The global market of ePharmacy will be 169.3 billion US dollars by 2028.

Amid every service going through swift digital transformation, on-demand drug delivery should not come as a surprise. It will soon be as common as grocery delivery. Perhaps, three primary growth drivers are technology progressing day by day, the global pandemic, and the comfort we want.

All of us need medicines. But no one wants to stand in long queues and visit multiple stores to find one. The app could let you know in seconds which drug is available in the market and which is short.

So switching from offline medicine business to online medicine business could bring you thousands of new customers.

This Article is a Complete Guide About:

  • Types of Medical Apps You can Develop

  • What Should be the Essential Features

  • How to Develop Pharmacy On-Demand Mobile Application

  • What Tech Stacks To Use 

  • What Challenges You May Have to Face

What Type of Medical App To Develop?

This will surely be the first question to arise when you decide you want to develop your app. There are two mainstream options.

  • Nourishing an Existing Business – You are a pharmacy owner looking for another channel for growth and brand promotion through a web app or mobile app.

  • Intermediary Role – You do not own any pharmacy but want to establish cooperation with different pharmacies. You intend to play the role of middle-man between medicine buyers and pharmacy businesses. You envision the marketplace that sells medicines from multiple stores.

Essential Features of Pharmacy On-Demand Applications

Different parties with different needs will use your app. Three all-time users will be a buyer, a pharmacy store manager, and a delivery courier.

That makes different modules necessary. Lets enlist the basic features of all modules, one by one. We will describe each of these sets separately and what do users of that set need.

  • Customer Module

The potential buyer is someone who needs to buy a medicine either with or without the prescription. Features must help achieve user goals.

  • Registration – There should be an option that lets the users register and manage their accounts if they are willing. Yes, it has to be optional. Forced registration often leads to cart abandonment.
  • Extensive Catalog – Users need to know if their desired medicine is available or not. If not, which ones they can use as a replacement.
  • Numerous Purchase Options – After finding their desired drugs, preferences for delivery locations can be different. Some may need it at their doorstep, and some will provide any other pick-up point. There will be customers who care about which pharmacy medicine comes from. Be sure that your app entertains all of them.
  • Prescription Management – For some medicines, the prescription is mandatory. So the customer module of an ideal medicine delivery will allow users to upload prescriptions.
  • Review Access – Normally, we do not purchase any product online before reading reviews. Adding ratings and reviews is a practical idea.
  • Location Map – Customers should be able to track the desired pharmacy store and order there.
  • Pharmacy Store Module

There has to be a set of features that are pharmacy-centered. They have a plethora of tasks such as managing drug deals, and order, etc.

  • Order Management – There should be a feature to receive notifications and change the status of the order. For example, from pending to delivered.
  • Payments – Stores need to receive, send, and manage them.
  • Courier Module

Similarly, the courier module should be able to get updates, push notifications and track the orders.

Here is the list of extra general features. 

  • In-app scanner for prescription management
  • Product information with barcode
  • Electronic Health Record
  • Loyalty Program

How To Develop Pharmacy On-Demand Application

So following are the main steps of the delivery process. 

  • Initial Analysis – Gather as much information as possible before starting. Be crystal clear about the needs of the target audience, possible setbacks, and market expectations. Start with competitor analysis and general market analysis. 
  • Primary Concept – Maybe it is too early, and all you have is rough data. You could at least draw a rough action plan and enlist a set of must-have and nice-to-have features. They are just ideas and have to go through rigorous scans during the project. 
  • Developer Search – It’s time to find a company with relevant experience
  • Prototyping – The initial concepts, by now, has turned into a working prototype. Share your vision with teams,  and make the required improvements to see the final design and functionality of the application. An interactive prototype gives a better understanding of the working of a product. 
  • UI/UX – Prototype becoming final design is rare. After this, the design team works out in the user interface and user experience sections.
  • MVP – MVP, in most cases, is enough at first. Start with small and create a medicine delivery app with basic functionality. You can always add extra functionalities later. 
  • Functional Testing -Test your finished software with its limited number of features. Is there any room for improvement or any bug to remove or fix?
  • Marketing Plan – Take some time planning your marketing activities before launching your on-demand pharmacy application. Ponder the promotion strategies. 
  • Publication – The final stage makes your app available at the play store.

On-Demand Pharmacy Application: Which Tech Stacks to Use

Platforms Android, iOS, Web
iOS Development Swift/Objective-C
Android Development Java, Kotlin,  Dart (Flutter)
Frontend Development CSS, HTML, Pug: JavaScript, TypeScript; Angular
Backend Development Node.js, Ruby, RoR
Messaging Apache Kafka, RabbitMQ
Payment Processing PayPal API, Stripe API, and Braintree SDK
Databases MySQL, PostgreSQL, MongoDB, Redis
Cloud Environment Google Cloud, AWS
Location Tracking MapKit framework for iOS, and Google Maps SDK for Android
Social Login Facebook, Google, Twitter APIS’s

What Challenges You May Have to Face

The road to on-demand pharmacy app development may hurl some challenges in the way. Some of them are as follows:

  • HIPAA

To protect personal medical information, the United States passed a new law in the 1990s. They named it the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA).

It sets rules and regulations for proceeding with healthcare development. 

So what is the problem with that? Actually, it leaves very little room for innovation and creativity. 

You have to follow the rules in design and technology yet come up with something different from competitors. 

  • FDA

Another official structure posing challenges is FDA. By monitoring the quality of medical products, they affect the pharmacy businesses. It would be wise of you to figure out how US law wants you to work with medical information before starting app development. 

  • Conservative Behaviors

You may encounter some old-fashioned representatives from the healthcare industry. People reluctant to change are there in every industry. 

Putting It All Together

Thinking about developing an on-demand pharmacy app to reap the benefits? Research and statistics show that the profitability of this business will multiply in years to come. However, the path to the development of apps may not be very smooth.

Partnering with the right development company could help you tackle the challenges and make the journey easy. The app must add value for your target audience and only the right team could help you with this.