streamline time-consuming tasks with technology can help you lower costs and offer more value to your patients.
The technology ensures pharmacy business with accuracy in complex pharmacy tasks. It proffers prior authentications and verifications. It helps pharmacies collect data on customer demand and feedback and support to attain high-quality customer service.
In short, it makes you operationally efficient, saves your time, and frees up your staff to focus more on patient care.
Optimizing complex drug inventory
The best strategy to track inventory availability and demand is to use software technologies to optimize your pharmacy inventory. It provides accurate daily tracking of your inventory, enhances accuracy, and helps both your business and your patients.
In this manner, using technology to automate inventory counts saves time and money, improves inventory accuracy, and ensures you have the appropriate number of medications on hand for patients who need them.
Let’s know some of the most popular techniques for Inventory Management.
Adherence to drug regulations within the medical community
In the medical community, medication adherence is a primary issue. Independent pharmacists can use pharmacy management software to create medication synchronization programs to enhance adherence to prescribed prescriptions.
Retail pharmacists are alerted to non-adherent patients by the software, allowing for prompt intervention directly at the counter. To enhance overall outcomes, pharmacists can use technology to offer adherence packaging directly on prescriptions.
Making and understanding patient safety of the utmost importance
Patient safety is the central idea behind every pharmacy store establishment. As per the current market situation, pharmacists are largely adopting software for pharmacy management to automate the store task that directly indirectly relates to patients’ safety. This includes e-prescription handling, billing, data entry, inventory tracking, delivery, and more.
The software prevents errors and improves medication safety. The right technology set can alert the pharmacist if a medication has new side effects or drug interactions, which can lessen the risk of adverse events.
The software also offers drug expiry management and restricted drug management to avoid risk to patients’ safety.
Analyzing customer journey
Pharmacies must look at the complete travel data of their customers. The software for pharmacy stores comes with a customer management system.
Customer Management System can know how many times the patient visits, how he gets the bill, which medicine he uses, he visits weekly or monthly, and much more.
This way, you can manage each and every patient who comes to your store and strategize to serve them according to their preferences. Also, you establish a system that helps to capture and retain pharmacy customers.
Automated drug delivery and proper disposal
Automated drug dispensing and drug disposal is another essential standard that every pharmacy must take care of. It works for patient safety and reduces theft. It is important when a pharmacist wants to stay competitive. He must consider establishing a competing drug dispensing and disposal system of expired and unused medicine to serve the best.
Read more about the Delivery System in Retail Pharmacy.
Integrate with mobile apps
Now consumers demand contactless ordering and delivery tracking options. This can only be done by integrating a B2B/B2C mobile app meant for vendors and customers. In mobile apps, the drug information is contained where user can quickly raise their order and bill with various online payment modes.
This way, a mobile app integration gives patients a quick service with time-saving and safety schemes. Let’s make your pharmacy business more resilient with B2B/B2C apps.
Preventing drug fraud
Every pharmacy has unlimited drug stocks with different brands name and usage. So, arranging them manually on shelves and knowing their exact availability becomes tedious. You may feel inaccurate calculations, miss drugs, or may feel a fraud.
To overcome this issue, you need to take your business into a software platform and automate inventory management. The retail pharmacy software offers a tracking capability that tracks where your requested medicine is placed and how much quantity is left.
This way, a pharmacy billing system prevents your business from billing fraud and other theft.
Wrapping Up
With changing customer demands and new competitors approaching the field, the time is right to switch to technology. The pharmacy point of sale system provides customers with a better pharmacy experience.
What you need is to evaluate your retail pharmacy store requirements, your budget, end-users, market, and your future vision to grow your business. Everything will be settled if you integrate with an advanced software solution for your retail pharmacy. SWIL is specially designed SwilERP software for single-store pharmacies. You can choose it based on a free demo facility or 45-day free-trial. Feel free to contact us for more information.
