MGMT20143: Online Pharmacy Business Model Development Report

This report details the development of an online pharmacy business model, addressing the need for convenient medicine access and doctor appointments. It explores the benefits for both users and clients, including efficient delivery, medical consultations, and data privacy. The proposed business model centers around a mobile application facilitating medicine ordering, online payments, and prescription validation. The report also examines the roles of the customer, admin, and application interface, alongside a discussion of key interrelationships for success. Furthermore, it identifies the benefits, such as convenience and a wide medicine selection, and potential risks, including licensing and financial transaction security. The conclusion emphasizes the model's effectiveness for entrepreneurs and its potential to enhance user experience.

Running head: BUSINESS MODEL DEVELOPMENT
Business Model Development
Name of the student:
Name of the university:
Author Note:

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Table of Contents
1. Introduction............................................................................................................................2
2. The need for this idea.............................................................................................................2
3. Benefits generated..................................................................................................................3
4. Proposed business model.......................................................................................................4
5. Benefits as well as risks of the business idea.........................................................................6
5.1 Benefits of the business idea............................................................................................6
5.2 Risks of the business idea................................................................................................6
6. Conclusion..............................................................................................................................7
7. References..............................................................................................................................8

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1. Introduction
This assignment deals with the new and innovated business idea that can be adapted
by an entrepreneur to start a business. The business idea that will be described within this
report is taken as online pharmacy. This business idea can be very effective by an individual
who already has a physical pharmacy shop (Lyles, 2017). The idea innovates the facility for
providing medicines to the customers at their home. The idea is to build up an application
that can be accessed by the customers to avail the facility of shopping online medicines as
well as initiate an appointment for doctors. The social aspect of this idea deals with the fact
that it will facilitate the customers of all ages as well as it will provide a ease of providing
medicines by the client in a less effective manner.
2. The need for this idea
As of the growing market, an individual can enhance their physical business to get a
good exposure via the implementation of information systems within their physical
environment (Mirzaei, Carter & Schneider, 2018). This section will discuss about the needs
of this business idea. In this context, an example of a physical medicine shop is to be taken.
This shop is run by an individual who now wants his pharmacy to get a good exposure in the
market. Therefore, he came up with the implementation of the information systems with the
physical shop. A mobile application is to be built in which customers can directly order
medicines by uploading their doctor’s prescription and those medicines will be directly
delivered to the customer’s preferable address. This idea observed the social need regarding
the senior persons who directly cannot come to the shop physically to buy medicines as well
as the customers who are residing a lot far away from the pharmacy shop (Lapão, Da Silva &
Gregório, 2017). This idea tends to facilitate the users with ease of access to the medicine
shops right from their mobile phone and also it promises to the customers with reliability of

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the payment systems that can be used by the customers to pay for the medicines directly from
the mobile application itself.
3. Benefits generated
The above stated business idea can really put a number of benefits to the society as
well as the client that are adapting the idea (Benetoli, Chen & Aslani, 2015). The benefits can
be summarized primarily in two aspects; one from the client side and another from the user
side. The benefits from this point of views are stated as follows:
Benefits from user side:
 This idea will provide efficient delivery of the medicines as the process for the
ordering of the medicines is simple associated with the ease of payment options
provided to the customers.
 As this idea also provides a free medical, consulting on the time of emergency to the
users it is very much beneficial for the senior citizens as well as with the persons that
are trying to have a visit to the doctor.
 The expert guidance and support provided by the mobile application will be very
much effective to the users that is facilitated by the application.
 The interface of the application is designed in such a manner that it will be very
convenient for any type of user to avail the facilities provided by it.
 The application also keeps a thorough check of the customer’s data and it maintains
the discreetness of the data that is uploaded to the applications database.
Benefits from the client side
 The client can provided effective services to the customers that are availing the
services via their application.
 The client can provide a real time delivery of the medicines to the customers.

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 The client can easily keep a track of the medicines that are in stock as well as that had
gone out stock, as the database of the medicines will also be maintained (Desai,
Chewning & Mott, 2015).
 The client can provide premium services as priority delivery, extra discounts to the
customers who regularly use their supplication, as the client will maintain a database
of the customers too.
4. Proposed business model
The business model regarding the implementation of the online pharmacy in the field
of physical pharmacy shops consists of three major aspects (Ciesielski et al., 2016). These
can be sated as the client, the application and its interface, and the end users. The business
model for the online pharmacy can be viewed from the provided picture below.
The users or the customers: The customers are the end users of the mobile application. The
services that are provided to the end users via the implementation of the online pharmacy app
are mainly depicted as searching of the medicines, adding them to the cart and the most

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essential part that is provided to the customers is the online payment facility using which the
customers could directly pay for the medicines form the application itself. The customers are
needed to upload a prescription that is to be validated from the admin end before delivering
the medicines.
The processing of the data from the admin end: After the user had uploaded the doctor’s
prescription the data is validated from the admin end as well as the admin checks about the
medicines that whether the medicines are within stock or not. Then the admin sends a
confirmation message to the users that confirms the medicines that are ordered as well as
provides the bill regarding the medicines (Zgarrick et al., 2016).
The admin or the client: the admin firstly keeps a track of all the medicines present in the
store. The admin further processes the data or the orders that the generated by the users. They
also receive the payments provided by the users and takes the initiative to deliver the
medicines by the delivery systems associated with the business (Goldin & Katz, 2016).
According to Kelly (2015), the online pharmacy business model is to be designed in
such a manner that it can be effective to both the client as well as the users that would be
facilitated by the business. The business application needs to be designed with an effective
interface that will be very easy to access among the end users. This business model can also
be further enhanced with the implementation of the chat system in the application (Zgarrick
et al., 2016). This will help the users to chat with the pharmacist and discuss about the
medicines that they are ordering. Moreover, the implementation of a doctor’s consultant
facility will also be effective for the users. The doctor facility will be very effective in regards
to the user specially the senior citizens as well as patients. For an online pharmacy
application, it is very necessary to have a strong database that will hold the information about
the users as well as the medicines. It is also important to have a prominent stock of all the

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medicines that are available in the market. The operational area of the business should also be
defined by the admin to provide better services to the users. The consulting doctors must be
available on a 24*7 basis. This will enhance the patients as well as the users to consult with
the doctors on an emergency basis as well as the customers that are willing to have a doctor’s
visit for the first time (Harrison, Paul & Burnard, 2016).
5. Benefits as well as risks of the business idea
5.1 Benefits of the business idea
The benefits that will be provided with the implementation of the online pharmacy is
noted as follows:
 Privacy: Consumers can be provided with the privacy of the online shopping of the
medicines from an online pharmacy. However, this privacy is to be maintained by the
admin side of the online application.
 Great choice: The medicine storage at the stores might not be ample to serve the
consumers but in an online pharmacy it can be assured that maximum number of
medicines can be made available to the consumers (Stone, 2019).
 Convenience: This online pharmacy will facilitate the customers for buying the
medicines online without visiting the physical stores. This will enhance the buyers
with an excellent convenience to the shop the medicine online ad get it delivered to
their selected address.
5.2 Risks of the business idea
The risks associated with the online pharmacy may be stated as follows:
 License: The pharmacy offering the online medicine delivery should have proper
license to transact the medicine online.

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 Protection of the financial transaction: The payment gateway must be enhanced with
the security regarding the transaction that will be carried out by the users who are
shopping the medicines online.
6. Conclusion
The above assignment deals with the online pharmacy business model that tends to
provide an enhanced service to the consumers that are trying to shop the medicine online. The
implementation of the doctors consulting facilities is an innovative field that could offer a
better experience and convenience to the users of the online pharmacy application. Thus it
can be concluded that the above stated business idea will be very much effective regarding
the users of the online pharmacy as well as it can be very enhanced business model for
entrepreneurs.

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7. References
Benetoli, A., Chen, T. F., & Aslani, P. (2015). The use of social media in pharmacy practice
and education. Research in social and administrative pharmacy, 11(1), 1-46.
Ciesielski, T., Iyengar, R., Bothra, A., Tomala, D., Cislo, G., & Gage, B. F. (2016). A tool to
assess risk of de novo opioid abuse or dependence. The American journal of medicine,
129(7), 699-705.
Desai, K., Chewning, B., & Mott, D. (2015). Health care use amongst online buyers of
medications and vitamins. Research in Social and Administrative Pharmacy, 11(6),
844-858.
Goldin, C., & Katz, L. F. (2016). A most egalitarian profession: pharmacy and the evolution
of a family-friendly occupation. Journal of Labor Economics, 34(3), 705-746.
Harrison, C., Paul, S., & Burnard, K. (2016). Entrepreneurial leadership in retail pharmacy:
developing economy perspective. Journal of Workplace Learning, 28(3), 150-167.
Kelly, B. (2015). Online pharmacies: buyer beware. Australian prescriber, 38(6), 186.
Lapão, L. V., Da Silva, M. M., & Gregório, J. (2017). Implementing an online
pharmaceutical service using design science research. BMC medical informatics and
decision making, 17(1), 31.
Lyles, A. (2017). Pharmacy benefit management companies: do they create value in the US
healthcare system?. Pharmacoeconomics, 35(5), 493-500.
Mills, D. (2016). Cybermedicine: The benefits and risks of purchasing drugs over the
Internet. Journal of Technology Law & Policy, 5(2), 1.

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Mirzaei, A., Carter, S. R., & Schneider, C. R. (2018). Marketing activity in the community
pharmacy sector–a scoping review. Research in Social and Administrative Pharmacy,
14(2), 127-137.
Stone, W. (2019). PJ Online| PJ Letters| Community pharmacy. Suicide, 14, 20.
Zgarrick, D. P., Alston, G. L., Moczygemba, L. R., & Desselle, S. P. (2016). Pharmacy
Management: Essentials for All Practice Settings, 4e.
Zgarrick, D. P., Alston, G. L., Moczygemba, L. R., & Desselle, S. P. (2016). Pharmacy
Management: Essentials for All Practice Settings, 4e.