What is the prospect of online pharmacies?

Abstract: What is the development status of online pharmacies? According to the survey, many users are used to buying clothes, digital products and household appliances online, but not many people buy drugs online. So what is the prospect of online pharmacies? Let's take a look at the development status and prospects of online pharmacies. What is the current situation of online pharmacies and the prospect of online pharmacies?

Development status of online pharmacies

1, industry background

We are used to buying clothes, digital products and household appliances online, but not many people buy medicine online. According to the survey report of China Online Pharmacy Council, in 20 1 1 year, the scale of pharmaceutical B2C reached 400 million yuan, and only five online pharmacies with sales of 50 million yuan appeared. 20 1 1 year, the market size of the pharmaceutical industry reaches 37 18 billion, and the online drug sales are less than a fraction of that of offline pharmacies, which still has great development potential.

The pharmaceutical industry is a profiteering industry in the eyes of ordinary people, and drugs are expensive, which is also one of the reasons why it is difficult and expensive for China people to see a doctor. The development of e-commerce has brought a breakthrough to the development of pharmaceutical industry. If it is done well, it can reduce the cost of medical treatment for ordinary people. The Twelfth Five-Year Plan of National Pharmaceutical Circulation also points out that it is necessary to speed up the integration of pharmaceutical circulation industry, realize the refined development of pharmaceutical circulation, encourage retail chain enterprises with standardized operation to develop online pharmacies, and hope that pharmaceutical e-commerce enterprises will become a powerful tool to promote national medical reform.

2. Sales situation

But why is the sales of online pharmacies so small? This is related to the particularity of drugs. As a special commodity, the circulation of drugs is strictly controlled by the state and the sales channels are monopolized by medical institutions. As we all know, one of the channels for people to buy medicine is the pharmacy in the hospital and the other is the pharmacy outside the hospital. Although it is expensive to buy drugs in hospitals, patients are forced to buy drugs in hospitals because hospitals regard this as their main means of profit (it is said that drugs sold by medical institutions account for 70% of the total retail sales of drugs). Online retail pharmacies mainly sell over-the-counter drugs and can use medical insurance cards.

3. Development status

According to the latest white paper "Internet Situation in China" published by the State Council Press Office, in 2009, the e-commerce transaction volume in China exceeded 3.6 trillion yuan, and the number of netizens in China reached 384 million, an increase of 6 18 times compared with195 million, with an average annual increase of 3195 million. In China, more than 654.38 billion people shop through the Internet, and the Internet penetration rate is very high. At the same time, in 2009, the market of medicines, cosmeceuticals, adult products and health products outside hospitals in China was about 500 billion yuan. Online pharmacies in the United States have accounted for nearly 30% of the market share in the entire pharmaceutical circulation field in the United States. In China, if the online pharmacy circulation conservatively accounts for only 3% of the market, it will have a scale of nearly 654.38+0.5 billion yuan, and this conservative estimate is still growing with the development of the Internet in China!

The huge number of network users and the growing health demand have directly led to the rapid development of online pharmacies. In May of 20 10 alone, four enterprises applied for online pharmacy licenses, equivalent to the sum of 2006 and 2007.

Since September 29, 2005, the State Food and Drug Administration of the United States officially promulgated the Interim Provisions on the Examination and Approval of Internet Drug Trading Services, the online pharmacy business in China has developed rapidly. However, the vast majority of online pharmacies are privately operated, and the "black" pharmacies without the approval of the US Food and Drug Administration seriously interfere with the market order and pose a great threat to consumers' medication safety and personal safety.

According to Wang Songlin, director of the Inspection Bureau of the US Food and Drug Administration, with the approval of the regulatory authorities, there are 69 units that can conduct drug transactions on the Internet, of which 38 can sell drugs to individuals [3].

Judging from the global development trend, medical e-commerce will surely become the general trend in the future. The market size of medical e-commerce in the United States accounts for nearly 30% of the whole medical circulation field, but the online retail sales of medical e-commerce market in China have increased, but just exceeded 1 100 million yuan. The key factors restricting its development are reflected in the system, environment, platform and other aspects.

Therefore, the decisive factor for the development of medical e-commerce in the future is that the safety of drugs will no longer be an obstacle for consumers to buy drugs online, which requires China to carry out stricter supervision on medical e-commerce, strict supervision policies, and strict certification of drugs sold online; Secondly, the domestic e-commerce industry is more mature and can be recognized by more consumers; Finally, the domestic logistics industry and the third-party pharmaceutical logistics industry have made great progress, paving the way for the development of the pharmaceutical e-commerce industry.

4. Enterprise qualification

By the end of July 20 13, there were 1 12 [3] enterprises in China that had obtained the qualification certificates for online drug sales, of which 6 1 enterprises were B2C enterprises, but none of them achieved breakeven. The sales of online pharmacies mainly come from medical devices and health care products, which also makes up for the shortcomings of physical pharmacies. With the popularity of online drug purchase, the market capacity of pharmaceutical e-commerce will reach 654.38+0.5 billion in the next five years. When traditional medicine is deeply connected with the emerging Internet, big e-commerce companies such as Tmall and JD.COM are scrambling to "test drugs", and online pharmacies such as Kang Zhijia, Jinxiang, Jingwei, Huatuo and Kaixin are "charging" one after another, and the field of online pharmacies is suddenly surging.

What is the prospect of online pharmacies?

As a new commercial channel platform, e-commerce has developed into a relatively mature market. Departments, books, electrical appliances and other industries have been inextricably linked on this platform, and medical e-commerce is still a blue ocean to be developed. China has 477 million Internet users. Through the huge potential customer base of medical e-commerce, we can imagine the bright future of further development of medical e-commerce in China.

Faced with such a huge market potential, the demand of users may explode. Who is in charge of the ups and downs of major online pharmacies? A few days ago, well-known medical e-commerce analysts pointed out that the current online shopping behavior, especially online shopping drugs, needs to solve the problems of trust and drug safety. If we want to solve this problem, "physical store+online pharmacy" will be a better solution.

Online shopping transaction

According to relevant data, in 2005, the number of online shopping users in China was 65.438+08.55 million, and the transaction volume of online shopping market was 65.438+09.35438+0 billion yuan. In 2009, the number of online shoppers reached 654.38 billion, and the transaction amount reached 248.35 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 93.7%. Although compared with itself, online pharmacies have made great progress in recent years, compared with the crazy development of Internet e-commerce market in China, the development of drug e-commerce seems to be faltering or even struggling.

65438-0998 Guangzhou Kangzhijia Pharmaceutical Chain Co., Ltd. opened the first online pharmacy in South China. However, it was not until September 29th, 2005 that the State Food and Drug Administration of the United States officially promulgated the Interim Provisions on the Examination and Approval of Internet Drug Trading Services, which indicated that China had been allowed to operate the online drug retail business, and the online pharmacy business was implemented from June 65438+February 1 2005. However, as of 20 10 65438+27 10, only 20 pharmacies in China have obtained the qualification to sell drugs online in the mode of enterprise and consumer e-commerce. Among them, Kangzhijia online pharmacy is one of the legal online pharmacies. In 20 10, online pharmacies flourished, and the number of pharmacies with online drug sales qualifications increased to 34, and the third-party online pharmacy platform-800 square medical health online mall came into being. 201111October, the qualification of online drug sales was delegated to the provincial food and drug administrations, and the new development climax of online pharmacies is coming soon.