Browsing by Subject "online pharmacies"

Background: Increased use of internet and the development of different services has led into the growth of ecommerce in many sectors and the e-commerce is growing significantly faster than any other economy in Finland. In addition, the search for different health related information from the internet has increased and this has led into increase in the online purchase of different health-related products and services in many countries. However, buying pharmaceutical preparations from online pharmacies have not become that popular in Finland yet, although there are many online pharmacy service providers. Objective: The aim of this study was to explore the acceptance and use of online pharmacies for the purchase of OTC medicines in Finland. The main purpose was to find out what are drivers and barriers to purchase OTC medicines online and which factors could facilitate to overcome customer perceived barriers. Furthermore, the aim was to investigate online purchase behavior for OTC medicines and to find out the insights required to develop more seamless online customer journey. Materials and methods: This study was conducted as a combination of quantitative survey and qualitative interview. The target group of this study was 18-74 year-old-people people living at the Greater Helsinki area. The data was collected with an online survey (n=262), one focus group discussion (n=5) and one-to-one interview (n=3). Participants of both, the survey and interviews, were chosen by convenience sampling and they were drawn in via social media, mainly by Facebook, and in co-operation with a few pharmacies in the Greater Helsinki area. Quantitative analysis of the survey was made by using version 25.0 of the IBM Statistical Program for Social Sciences (SPSS) and data obtained with open questions and interviews was analyzed by using conventional deductive content analysis. Results: In this study sample, 16.5% had bought medicines online. Independence from time and place, convenience and time saving were the biggest drivers to shop OTC medicines online, while the biggest barriers were lack of additional value, high price of the delivery and long delivery time as well as acute nature of the problem. Cheaper price of the medicine was the strongest factor that could get people consider buying online. Results indicate that the online customer journey follows the general five-stage decision making model while purchasing unfamiliar medicines. Internet turned out to be the primary source of information before purchase and self-diagnosis could be made with the help of information found from the internet. In addition, perceptions and experiences of important others and advice from the pharmacist were considered as useful help in the process of self-diagnosis. Conclusions: Barriers for the purchase are currently dominating over the motivating factors. However, the majority of non-buyers would be ready to consider buying medicines online. Currently,the online pharmacies cannot compete with the prices of the medicines, due to the local regulations, but pricing of other pharmacy products is free and those could work as incentive to buy also medicines online. In addition, it would be worth for online pharmacies to invest on developing quick and reasonably priced delivery services and properly working, real-time chat service as well as further increase awareness of their services. Pharmaceutical companies can improve the customer journey by providing the information consumers usually search at their product pages and already at Google-view as a quick links. In addition, online pharmacies should be provided with sufficient information about their products.