Albeit in popular usage, names such as “online pharmacy” or “e-pharmacy” are alien to Polish law. For simplicity, they are, however, used throughout the following sections to refer to pharmacies selling medicinal products by mail order.
It became possible to retail medicinal products via the Internet on Poland’s accession to the EU. Initially, e-pharmacies were launched by traditional pharmacies as an additional sales channel and operated under the relevant 2003 ruling by the European Court of Justice. In May 2004, the first Polish online pharmacy DomZdrowia.pl was established in Kraków. After a year in business, its monthly sales were several times the average (PLN 130,000) for a traditional brick and mortar pharmacy. The example of DomZdrowia.pl (later renamed Internetowy Dom Zdrowia) is spectacular because the pharmacy, having climbed to the market leader position in approximately ten years, declared bankruptcy in January 2014, while its website was eventually auctioned in January 2015.
I-apteka.pl (based near Łódź) was launched in December 2005, and is now among the leaders in online sales of OTC drugs, dietary supplements, and other products. Some of the e-pharmacies that commenced operations in 2006 are Aptecus (based in Gdańsk), AptekaZdrowia.pl (based in Rzeszów), e-farm, Apteka4u.pl, Cefarm24.pl (based in Białystok). In 2005–2006, two to three such pharmacies went into business somewhere in Poland every month, bringing their number up to 40 by the end of 2006.
In May 2007, the Pharmaceutical Law permitted mail-order sale of non-prescription medicinal products by owners of full and limited pharmacies. The terms and conditions applicable to mail-order sales of OTC products were laid down in the Regulation by the Minister of Health on March 14, 2008. The relevant Regulation in force is that published by the Minister of Health on March 26, 2015 (“concerning mail-order sales of medicinal products”). Polish legislation allows Internet-based sales of pharmaceuticals only by pharmacies running brick and mortar retail stores and meeting relevant requirements in respect of the qualifications of personnel, storage facilities, and so on. Such stores are supplied exclusively by pharmaceutical wholesalers or manufacturers’ representatives. Each online pharmacy, like other pharmacies, may be inspected by health authorities and must be properly licensed. The Pharmaceutical Law stipulates that full details of each purchase order placed with an e-pharmacy be consistently recorded. Another legal requirement is that every e-pharmacy website must provide the name of the base store (establishment), its license (permit) number, a copy of the underlying license award document, and the pharmacy’s official real-world address. For each medicine on offer, the website has to produce such information as: price, method of payment, terms and cost of delivery, and order processing time.
At the beginning of 2016 there were almost 300 pharmacies in Poland selling OTCs, skin cosmetics, and dietary supplements by mail order. However, in fact, the number of active market players is smaller, with around just 30 e-pharmacies that can be described as significant actors. According to IMS data, mail-order sales by e-pharmacies reached PLN 233 million in 2015. Despite the impressive growth dynamics (55.5%) relative to 2014, the share of this channel remains diminutive: 0.8% of the retail market and 1.9% of the OTC segment.
Based on customer opinion surveys, Opinio.pl compiles online pharmacy rankings. In evaluating a store, consumers can rate such characteristics as the order processing time, quality of customer service, and parcel packaging, as well as state whether they would recommend the store to their friends and acquaintances. In the 2014 survey, the following e-pharmacies were rated best (Opineo.pl 2014):
Aptekagemini.pl, part of a pharmacy chain with 19 retail outlets across the region of Pomorze, employing 170 pharmacists. In business since 2008. What customers appreciate the most is its packaging and superb customer service;
Apteka-mellisa.pl from Łódź, praised by its wide range of products and competitive prices as well as for free gifts attached to each order.
Cefarm24.pl, an online store run by a pharmacy based in Białystok and having a high rate of recommendations from customers. Its greatest strengths are fast order processing and professional advice.
At the same time, a number of pharmacies are organized around the DOZ.pl website that enables consumers to place orders for medicines that can be then picked up in one of more than 2000 traditional pharmacies across the country. The pharmacy chain named “Dbam o zdrowie” has been built around PGF. By law, retailing through the platform known as “Platforma zamawiania leków” [Medicine Ordering Platform] does not constitute mail-order sale.
Research demonstrates that the product range and the cost of delivery for similar orders are comparable in most e-pharmacies. Attention can be drawn to just a few differences, such as the fact that prescription-only medicines can only be ordered (attaching a scan/photo of the prescription) through the websites of Apteka Melissa and DOZ, to be picked up in person at a retail store on producing the original prescription to the pharmacist. Apteka Melissa and Apteka Gemini do not accept international mail orders. The widest geographical coverage is provided by i-apteka that fills orders from Grodków, a small town in the region of Opolskie.
As far as interaction with the customer is concerned, a toll-free helpline is only available at DOZ.pl pharmacies. Differences between the pharmacies examined include online consultations from professionals, as only few of them provide such service through an instant messenger or discussion forum. Contact with the customer is critical to building customer relationships, since clients expect to be able to obtain instant help from a specialist and to be assured that the order will be shipped in just several hours to a pick-up point or to their homes. President of Opineo.pl Paweł Kucharzak observes that an online pharmacy that wants to be successful in retaining a group of loyal and satisfied customers should have the following characteristics: commitment to maintaining excellent customer relationships, competitive pricing, and an efficient and reliable stock and supply function (Opineo.pl 2015). In the opinion of Loopa.eu analysts, most revenue is derived by online pharmacies from the sales of such products as: toothbrushes, blood pressure meters, alternative medicine remedies, and vitamin-minerals supplements. Furthermore, the trend is for consumers to increasingly choose products from the upper price range. Another trend that was captured by the survey is that, interestingly, peak seasons for common colds do not cause increases in purchases from e-pharmacies (Opineo.pl 2015).
Besides e-pharmacies, there are other online stores where one can mail-order non-prescription drugs, skin cosmetics, dietary supplements, medical products. The largest such portal is an online marketplace Allegro.pl, which is used as sales channel by other companies.
While mail-ordering through a website is what all e-pharmacies have in common, specific businesses adopt different models of distribution:
a single brick and mortar pharmacy, either full (e.g. i-apteka.pl) or limited (e.g. e-farm.pl),
a single traditional pharmacy being part of a pharmacy chain (e.g. Apteki GEMINI, Apteki Melissa),
a traditional pharmacy using an e-commerce platform such as Allegro.
Major e-pharmacies typically cooperate with a retail courier of their choice and/or the Polish national postal service to ensure speedy and safe delivery. The total order processing time is conditional on parcel packaging time that, in turn, depends on the availability of a product in stock. Hence, physical proximity of a storage facility is essential for the efficient operations of an e-pharmacy. An interesting example to illustrate the point is provided by the e-pharmacy Cefarm24.pl, controlled by CEFARM Białystok S.A. (member of the Katowice-based group Farmacol S.A.) until May 2015, one of the biggest players in Poland’s pharmaceutical sector. Farmacol S.A. group runs its own pharmaceutical warehouses located throughout the country and a nationwide chain of nearly 200 pharmacies. As of May 22, 2015, the Internet-based pharmacy Cefarm24.pl is wholly owned by SK-Farm II Sp z o.o. headquartered in Katowice. The proximity of a storage facility can be an important edge over competitors, enabling an e-pharmacy to offer a broad range of products at affordable prices and deliver them quickly to a consumer-designated address.
According to the findings of an IMS survey, in 2015 the total value of transactions finalized through e-pharmacies exceeded that of purchases from traditional brick and mortar pharmacies. An e-pharmacy sold three times as many items per transaction as would a network or stand-alone pharmacy. This is of course associated with the cost of delivery that is calculated on a per-order basis.
thoughtleadershipzen.blogspot.com/2016/08/leadership-development-goals.html
It became possible to retail medicinal products via the Internet on Poland’s accession to the EU. Initially, e-pharmacies were launched by traditional pharmacies as an additional sales channel and operated under the relevant 2003 ruling by the European Court of Justice. In May 2004, the first Polish online pharmacy DomZdrowia.pl was established in Kraków. After a year in business, its monthly sales were several times the average (PLN 130,000) for a traditional brick and mortar pharmacy. The example of DomZdrowia.pl (later renamed Internetowy Dom Zdrowia) is spectacular because the pharmacy, having climbed to the market leader position in approximately ten years, declared bankruptcy in January 2014, while its website was eventually auctioned in January 2015.
I-apteka.pl (based near Łódź) was launched in December 2005, and is now among the leaders in online sales of OTC drugs, dietary supplements, and other products. Some of the e-pharmacies that commenced operations in 2006 are Aptecus (based in Gdańsk), AptekaZdrowia.pl (based in Rzeszów), e-farm, Apteka4u.pl, Cefarm24.pl (based in Białystok). In 2005–2006, two to three such pharmacies went into business somewhere in Poland every month, bringing their number up to 40 by the end of 2006.
In May 2007, the Pharmaceutical Law permitted mail-order sale of non-prescription medicinal products by owners of full and limited pharmacies. The terms and conditions applicable to mail-order sales of OTC products were laid down in the Regulation by the Minister of Health on March 14, 2008. The relevant Regulation in force is that published by the Minister of Health on March 26, 2015 (“concerning mail-order sales of medicinal products”). Polish legislation allows Internet-based sales of pharmaceuticals only by pharmacies running brick and mortar retail stores and meeting relevant requirements in respect of the qualifications of personnel, storage facilities, and so on. Such stores are supplied exclusively by pharmaceutical wholesalers or manufacturers’ representatives. Each online pharmacy, like other pharmacies, may be inspected by health authorities and must be properly licensed. The Pharmaceutical Law stipulates that full details of each purchase order placed with an e-pharmacy be consistently recorded. Another legal requirement is that every e-pharmacy website must provide the name of the base store (establishment), its license (permit) number, a copy of the underlying license award document, and the pharmacy’s official real-world address. For each medicine on offer, the website has to produce such information as: price, method of payment, terms and cost of delivery, and order processing time.
At the beginning of 2016 there were almost 300 pharmacies in Poland selling OTCs, skin cosmetics, and dietary supplements by mail order. However, in fact, the number of active market players is smaller, with around just 30 e-pharmacies that can be described as significant actors. According to IMS data, mail-order sales by e-pharmacies reached PLN 233 million in 2015. Despite the impressive growth dynamics (55.5%) relative to 2014, the share of this channel remains diminutive: 0.8% of the retail market and 1.9% of the OTC segment.
Based on customer opinion surveys, Opinio.pl compiles online pharmacy rankings. In evaluating a store, consumers can rate such characteristics as the order processing time, quality of customer service, and parcel packaging, as well as state whether they would recommend the store to their friends and acquaintances. In the 2014 survey, the following e-pharmacies were rated best (Opineo.pl 2014):
Aptekagemini.pl, part of a pharmacy chain with 19 retail outlets across the region of Pomorze, employing 170 pharmacists. In business since 2008. What customers appreciate the most is its packaging and superb customer service;
Apteka-mellisa.pl from Łódź, praised by its wide range of products and competitive prices as well as for free gifts attached to each order.
Cefarm24.pl, an online store run by a pharmacy based in Białystok and having a high rate of recommendations from customers. Its greatest strengths are fast order processing and professional advice.
At the same time, a number of pharmacies are organized around the DOZ.pl website that enables consumers to place orders for medicines that can be then picked up in one of more than 2000 traditional pharmacies across the country. The pharmacy chain named “Dbam o zdrowie” has been built around PGF. By law, retailing through the platform known as “Platforma zamawiania leków” [Medicine Ordering Platform] does not constitute mail-order sale.
Research demonstrates that the product range and the cost of delivery for similar orders are comparable in most e-pharmacies. Attention can be drawn to just a few differences, such as the fact that prescription-only medicines can only be ordered (attaching a scan/photo of the prescription) through the websites of Apteka Melissa and DOZ, to be picked up in person at a retail store on producing the original prescription to the pharmacist. Apteka Melissa and Apteka Gemini do not accept international mail orders. The widest geographical coverage is provided by i-apteka that fills orders from Grodków, a small town in the region of Opolskie.
As far as interaction with the customer is concerned, a toll-free helpline is only available at DOZ.pl pharmacies. Differences between the pharmacies examined include online consultations from professionals, as only few of them provide such service through an instant messenger or discussion forum. Contact with the customer is critical to building customer relationships, since clients expect to be able to obtain instant help from a specialist and to be assured that the order will be shipped in just several hours to a pick-up point or to their homes. President of Opineo.pl Paweł Kucharzak observes that an online pharmacy that wants to be successful in retaining a group of loyal and satisfied customers should have the following characteristics: commitment to maintaining excellent customer relationships, competitive pricing, and an efficient and reliable stock and supply function (Opineo.pl 2015). In the opinion of Loopa.eu analysts, most revenue is derived by online pharmacies from the sales of such products as: toothbrushes, blood pressure meters, alternative medicine remedies, and vitamin-minerals supplements. Furthermore, the trend is for consumers to increasingly choose products from the upper price range. Another trend that was captured by the survey is that, interestingly, peak seasons for common colds do not cause increases in purchases from e-pharmacies (Opineo.pl 2015).
Besides e-pharmacies, there are other online stores where one can mail-order non-prescription drugs, skin cosmetics, dietary supplements, medical products. The largest such portal is an online marketplace Allegro.pl, which is used as sales channel by other companies.
While mail-ordering through a website is what all e-pharmacies have in common, specific businesses adopt different models of distribution:
a single brick and mortar pharmacy, either full (e.g. i-apteka.pl) or limited (e.g. e-farm.pl),
a single traditional pharmacy being part of a pharmacy chain (e.g. Apteki GEMINI, Apteki Melissa),
a traditional pharmacy using an e-commerce platform such as Allegro.
Major e-pharmacies typically cooperate with a retail courier of their choice and/or the Polish national postal service to ensure speedy and safe delivery. The total order processing time is conditional on parcel packaging time that, in turn, depends on the availability of a product in stock. Hence, physical proximity of a storage facility is essential for the efficient operations of an e-pharmacy. An interesting example to illustrate the point is provided by the e-pharmacy Cefarm24.pl, controlled by CEFARM Białystok S.A. (member of the Katowice-based group Farmacol S.A.) until May 2015, one of the biggest players in Poland’s pharmaceutical sector. Farmacol S.A. group runs its own pharmaceutical warehouses located throughout the country and a nationwide chain of nearly 200 pharmacies. As of May 22, 2015, the Internet-based pharmacy Cefarm24.pl is wholly owned by SK-Farm II Sp z o.o. headquartered in Katowice. The proximity of a storage facility can be an important edge over competitors, enabling an e-pharmacy to offer a broad range of products at affordable prices and deliver them quickly to a consumer-designated address.
According to the findings of an IMS survey, in 2015 the total value of transactions finalized through e-pharmacies exceeded that of purchases from traditional brick and mortar pharmacies. An e-pharmacy sold three times as many items per transaction as would a network or stand-alone pharmacy. This is of course associated with the cost of delivery that is calculated on a per-order basis.
thoughtleadershipzen.blogspot.com/2016/08/leadership-development-goals.html