Online trade
Through e-recipe: buy customers more medication online
The e-recipe introduced in 2024 gives online pharmacies a lot of influx. You can significantly increase your sales by selling medication.
Medicines are increasingly bought on the Internet in Germany. As the E-Commerce Association BehV announced, the online pharmacies have a strong influx. In the first three months of the year, they increased their sales with medication to 423.1 million euros. That was 7.8 percent more than in the same period last year. The online pharmacies had already achieved large growth in the two previous quarters.
According to the association, the main reason for this is the e-recipe introduced last year. “Patients get used to the fact that visits become more digital. Appointments and office hours take place online,” said BehV spokesman Frank Düssler. The high expectations of the e-recipe went up. “With a view to pharmacy death in the country, online pharmacies are becoming increasingly important in order to guarantee people equivalent access to medication”.
Since the introduction of the e-recipe on January 1, 2024, new rules in medical practices have applied. Contract doctors have to electronically issue recipes for prescription medicines instead of paper. You decide what to do with the patients.
Number of pharmacies at the lowest status for almost 50 years
The most famous online pharmacies include DocMorris and Medpex. Many providers benefit from the electronic recipes. The online pharmacy Redcare Pharmacy (formerly Shop pharmacy) increased its sales last year by 32 percent to around 2.4 billion euros. The proceeds with prescription drugs in Germany attracted 69 percent over the year.
While the industry is growing on the Internet, the number of classic pharmacies continues to shrink. It is currently at the lowest level since 1978. At the end of 2024, the Pharmacists’ Association ABDA was 17,041 pharmacies – 530 less than a year earlier.
Overall, according to BEVH, the online trade was recently recovered. Sales with the online sale of goods rose to 19.7 billion euros in the first quarter. These have been nominal, so not adjusted for inflation, 3.2 percent more than in the previous year’s quarter. E-commerce has grown more than inflation for the first time since mid-2022, it said.
dpa
Source: Stern
