Irish pharmacists going online why so few?

bdo

Just wondering why there are so few pharmacists selling online already in Ireland?

Appreciate that they cannot sell prescriptions online but would front-of-counter and non-prescription medicines not offer them enough incentive to get online?

It is very big in the UK and quite a few UK online pharmacists market (some of) their products here.

Any pharmacists out there want to venture an opinion?

Thanks

Trojan

I'd suspect that it's because there were previously limitations on online sales of all medicines, including front-of-counter and non-prescription (correct me if I'm wrong, this isn't my area of expertise).

That said, I know of some smaller pharmacies operating online, and the bigger chains are online too.

I think the online retail space in Ireland still has huge potential to grow massively, and it will continue to do so in all sectors, including pharmacy, as they catch up with UK and US competitors.

mneylon

There are strict legal restrictions on the sale of prescription medicines online.

See http://asop.eu/ for some information - and here for Ireland specific information http://www.imb.ie/

EIREHotspur

I'd say too that basically Phrarmacys have always been walk in/walk out kind of business.

Maybe as the IT Generation comes up and takes over they will move online.

RATM

There are a few doctors doing repeat prescriptions for the pill online, you consult with them via email/phone and then they post out the prescription. Sounds a lot better than going to your regular doctor and paying €50 for a repeat prescription.

It is a pity there are such big restrictions on mail order medicines otherwise the sector could really grow. You only need to look at the Canadian pharmacy sector and see how well they do pharma e-commerce- so well in fact that millions of Americans buy from them, I believe the powers that be in Washington are trying to put an end to it but for now Canadian pharmacies are taking a nice chunk of the American market.

If our government had any clue they'd open up this sector and let Irish pharmacies compete online with UK ones and right across the EU for the mail order market

jmcc

Apart from the valid reasons above, there's a cultural aspect and a time related aspect to the problem. Culturally, Irish people visit the pharmacists rather than order from them. The time related aspect means that someone visiting a pharmacy is likely to need the relevant drugs immediately rather than in a few days time. Some of these drugs would be considered fast moving consumer products (Paracetmol etc) and many of those would be non-prescription so the profit from trying to sell them online (where a consumer has to go search for them and wait for them to be delivered) may not be that high and existing pharmacies and supermarkets, etc may already have the customers there looking for the drugs. It really gets down to what is sellable online and what is not - that's a far more complex issue.

Regards...jmcc

sandin

The UK is one of the biggest online markets per capita in the world. Ireland lags well behind.

Its quite a simple reason - to get to a decent set of shops in the UK could take you a couple of hours between traffic and parking, in Ireland most small towns have a selection of local retailers that any UK town would be jealous of and thus access to everyday goods is easy.

Online shopping will continue to grow, but research suggests that it us nearing an optimum level and growth will be confined to certain product categories rather than the market in general. (info from recent Retail Excellence seminar on etailing)