How to Start a Pharmacy Delivery Service? (A Step-by-Step Guide)

The demand for online pharmacies has increased dramatically in the last few years, especially through the Covid-19 pandemic.

The global online pharmacy market is said to grow by 20% CAGR in terms of revenue by 2025.

As the online sales of prescription medications surge, local pharmacies are adding a delivery service option to their business model.

If you have an existing pharmacy or are wondering how to start a pharmacy delivery service, you have come to the right place. 

Trends That Influence The Pharmacy Delivery Service Industry

The Covid-19 pandemic slowed down many industries around the world. But the pharmaceutical industry got a boost through mail-order drug delivery during the lockdown.

Some major trends that are influencing the pharmaceutical marketplace are mentioned below:

• The growth of spending on medicine is said to reach $1.4 trillion by the end of 2022.
• The increasing importance of patient engagement.
• Adopting new technology for sale & dispatch of medical supplies using digital mediums.
• Set of pricing reforms for government programs. 

The major reasons for why customers prefer ordering prescriptions from an online medical courier service are as follows:

• Helps save time and get medicines delivered at your preference and time.
• Heavy discounts and lower prices offered by online pharmacies.
• Improves accessibility of the medicines and medical equipment.
• Can improve patient adherence by being regular with their medications at the right time.
• Can dispatch and distribute orders using curbside pickup or contact-free delivery. 

What are the Basics of Starting a Pharmacy Delivery Service?

Some of the major factors before starting a pharmacy delivery business.

• Understanding the Market Leaders

  Many market leaders offer home delivery services for over-the-counter and prescription drugs. It often costs no more than what you are already paying for your medications.

  Notice pharmacy delivery companies like PillPack, Capsule, & CVS Pharmacy. See how they are doing things differently and what keeps them at the top.

  Studying the competitors and market leaders is an important aspect before starting a business venture. 

• Handling Customer Data

  While running a pharmacy delivery company, you will have to be very particular about how you record, store, and maintain this data. 

  You will need a secure database system to record and keep safe all the confidential information of your clients and customers. 

• Storing & Transporting Medicines 

  How you transport medicines and medical samples & supplies will decide the customer experience and the way your brand is perceived. 

  It is crucial to consider the best options for safely transporting all the medicine orders from the store to the customer’s home in a cost-effective manner. 

• Payment Method Options

  By offering multiple payment options for customers, you can ensure that your business gets paid quickly without any hassle. 

  Make sure you have all the widely used payment gateways like Debit Card, Credit Card, PayPal, Stripe, and Square available for accepting payments.  

• Delivery Route Planning & Optimization

  The speed and accuracy with which you deliver prescription medications to your client will decide whether they love your service or not. The most crucial element for all pharmaceutical delivery companies is to plan and optimize routes that allow them to deliver orders quickly.

  Having a delivery route planning and optimization system will immensely be helpful. Relying on apps like Google Maps or Waze, will not be of use because you will have multiple delivery drivers covering multiple deliveries in a single day.

A 10-step Guide to Opening a Pharmacy Delivery Service

Here is a step-by-step guide on opening a pharmacy business.

Step 1: Indulge in Market Research & Understanding the Pharmacy Industry

The primary thing before starting a business will be to start with a market analysis, understanding the pharmacy delivery industry and its trends, and closely studying your competitors. 

The study and analysis will depend on:

• Are you an existing pharmacy and planning to add delivery?
• Will you be delivering to customers or hospitals and clinics?
• Will you be expanding into a medical courier business?

These questions will help you filter out your thoughts and goals regarding the business. It will help you reach a decision and stick to it.

When it comes to understanding the industry, the market and the competitors, you will be looking into a lot of details. Notice how the competitors are doing it and what is it that they are doing differently? Finding their niche will also help you discover your own. 

Towards the end of this research and analysis, you will have quite a lot of useful information to go ahead and pick your own niche, create a detailed business plan, and figure out the marketing plan as well.

Step 2: What do Your Customers Need?

Your customers feel the need to stay safe and healthy. They do not want to risk stepping out. 

In addition to this, find other specific reasons why your customers would want to get their medications delivered like:

• Ease and convenience.
• Discounts and low-costs offered by online pharmacies.
• Regulate and improve intake of required prescriptions.
• Ability to track which medicine to take and when.
• Automatic refills.
• Free delivery.

Having to struggle with finding a particular medication and then remembering when to take it and then going to the pharmacist again in a few weeks, is too much trouble for your customers. 

By offering delivery services on time, you are not only providing them medications, but you are providing a pleasant experience to your customer base. That can help boost adherence.

Step 3: Understanding the Laws and Regulations

The sale of prescription medicines and other medical supplies are subject to laws and regulations depending on the demographics. For that, you will need to look into the specific laws relating to the state or city you are starting your pharmaceutical delivery business in.

Make sure you figure out the following things when trying to sort your business according to the laws and regulations:

• Where and to whom can the medications be delivered?
• What user data can you store and share with others involved in the process?
• What information will you record and how do you intend to store and secure it?

In this case, the goods are essential, but the person and the information attached to each order is more sensitive and needs to be secured. Take a look into the FDA Code of Federal Regulations relating to food and drugs. 

Step 4: Legal Identity, Licenses & Permits

Get legal aid and find out all the specific licenses and permits you need to register for starting a medicine delivery business. As a business owner, there will be strict legal guidelines you will have to follow.

You will start by choosing a legal identity for your business and then  registering for all the permits attached to your industry. 

Licences and permits relating to food and drugs can often be a challenging task to acquire. It will be really helpful if you have your lawyers by your side or others who have gone through the process of acquiring a drug license. 

Step 5: Establishing a Business Plan

Building a good business plan will create a strong base at each stage of starting and carrying out your business. It will work as a road map for your business to start, run, and grow. 

Some of the important sections that you must cover in your business plan are as follows:

• An executive summary including your company’s vision, mission statement, and product or services.
• Details about the company, delivery models, people associated with it, strengths, and the problems you aim to solve.
• Market analysis mentioning competitors, themes, and trends.
• Highlight your legal entity (whether it is a sole proprietorship or partnership).
• The line of products and services you are going to offer.
• Marketing plans and strategies.
• Outline your funding requests and requirements.

When you write your business plan, make sure you highlight all the key elements because it will help you convince banks, investors, and customers to choose you.

Step 6: Acquiring Funds

Carving out a well-defined business plan will help you find specific funding options that you can opt for. Choose the financial mechanism that works best with your pharmaceutical delivery business goals.

Some of the best financing options available to you can be:

• Traditional lenders like local banks, credit unions, and financial institutions; 
• Personal loan;
• Organizations like Small Business Administration;
• Angel investors or private investors;
• Crowd-funding platforms like Kickstarter and Indiegogo. 

While preparing to apply for a loan, you will have to include gathering three major types of funds:

• Build-out Capital: This is basically your start-up costs for acquiring fixed assets.
• Opening Inventory Financing: This funding is required for maintaining inventory.
• Working Capital: This amount will be for managing your day-to-day expenses like utilities and payroll.

Step 7: Physical Store, Location, and Online Store

The capital you gather from your sources will help you buy a physical store, warehouse, and create an online store as well. When it comes to the physical store, the location matters the most. Make sure the store is easily accessible to the customers.

The location can be determined using points like:

• Competing pharmacies in the vicinity.
• The demand for a pharmacy.
• The purchasing power of the customers in the area.
• Road networks and accessibility.

For an online store, you can develop a medicine delivery app or a pharmacy delivery app. This delivery route planner apps allow users to buy medicines online without having to come to the physical store. The orders can be packed and delivered with the help of delivery drivers. 

Step 8: Hiring Manpower

Having an online pharmacy delivery service means you will be providing round-the-clock support in addition to having pharmacists, business managers, supply chain executives, and individual drivers. 

You will be serving patients with chronic conditions, trying to deliver to hundreds of patients on a daily basis, and providing same-day delivery to many clients.

You will have to hire experienced individuals with the right knowledge relating to the medications and medical supplies you will be selling.

You will also need a dynamic team of drivers to help you deliver the orders on time and efficiently. You can post jobs on portals like FlexJobs, ZipRecruiter, and Indeed. 

Step 9: Marketing and Branding Strategy

Your marketing and branding strategy must be in sync with your brand and user experience goals. Having a digital marketing and branding strategy is not just about securing an online presence. It is about creating an experience. 

There are many brands offering pharmacy courier services, but how are you going to offer the users a different experience? Make sure you have really strong ideas and strategies in place to filter out the competitors and be visible to potential customers.

Step 10: Optimizing the Delivery Aspect of Your Medicine Delivery Business

Now comes one of THE MOST IMPORTANT ASPECTS for a pharmacy business – ROUTE PLANNING & OPTIMIZATION.

Your dispatchers and delivery drivers will need the right tools to help them plan efficient, real-time routes for delivering medications on time. Delivering prescription drugs on time is a priority for any pharmacy. A pharmacy route scheduling and optimization tool can help you keep up with that kind of demand. 

Using tools like Google Maps or Waze will be of no use. You will need tools like Upper Route Planner that help you plan multiple routes and optimize them. 

By using Upper Route Planner, a lot of our clients have been able to:

• Save 95% planning time;
• Add more drivers;
• Fulfill more deliveries on a route;
• Accept new customers and clients;
• Improve timely deliveries;
• Save hours of manual work;
• Saving routes for regular deliveries.

Route Planning & Optimization for Your Pharmacy Delivery Service

Route planning & optimization is one of the most time-consuming functions of making deliveries. A new prescription courier service would not be familiar with the several route optimization software available out there. So they resort to free route planning tools like Google Maps.

There’s nothing wrong with using Maps by Google or Waze. But as a prescription delivery business, it poses difficulty when you have to map multiple stops on a single delivery route. 

For instance, Maps by Google doesn’t allow you to add more than 10 stops per route. Neither does it provide route optimization to save time on the road. Also, it cannot accommodate multiple delivery drivers at the same time.

On the other hand, with tools like Upper Route Planner, you can gain immense strength in terms of delivering prescription drugs on time. 

Upper Route Planner offers accurate and instant route scheduling & optimization. In addition to that, Upper Route Planner offers the following features:

How Are You Going to Do It Differently?

Take inspiration from the best prescription delivery service in the healthcare industry and ask yourself: ‘What can I do differently with my pharmacy courier service?’

No matter what you do, make sure you offer the best delivery experience because that’s what matters when you are involved in the last mile delivery industry. The last leg of the process holds quite a lot of pressure.

For handling all your delivery driver schedules and scaling up your deliveries, you can rely on Upper Route Planner.