JULY,Edition # 30, 2001

The take-up of pharmacy e-commerce in Australia has been very slow when compared to other countries around the world, such as Britain, America and even New Zealand.
There are four primary reasons that have caused pharmacists to be ultraconservative in their approach, and they are:

* The rate of failure of E-Biz, even though it was restricted to people outside of pharmacy who had little or no experience of retail, and did not have a "bricks and mortar" base to work from.

* The lack of infrastructure and poor government communications policy.
Fast Internet connection is still a dream, and the introduction of digital TV has floundered, because of inadequate government policies.

* The exhaustive nature of conducting pharmacy in an Australian environment over the past 12-18 months because of Y2K, GST, BAS and Quality Care Accreditation. All these items have impacted severely on pharmacy managers, who are showing signs of exhaustion, stress, and some are also exhibiting signs of clinical depression. Hardly a climate for initiating an exciting new venture into e-commerce. All this has been further compounded by a shortage of qualified pharmacists.

* Official pharmacy has given little encouragement or leadership, which has resulted in a business vacuum.

Against all the above odds, there have been a handful of pharmacy startups, all of which have been successful. These include Pharmacy Direct, ePharmacy, Pharmacyonline and Chemistop. There are also two or three other pharmacies that have developed a new site or are in the process of testing, and it is presumed that these will be successful too.
Quite a number of variants, which are best described as "storefronts", have been developed, but because they are not able to be individualised, response has been minimal by consumers, because they are unable to react to the personality of "their pharmacist".
Community pharmacy is an ideal medium from which to launch E-Biz for all the right reasons...a "bricks and mortar location", a trusted profession, a local identity, products that are high in value and low in volume and weight, a source from which information is regularly sought.
All these reasons reinforce pharmacy as a good risk for E-Biz investment.

I was reading a book entitled "Tips and Tricks for Website Managers" edited by Mark Kerr and published by Aslib-IMI, which is a British organisation devoted to best practice in the management of information resources. They published a story about a small British book shop, which I believe is replicable here in Australia through pharmacy.

Countrybookshop.co.uk is now a firmly established online retailer, which is rapidly gaining in international reputation. For the past thirteen years they have been selling books from an old railway station in the Peak National Park. They set up a website in 1997, and designed it to sell every title in print available in Britain i.e. more than one million titles.
Today, they receive more than 1.3 million page views per month and Countrybookshop.co.uk is now the U.K's second most popular bookselling site.
It is the number one dedicated online bookshop, and they have received numerous sales and website design awards.
Prior to 1997, Country Bookshop was a local, independent bookseller offering locals and visitors to the Peak National Park, a reasonably broad selection of books, including local books and children's books.
They provided an efficient book ordering facility, bargain books, a friendly shopping environment and they combined with literary events including an annual poetry competition for children.
They also worked on literary projects for schools and libraries.
The profile so far is not too dissimilar to many community pharmacies here in Australia, except that the equivalent project in literature is substituted by health.
The bookshop continued to grow, even though many other independents were closing at the time, with the aggressive expansion of the chain booksellers.
Please note this latter point, because we believe this could be a possibility for Australian pharmacy if the ownership battle is lost.
Continuing the Countrybookshop.co.uk story: in 1997 they realised the potential of the Internet and saw it as an opportunity to service better their local and regional clients. They realised very quickly that online customers required access to a database with every book in print, so the site was redesigned and re-launched.
As they were only a small operation, the site had to be built in a cost effective way, so a decision was made to build it in-house, so that an understanding of bookselling and customer needs could be integrated with web technology.
Once the site was launched with its million plus titles, the task of promoting the site become the big issue, because they were unable to match big business marketing budgets.
The following strategy was adopted.
A concentration was made on making the site user-friendly, clean and easily navigable. A very quick and simple search engine was developed so that book titles could be searched by title, author or ISBN coupled with an advanced search facility. They list their books in topic categories in case the customers are unsure of the exact title (departments and sections in pharmacy terms).
An organised maintenance program was developed to ensure the site had minimal graphics (quick opening), with regular checks on spelling and grammar, plus a check on links to ensure that there were no "dead" connections.
They always look and test the site from a consumer's perspective.
They listened intently to feedback from customers and used a ratings agency (BizRate.com) which enabled customers to check the ratings applied to their site and give feedback on service provided. They found that they were the only bookstore to do this and 25,000 customers have since given feedback on criteria such as ease of ordering, product selection, price, website performance, on time delivery, product representation, customer support, order tracking, shipping and handling.
They do listen to customers and use the feedback to improve service.
They registered their site with many web directories such as Yahoo and used Web Site Garage to give a free report on site deficiencies such as tags, browser compatibility, load time, dead links, spelling and HTML coding.
They also registered their site with shopping directories such as Shopsmart, plus trade directories and regional web sites. They also used pay-per-click search engines such as GoTo (which meant immediate registration and top listing for keywords purchased e.g. they bought "Harry Potter" as a keyword for one penny).
Because of their roots in small business, they still like to have direct contact and provide the human touch. On every page they list a freecall telephone service. Customer support personnel are available seven days a week and an online order tracking service is also provided. A returns facility is offered with clear information and a freepost address. Customers can establish accounts without having to enter address and payment details over the Internet, even though the site is hosted on a secure server.
If a customer's credit card is misused through unauthorised use when entering their site i.e. the customer becomes liable for the first 50 pounds, Countrybookstore.co.uk offers to indemnify for the 50 pounds.
They offer competitive postal rates, discount many titles and have a price promise that they will meet the price of any other online bookshop. They accept payment by cheque, postal order and credit card.
To create additional interest and information they publish book award winners (Booker Prize, Whitbread Awards, Carnegie etc.) for current and previous years, publish author interviews (some in audio format), list the current best sellers in different categories and give details of nationwide author events.
They have developed a literary quiz, which has become one of the most popular online quizzes, which makes the site "sticky".
Customers even provide suggested questions.
These competitions are held regularly and customers have the opportunity to win books.
To ensure a complete customer service, an "out of print" service is offered through a dealer network. Lists of remaindered and promotional books are also offered with up to 85 percent discount.
Countrybookstore.co.uk offers an affiliate program which has been highly successful, offering up to 10 percent commission coming from sales on affiliate sites, which now number 55,150.
If an affiliate site is conducting an online program, Countrybookstore.co.uk supplies content, and promotional offers with links back to their site.
They also provide a mail order service to back various specialty magazines e.g.. "Gardening Which?".
Awards are actively sought for the website, so no opportunity is overlooked to promote in this manner. Often, they have submitted applications without any hope of winning and are thus pleasantly surprised when they are rated as a top site winner.
Frequent press releases are generated to local media, new media magazines, trade press, national press and where possible, they speak on local radio and give TV interviews. Promotional coverage is also extended to trade fairs and exhibitions (including local Chamber of Commerce and Business Link exhibitions). Every effort is made to promote the site and meet the actual customers.
They write articles, give talks, make presentations for the bookselling press, publishers, and new media seminars on the subject of online bookselling and new media.
This unique E-Biz is very pleased with itself, having reached this state of prominence without any external financing. They admit that it would have been a lot quicker and easier to have had financial backing, but having to "work smarter and work harder" has resulted in a site, which is in many ways unusual, but which has become a highly viable business model. Growth has been extremely rapid, and online sales now outstrip "bricks and mortar" sales by a wide margin, which has only taken 18 months since the re-launch of their expanded site.
They are now selling their expertise to other Internet startups, thus creating a spin-off venture that also looks to be highly profitable.

The good news story does not end here, because their sales increases are still bounding along without any sign of diminishing. I picked this story, because I thought it would be a good model for the average community pharmacist to look at, for there are so many familiar themes running through it.
Most progressive pharmacists would identify with the tactics and strategies employed and would have little difficulty in moulding their online venture along similar lines.
All it needs, I suggest, is a good holiday (if you can get a locum) with a lot of rest to put you in the right frame of mind, personal research and investigation, and then a leap of faith to achieve a new online goal.
Ends
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