How to Develop an Online Pharmacy App: Complete Guide for 2024
Updated April 16, 2024
With the rapid growth of e-commerce and the increasing demand for convenient healthcare solutions, the digital pharmacy market has experienced a significant surge in recent years. As more consumers embrace the convenience of ordering medications and health products from the comfort of their homes, pharmacy apps have become a dominant alternative to traditional pharmacy stores.
The market is highly competitive, with numerous players vying for a share of this rapidly expanding industry. Established companies like CVS, Walgreens, and Rite Aid have enhanced their online presence, offering delivery services and mobile apps to cater to consumers’ evolving preferences.
In this guide, we’ll discuss the specifics of pharmacy apps, their types, pharmacy app development solution, and more.
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Key Takeaways
- There are three main types of pharmacy apps: digital pharmacies (full-fledged pharmacy apps), price aggregators (compare prices across pharmacies), and product aggregators (allow ordering from multiple pharmacies)
- When developing a pharmacy mobile app, include features such as prescription management, refill reminders, reward programs, etc
- Developing an online medicine delivery app is a complex process and involves stages like market analysis, UI/UX design, coding, testing, and deployment
- Creating a pharmacy app for your company will attract new customers, expand to international markets, and increase sales and brand awareness.
- The cost and timeline of pharmacy app development varies from project to project, and it’s a good idea to contact a professional team to get a free assessment and estimate
What is a Pharmacy App?
A pharmacy app is a mobile application designed to provide users with convenient access to various pharmacy-related services and features. It serves as a digital platform that connects users with their pharmacy, enabling them to manage their medications, prescriptions, and other healthcare needs from their mobile devices. Pharmacy apps can:
- Individualize customer needs and increase their numbers
- Increase profitability and reduce costs
- Improve communication between consumers and pharmacy administration.
Three Common Pharmacy Mobile App Types
The application types in the pharmacy industry are as unique as the market itself. You can create a medicine delivery app, a prescription-management app, and more. Here are the three categories of pharmacy apps:
Digital Pharmacies
These medicine delivery apps have extensive functionality like medicine ordering, delivery service, sales analysis, and more. These online pharmacy apps are a full-fledged distribution services of pharmaceutical products from the manufacturer to the final consumer.
Price Aggregators
In various ways, they collect information on prices and medicine availability in various pharmacy chains. They don’t have a medicine delivery service but the task of the aggregator mobile app is to show data from as many pharmacies as possible. They have different data and pricing sources but disclaim the responsibility for the inaccuracy of information.
Product Aggregators
Similarly to price aggregators, these medicine delivery apps collect data from pharmacy chains. However, they allow medicine ordering. Customers can choose the medicine at the best price and order directly from the application, creating a maximum freedom of choice.
Top 3 Medicine Delivery Apps
Walgreens
The leading pharmacy retailer Walgreens developed a medicine delivery app that allows customers to conveniently manage their prescriptions and refills and access various healthcare services from their smartphones and tablets.
Key features include prescription management, pill and refill reminders, pharmacy locator, deals and rewards, and more.
Capsule
Capsule is a modern, full-service online medicine delivery app. It offers same-day, free delivery, easy refill management, medication packaging, secure messaging, medicine reminders and notifications, and insurance and billing.
CVS Pharmacy
This user-friendly pharmacy delivery app aims to streamline the entire pharmacy experience, catering to the evolving needs of modern consumers. Noteworthy features include prescription management, pharmacy locator functionality, digital pharmacy tools, access to a reward program, scheduling tools, telehealth options, and more.
Medicine Delivery App Development: Key Functionalities
We have already mentioned that a medicine delivery app is as peculiar and unique as the digital pharmacy market. Let’s discuss this uniqueness and talk about three primary audiences and profiles of medicine delivery apps.
Three main profiles with different functionalities:
- Customer Cabinet: Search for drugs, online ordering, delivery tracking, product comparison, and in-app payment
- Administrator’s Panel: Order and logistics management, product catalog editing, analytics, and reporting
- Courier Profile: View the history of deliveries, integrated navigation systems, and other things.
Medicine Delivery App Features and Functionality for the Buyer
Medicine delivery app features and capabilities that are focused on the buyer, contain an extensive list of possible actions.
- User profile
- Detailed catalog of goods
- Download recipe
- Search
- Information
- Comparison
- Replacement tool
- Online ordering
- Order tracking
- Payment through online transactions
- Integration with social networks
- Feedback
- Communication within the application
- Choose the most important features for your business
Medicine Delivery App Features and Functionality for Administrators
An application for pharmacy staff should have functions that provide analytics, reporting, and order management. Employees should be able to edit data, enter new items into the database, remove sold goods from the warehouse.
- Control center
- Product tracking system
- Secure client database
- Order management
- Charges and repayments
- Logistics management
- Analytics and reporting
- E-commerce content management
- Push messages
Medicine Delivery App Features and Functionality for Delivery Agents
A 3rd profile for drivers or delivery agents can also be provided in the mobile app. The personal account will be filled with the following functions:
- Delivery history
- Navigation
- Delivery tracking
- Management of drones
Creating a product that speaks to all your audiences and streamlines their experiences is efficient and effective. We recommend hiring a professional team for medicine delivery app development. This way, you can have an original product that strays from the mass.
The Main Stages of Medicine Delivery App Development
Online pharmacy app development is a complex process that requires understanding the e-commerce platform, having a professional and experienced team, and using specific tech. In this section of our guide, we’ll discuss the process and main stages of medicine delivery app development.
Analyzing the Industry and Drafting TOR
You have an idea of the product, and it’s time to develop the app. First, you must set the goals and customer requirements, discuss the final digital product with the IT team, analyze the competitors, and draw a general TOR.
As a result, you should have design references, a list of the app’s functions, interface concept, security requirements, and a project cost estimate.
User Interface and User Experience Prototype
At this stage, it’s essential to determine iconography, typography, and the final design. You must be able to visualize the future app, user stories, and the customer journey map. A collaboration between you and experienced developers and designers will be efficient.
As a result, you should have a screen map, coordinated and perfected prototype of the digital pharmacy app, rendered screens, and interface elements.
Technical Part of the Medicine Delivery App Development
At this stage, the developers will ensure the correct interaction of the database with the app code. You start creating the app for iOS and Android platforms, developing the internal architecture, and more. As a result, you’ll have a complete development of the internal processes and functions of the app.
QA Testing and Compliance with the Requirements
Mobile app platforms have specific design guidelines: Android uses Google’s Material Design, while iOS follows the Human Interface Guidelines. Considering these guidelines, manual and automated testing is done for apps. The testing covers how the app works with and without permissions, how it responds to different server response codes, handles varying timeout durations, and behaves when the server response data is modified. As a result, you have a list of fixes and revisions, as well as a report describing all tests performed during the development cycle.
Launch the App on the App Store and Google Play Store
After checking that the application is stable, it’s time to release it to the market. The new digital product undergoes moderation and receives permission to be downloadable. It is also recommended to optimize the app for the style of the platform for placement: add pictures, description and screenshots.
As a result, you’ll have a publication in Google Play and App Store, and a downloadable medicine delivery app.
If you’d like to learn more about medicine delivery app development, read our article about healthcare app development!
A stable working application computer service with the necessary tools and functions is an effective sales channel. We will provide a customized solution for developing applications for online pharmacies exactly for your business model. The service will allow you to overtake all competitors and reach a new level of the pharmaceutical market.
Resources Needed for Medicine Delivery App Development: Timeline, Tech Stack, and Cost
Frameworks and Programming Languages
Among the most common frameworks for mobile app development are Flutter and React Native. According to a Statista survey, 42% of software developers work with Flutter, and 38% of respondents work with React Native.
Our experts use popular programming languages and technologies that will fit your app concept:
- Front-end: Swift, Java, Kotlin
- Back-end: Laravel, Phyton, Node.js
- Payment services: banks, PayPal API
- Database and analytics: MongoDB, SQL, NoSQL, Google Analytics
- Navigation tools: MapKit framework for iOS and Google Maps SDK for Android
- Login methods: Facebook Mobile SDKs, social login via Google
The right combinations of these technologies and the use of systems for integration make for a feature-rich app.
Cross-platform development is now at the peak of popularity. This service has a low cost due to the duplication of the same code on several platforms.
Legislative Requirements
The online pharmacy app development must meet all security standards and protect the personal data of users in accordance with the following standards:
- HIPAA (U.S.) contains provisions to protect and ensure confidentiality of sensitive medical information.
- GDPR (EU, U.K.) discloses principles for the protection and processing of personal data.
- PIPEDA (Canada) regulates the treatment of sensitive information, like HIPAA.
Application Development Timeline
Creating a pharmacy delivery app for a pharmacy business is a rather complicated task that will take a lot of time and professional pharmacy app development services. An important factor is the number of implemented functions. They expand the capabilities of the application but increase the development time.
On average, online pharmacy app development takes 4 to 6 months. It all depends on the implemented functionality, design complexity, the level of IT specialists in the team, and other industry and customer requirements.
A professional pharmacy app development companies recommend sticking to the most trusted and efficient methods to help you create the app efficiently and in as little time as possible. Contact us, and we’ll walk you through our strategies and solutions.
The Cost of Online Pharmacy App Development Services
The cost of a pharmacy app MVP depends on the scope of the project and the following factors:
- Deadline
- Operating system
- The qualifications and composition of the team
- Rate and collaboration model of the pharmacy app development company
- Tech stack and functionality
Full-cycle pharma app development costs can start from $40,000 and up. If you’re looking for a pharmacy app development company, talk to us, and we can provide you with a free technical consultation with our pharmacy app developers to calculate the cost of your project.
7 Reasons Your Pharmacy Needs an App
In this new era, online pharmacy apps have emerged as a game-changer, revolutionizing how people manage their medications and interact with pharmaceutical companies. Failing to adopt this technology could leave traditional pharmacy businesses at a significant disadvantage, as tech-savvy competitors capture an ever-growing market share.
Medicine Delivery App Can Attract New Customers
Millions of people start their day by checking their smartphones and using various apps. The level of engagement of mobile applications is several times higher than that of conventional sites. Therefore, a well-designed mobile application will make it possible to reach and attract a new type of audience.
Pharmacy Delivery App Creates an Operational Round-the-clock Service
By creating a medicine delivery app, your customers can access medication through 24/7 automated services. You can answer their questions, refill prescription drugs, and send them to their addresses without directly interacting with customers.
You Can Promote your Online Medicine Delivery on the International Market
Thanks to the language translation capabilities, your future medicine delivery or management app can speak to a foreign customer freely. You can offer your deals and products to customers from other countries without complex steps.
Accessibility Will Grow the Sales
Your pharmacy will be within a hand’s reach for your potential customer. Buyers will choose online medicine delivery over a walk to the physical store for convenience, resulting in sales growth for your business.
Customers Will Recognize Your Brand
Your business stands out by offering a user-friendly app to your loyal and potential customers. Having a mobile app for your pharmacy business means shining your logo daily, bringing attention to your company, and growing your brand.
More People Will See Your Product
While noticing a physical store requires the person to walk near it, a mobile app can quickly be found. App Store and Google Play have millions of visitors daily, and if you properly optimize your app for the app store, they’ll be able to see your services often.
Online Presence Can Help You Build Connection with Your Customers
If you create a user-friendly mobile app, offer your customers efficient and helpful services, offer free or fast delivery, and include rewards and deals, you’ll build a deeper connection with them and acquire more loyal customers.
The future of the pharmacy business is clear – it’s tightly intertwined with Internet and mobile solutions. Our pharmacy application development company can help you combine the value of your digital pharmacy with modern technology and unlock the full potential of your business.
