The healthcare industry is entering the era of digital innovation and the potential of such modern technologies like cloud, big data, artificial intelligence, machine learning, and IoT in healthcare is vast.
The technology applications based on AI and the Internet of Medical Things are used to catch signs early to prevent disease progression, provide better support for staying healthy, encourage healthier behavior, etc.
Another promising area of the health industry is global augmented reality along with virtual reality and their market size is expected to cross $9.5 billion by 2028. Besides 3D cinema, real estate, education, video games, and entertainment devices, AR and VR technology is used to benefit human health helping both patients and doctors.
The healthcare industry is becoming more technologically advanced as time goes on and there are a plethora of other prominent medical technology trends that are changing the future of the healthcare system. According to Verified Market Research, the global healthcare market is estimated to arrive at $665.37 billion by 2028.
Having brought a crucial transformation in the medical sector, mobile apps enable healthcare specialists to reach the patients and provide them with quick solutions anytime and from anywhere. Today, there are more than 350,000 medical applications including health as well as fitness apps available in major app stores.
ePharmacy market becomes increasingly digital and its value is projected to reach more than $206 billion by 2028. Let's delve into online pharmacy app development now and find out a set of relevant features of the pharmacy app that meet all customers’ expectations and needs.
What Is an Online Pharmacy App?
An online pharmacy app is a software that ensures fast search, selection, and order of medicines and subsequently safe and timely delivery that drastically maximizes the convenience and better customer experience and saves time along with effort. This electronic service is available through a pharmacy marketplace or branded online pharmacy app.
The first option is an easy-to-use platform, which connects healthcare providers and pharmacies allowing them to sell the medicines. With the marketplace, users have a choice and can compare prices offered by different pharmacies that have registered on the platform and then order from the most favorable one.
By choosing a marketplace, startups can skip developing their own application but at the same time attract customers, increase profit, and grow their brand fast.
But transforming your pharmacy into a digital business with an app that allows customers to buy medicines online seamlessly enables a strong connection between the pharmacy and its clients as the pharmacy app development that based on the branded name, and plenty of branded style elements result in a product that improves company recognition, scales business, and boosts sales.
Why Is an Online Pharmacy App Important?
Mobile technology is growing exponentially and solving a myriad of healthcare tasks by providing apps that enhance doctor-patient communication, efficiency, quality of the service, and other benefits including online pharmacy app development solutions.
Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, many people throughout the world stopped going into stores and traditional pharmacies and turned to online pharmacies.
Access to digital care options due to the pharmacy app development gives users more personalized services and the opportunity to track necessary medications, increase their compliance, find the most reasonable prices, attractive offerings and discounts, and order fast delivery.
5 Main Benefits of Pharmacy App Development
Here 5 key reasons why a pharmacy mobile app is a good idea for your business:
- Enhanced Client Experience
Convenience is one of the most critical aspects of any mobile application including pharmacy mobile apps. It makes things easier for the patients by enabling them to order prescription refills through the Internet from the comfort of the home anytime they want.
Besides, some pharmacy apps play well with multiple profiles and let users manage prescriptions for all family members from a single account. The family sharing feature means you can view the order history like medication dosages, Rx numbers, dates, etc.
- Time-efficiency
The pharmacy apps drastically streamline and simplify communication by linking patients directly with their trusted pharmacists, allowing them to take and send photos and message their providers through the app’s inbox. Apparently, pharmacy apps save time and effort for patients and automate many of the manual and repetitive functions, such as the patient record-keeping process, that help lower costs and enable deeper patient care.
- Improved Patient Engagement & Retention
Your branded pharmacy application is a real chance to build a strong connection with your customers and maximize the interaction with them through emails, push notifications, news, reminders of drug reorders, and regular texts that inform users about hot discounts. Besides, providing customers with different payment methods in your app also adds to the positive experience and loyalty.
With the continual data insights gathered from the app, businesses can build more successful marketing and product development strategies, better serve customers, improve clients engagement, and increase revenue.
- Strong Brand Identity
With technology as a key enabler, companies keep their online presence, which adds fuel to the overall image of the brand. With the app, users have around-the-clock accessibility to your services. Moreover, if the application is convenient, well designed, simple, and user-friendly, the customers will keep it installed all the time and will check the updates and news on a regular basis, which contributes to creating a trustful relationship. Additionally, you can employ referral marketing and incentives to clients to boost your brand recognition.
- Easy Marketing and Increased Sales
As we can see, there are many significant benefits companies can gain from the pharmacy app development, and the next advantage is the opportunity to promote a brand by offering the content in a way that suits user preferences.
The push notifications are tied closely to the phone device and usually don’t go unnoticed, therefore utilizing this advertising strategy will boost sales, especially if you consider consumers' data like when they are most open to notifications and then send a message.
7 Core Features Of a Successful Pharmacy App
Once you have the basic concept of your application, you need to decide the exact functionality of the future product before the on-demand pharmacy app development starts. To create an innovative, cutting-edge, successful, and user-friendly app that will meet clients' needs and drive revenue, you should consider the following features:
1. User Profile
Although an average user is likely to skip the registration process, it is quite crucial to create a profile that displays personal data including name, age, sex, etc.
2. Prescription Upload
This feature significantly saves time because users don’t need to upload repeat prescriptions and pharmacists can access them from their devices.
3. Medication Information
The more information provided, the easier it is to make the right choice. The information about the medication should include full drug description, manufacturers, price, image, and it is also advisable to add the review section.
4. Fast Search
The fast search with an advanced filtering system (types of medicine, dosage, price, etc.) helps customers find quickly the most relevant medication.
5. Order Tracking
Real-time delivery tracking is a critical component of a pharmacy app because it helps users monitor the status of their package. The usage of tags like ‘delivered’, ‘in progress’, ‘delivery delayed’ gives more valuable information as the status represents the current progress.
6. Making Online Orders
Filling a virtual basket with the necessary medicines with just a few clicks and then making an order over the Internet is one of the must-have features of the pharmacy application.
7. Payment Options
In addition to the payment option that requires users to choose whether they make payment on delivery or in advance online, the pharmacy app developers should empower the application with a variety of payment methods: credit/debit cards, wallets, bank transfers, and more.
Wrapping It Up
Apparently, the COVID-19 pandemic including social distancing has reinforced the need to accelerate digital transformation in the healthcare industry, which results in the development of healthcare IT solutions and software services that drastically optimize workflows and provide the best patient experience possible.
The use of phone devices has revamped the face of medical services around the world making healthcare more accessible, faster, and better.
Our team, at Intellectsoft, focuses on assisting companies to improve operational efficiencies and streamline the workflow by delivering reliable IT services and innovative approaches like online pharmacy app development solutions.
Get in touch with our experts to find out more about the topic and how our pharmacy app development services can help you improve your working processes, accelerate your sales, and increase revenue.
