Increase in visits represents a whooping 43% year-over-year growth rate
New research reveals significant opportunity for the Consumer Healthcare Industry to shift consumers' mindsets around OTC, Rx & FMCG online sales

LONDON-- July 02, 2021 -- Consumers and patients globally have turned to digital platforms to purchase their prescription (Rx), non-prescription (OTC) medication and parapharmacy products with more than 2.7 billion online visits to leading ePharmacies across 96 countries in Q1’21. This represents an astonishing 43% growth rate compared to Q1’20. The details of this global research have been published online at epharmacydata.com.

The study highlights the unique opportunity for Consumer Healthcare Retailers and Manufacturers to address the new habits of consumers and patients purchasing their prescription (Rx) and non-prescription (OTC) medicine and parapharmacy products online. Out of the 96 countries having at least 1 online pharmacy, consumers can order their prescription drugs online in 47 countries. The COVID-19 pandemic, wide adoption of electronic prescription, and the modernisation of last mile logistics have worked wonders towards allowing the sale of prescription drugs through eCommerce in the last year, something that was unimaginable 5 years ago in most of the 47 countries. For example, in April 2020 the State Duma of the Russian Federation legalized within days, after years of deliberation, the online sales of prescription and over-the-counter drugs, with the exception of narcotic and psychotropic drugs.

Online Pharmacies are one of the fastest rising eCommerce sectors in the world:

● Amazon invested heavily in the industry with the acquisition of PillPack in 2020.

● JD Health, a unit of JD.com Inc., increased its revenue, jumping to a +76% year-over-year growth to $1.34 billion, in the first six months of 2020.

● Alibaba-backed Alibaba Health posted a +74% revenue increase over the March to September 2020 period.

● While brick and mortar pharmacy chains such as CVS & Walgreens in the USA surpass 100 million online visits and Boots averages 20 million online visits, pure ecommerce players such as 1mg in India, Consultaremedios in Brazil and Apteka in Russia have been growing extremely fast, with more than 20 million visits per month on average for the last 6 months, disrupting global markets with services such as doctors appointments booking, marketplace capabilities and online consultations.

The research was performed by Convert Group, the leading global ePharmacy Data firm that Consumer Healthcare & FMCG Manufacturers such as Bayer, GSK, J&J, L'Oréal, Nestlé, P&G, Perrigo, Pierre Fabre, Reckitt Benckiser, Roche, Unilever, and others trust for their data-driven strategy and sell-out insights on the eCommerce channel. Traffic data was drawn with permission from Similarweb, the global leading provider of digital market intelligence, for 3.478 Online Pharmacies in 96 Countries across all continents.