There is an undeniable shift towards online in the pharmacy sector – driven by consumer demand, emerging competition, and national policy. As the NHS moves towards digitisation of healthcare, it remains essential for community pharmacies to find their role in this space. Community pharmacies have always been key providers of healthcare services and products but there is opportunity to play an even greater role by using digital channels to promote your services and/or make it easier for patients in your locality to access the healthcare they need.
Why is there a shift towards online pharmacy services?
Latest figures from the Office of National Statistics (ONS)1 show that 96% of people living in the UK have internet access and 84% of the population use a smartphone.
This instant mobile online access has transformed the way people conduct their everyday activities – they expect to be able to access goods and services instantaneously and on-the-fly.
It’s no surprise then that the latest ONS data1 also shows an increase in online shopping activity. In January to February 2020, 87% of all adults shopped online within the last 12 months, up from 53% in 2008; those aged 65 years and over had the highest growth, rising from 16% to 65% over this period.
The Covid-19 pandemic has highlighted how quickly the pharmacy industry can adapt its services when it needs to, and this will be the key to remaining relevant as consumer behaviours change.
At the same time, many sectors are feeling the effects of the decline in footfall on UK high streets and the pharmacy industry is no exception. According to one article2, more than 1000 pharmacies have closed in England since the beginning of 2019. One analysis3 predicts that if this trend continues there would be no pharmacies left in England by 2067. Yet, the Covid-19 pandemic has highlighted how quickly the pharmacy industry can adapt its services when it needs to, and this will be the key to remaining in business as consumer behaviours change.
“The reality is, the Internet is the first stop for everybody thinking about anything, whether it’s booking a train ticket, or a haircut, almost all everyday activity now is conducted online. And you need to consider that online isn’t someone sitting at their desk, online is a mobile phone, it’s whilst you’re walking down the high street, it’s whilst you’re sitting waiting for your friend having a coffee, it’s a permanently accessible thing. The advent of mobile phones and really high-quality mobile phones, which are basically powerful computers in your pocket, have transformed the way people do things.”
Wayne Page, Healthcare Digital Expert, Plazmid Consulting
NHS drivers for moving online
As well as these shifting consumer trends, healthcare provision is changing from the top-down too, with the NHS itself encouraging more patients to use the internet when they engage with the health service. The NHS Long Term Plan4, published in 2019, places a firm focus on technology, with its ambition of offering a ‘digital first’ option for most patients and using the NHS App to create a standard online way for people to access services. It states that ‘all providers, across acute, community and mental health settings, will be expected to advance to a core level of digitisation by 2024.’
Also in the Long-Term Plan is a desire to make greater use of community pharmacists’ skills and opportunities to engage patients4. They are expected to be key partners in emerging Primary Care Networks (PCNs), where they will work alongside GPs and other community services to provide ‘proactive, personalised, coordinated and more integrated health and social care for people close to home’. Through PCNs, new distinct clinical pharmacist roles will work in general practice, providing opportunities for more joined up working between general practice and community pharmacy but also presents a need for the community pharmacy to ensure it can seamlessly integrate with other services.
These changes are reflected in the new Community Pharmacy Contractual Framework5, which sets the future direction for community pharmacy as one that is ‘increasingly clinically focused, with less emphasis on dispensing and more on providing advice and other support for patients in the community setting.’ To help generate the capacity to achieve this, the new framework expects community pharmacies to increase its use of technology. This includes everything from apps to automated dispensing. Developing even a basic online presence for your business is an easy but important first step in embracing this change.
Innovators in the online pharmacy space
According to NHS Digital6, there are 350 distance-selling pharmacies in England – defined as having either an online-only presence or registered as the online ‘arm’ of a bricks and mortar pharmacy.
Online pharmacies were first established more than 25 years ago, but they have been growing in number and include businesses such as Chemist Direct, Oxford Online Pharmacy, Pharmacy Online and The Independent Pharmacy, co-founded by Andy Boysan:
“When we first started about eight years ago, 75 percent of our visitors were on desktop, and 25 on mobile. Fast forward to today and 75-80 percent of them are via mobile and 20 percent are the other devices. It just goes to show how things have changed in such a short period of time. Covid-19 has accelerated that. What we’ve seen is the older generation who didn’t really shop online, were forced to shop online and now actually they expect it as part and parcel of normal commerce, and it’s becoming an option to them as well.”
Pharmacy2U is the UK’s largest online-only pharmacy. It currently dispenses three million of a total one billion prescription items a year but has ambitions to dispense 7.5 million items per month through the opening of a new ‘megahub’ to complement its existing site in Leeds.7,8 Amazon has also registered the name Amazon Pharmacy with the UK patent office, signalling a potential move into the sector.8
Faced with these new competitors and the demise of the high street, most of the major pharmacy chains are now investing in digital transformation programmes. In the past year, Lloyds Pharmacy, Boots and Rowlands have closed a large number of their bricks and mortar stores and are increasing focus on their online presence.9 Some are developing their own apps that allow patients to order repeat prescriptions whereas others have developed hub-and-spoke models where a proportion of prescriptions are dispensed at a central hub and then shipped back to the store for collection, freeing up pharmacist time for patient care in other branches.
It is anticipated that obtaining medicines online will become a more popular option for consumers7: Some 25 per cent of people in the UK say they are likely to use an online pharmacy in the future, according to a YouGov survey for the General Pharmaceutical Council earlier this year.10
Yet consumers are not abandoning physical pharmacies. Although the pandemic drove more people to purchase healthcare products online, a number of UK consumers still visited a pharmacy to buy healthcare products during the lockdown period11. In fact, for many people, their local pharmacy was a key point of interaction for healthcare supplies and advice during the pandemic and will continue to be.
In addition, most multiples are looking at a hybrid model of physical and online stores9, recognising that many consumers still value an in-person experience.
The need for physical and online services
People want more choice about how they engage with healthcare services. Some will want to use an app, others will want to come into the store. Some people’s trips to the pharmacy are reactive on the way back from the surgery. Other people take regular medicines and may want to order online and have items delivered to their office.
By combining the physical and online worlds, your pharmacy can provide more customer choice and meet the needs of more people within your local community.
Online-only pharmacies cannot replicate the full patient experience achieved in the bricks and mortar setting, and face-to-face contact will remain important to many people and for many conditions. The key is to focus on what you can offer as a local pharmacy, that a large online-only provider cannot.
Amir Bhogal, Registered Pharmacist and Pharmacy Manager at Pyramid Pharmacy, and independent chain based in London, explains how they focus their online activities on their proven USP as a local, family business:
“The way we run the business, it’s a family business. It’s a lot more personal in terms of the care the patients are getting. They see the same faces every time they come. A lot of our pharmacists have worked for us for many years. They’ve done the training with us. So I think customers are very receptive to that. One of the big downfalls of having an online-only pharmacy is there’s no one to speak to. For example, if you are having problems with your medication, it can be really difficult to get hold of someone to have a chat about this. So our online presence is associated with a local pharmacy and tailored to our local community and what they need, so customers are only ever a few miles from the actual pharmacy site itself.”
A PharmaTimes article reported that, a September 2020 survey by Ipsos MORI showed that UK consumers have already turned to community pharmacists more for health advice and other services during the Covid-19 pandemic.11 57% of UK consumers said they are turning to community pharmacists to provide advice about over-the-counter healthcare products – a rise of 68% in the 45-54 age bracket. Nearly half of those surveyed said they would expect community pharmacists to provide advice on how to treat everyday health issues and they would seek guidance from pharmacists on health topics they would normally see a doctor about.11
This is further supported by the success of the new NHS Community Pharmacist Consultation Service (CPCS), where people can book a face-to-face consultation with a pharmacist for a range of minor illnesses or to get an urgent supply of previously prescribed medicine. Since the CPCS was rolled out in October 2019, more than 300,000 NHS check-ups with a high street pharmacist have taken place.12,13
Offering clinical services like these not only reduces significant pressure from the NHS but it can increase pharmacy income and allow staff to fully use the experience, expertise and patient relationships they have established as frontline healthcare professionals in their community.
Some services are now a mandatory part of the NHS contract:
“Flu jabs are something that all pharmacies now have to offer. You’ve got to do training for the Patient Group Directive for that flu jab because it’s a prescription item. We probably wouldn’t take on a pharmacist if they weren’t willing to do flu jabs. Dispensers now need to be technician trained so they can then check prescriptions for quantity and they are not pulling the pharmacists themselves away from providing services. There’s a lot of things that pharmacy staff can do if they receive the training.”
Amir Bhogal, Registered Pharmacist and Pharmacy Manager at Pyramid Pharmacy, and independent chain based in London.
Yet people often aren’t aware of the extensive support pharmacists can provide or don’t know how to take advantage of the services offered.
Writing in The Pharmaceutical Journal, Mark Robinson, Pharmacy Lead, NHA Alliance, says that there are four aspects of business operations that community pharmacies should focus on.14 One of them is to manage expectations of patients – people need to know what they can now get from their pharmacy, and pharmacy needs to go out and tell them.
Getting online gives you a platform to demonstrate your own value, ensuring that your local customer base understands and can access the full range of clinical services you offer. It can also save time, allowing you to increase the range of services you provide. There is a huge opportunity for pharmacies that can develop their services and emerge as the go-to place in their community for basic clinical care.
“I don’t think it’s ever too soon to get online. The longer you leave it, the harder it will get, so it’s worth getting started now. Whatever you do will be a start and you will learn from it. A lot of people are probably apprehensive because it’s brand new and involves an element of retraining. But actually, getting online is quite easy and you soon get used to it. You do need to invest in your website and make it grow, but you don’t have to have massively deep pockets unless you want to compete with the major national companies.”
Andy Boysan, Director & Superintendent Pharmacist at
The Independent Pharmacy.
How can you ensure the same quality as your ‘bricks and mortar’ pharmacy?
One challenge for the large online pharmacies that have sprung up in the UK is the lack of consumer trust, following questions from regulators over the quality of care they provide.7 As a trusted healthcare provider in your catchment area, you will already have an advantage over these online-only giants. As we shall see in the articles that follow, you can use your online presence to communicate your brand and unique credentials.
Because you already have a good, strong customer following, it’s important to take small, carefully considered steps when developing your online presence and using digital channels to communicate with customers. We will cover how to ensure your website and social media activity is safe and compliant with regulations. And although nothing can replace the face-to-face experience for some services, we will share tips on how you can provide a professional and personable experience for customers through digital channels.
In the next article, we look at how to ensure you are seen by search engines and how to make the most of social media as a small pharmacy business.
References
- Office of National Statistics. Internet access – households and individuals, Great Britain: 2020 (Accessed July 2021)
- PharmaTimes, May 2021. Care in the Community (Accessed July 2021);
- MedicineDirect, January 2021. Britain’s Pharmacy Blackspots (Accessed July 2021)
- National Health Service, 2019. NHS Long Term Plan (Accessed July 2021)
- National Health Service, 2019. Community Pharmacy Contractual Framework: 2019 to 2024 (Accessed July 2021)
- NHS Digital, 2018. General Pharmaceutical Services in England – 2007/2008 to 2017/2018 (Accessed July 2021)
- Is it worth all community pharmacies having an online presence? The Pharmaceutical Journal, PJ, June 2018, Vol 300, No 7914;300(7914) DOI:10.1211/PJ.2018.20204945
- Hannbeck L, Aggressive tactics of online pharmacies are a wake-up call. Pharmacy Magazine, 19 Mar 2021 (Accessed September 2021) https:/www.pharmacymagazine.co.uk/opinion/aggressive-tactics-of-online-pharmacies-are-a-wake-up-call
- High street multiples take on the digital pharmacy revolution. The Pharmaceutical Journal, PJ, July 2019, Vol 303, No 7927;303(7927) DOI:10.1211/PJ.2019.20206828
- General Pharmaceutical Council, April 2019. Consultation on ‘Making sure patients and the public obtain medicines and other pharmacy services safely online’: analysis report (Accessed July 2021)
- PharmaTimes, September 2020. UK consumers seeking advice from pharmacists during pandemic, research finds (Accessed July 2021)
- PharmaTimes, June 2020. High-street pharmacist check-ups overshoot 300,000 (Accessed July 2021)
- National Health Service, 2020. NHS high street check-ups top 300,000 (Accessed October 2021)
- The big debate: is online dispensing a threat? The Pharmaceutical Journal, PJ, July 2019, Vol 303, No 7927;303(7927): DOI:10.1211/PJ.2019.20206790
