After much anticipation, Amazon Pharmacy has finally launched following on from its acquisition of PillPack a couple of years ago.
The digital service that meets needs from the home is founded on the multinational technology company’s commerce platform heritage and packaging and logistics efficiency.
It can be subscribed to in about five minutes and means CVS Health, Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc., and others are up for some stiff competition because consumers can now buy their drugs online using their Prime membership benefits.
Amazon already anticipates that 72 million Amazon Prime members in the US are interested in prescription delivery
And these members will not be using the service without strong support.
Features of the service include ease of setup (about five minutes), ease of medicine tracking (a first), price transparency, consumer choice in terms of packaging, ability to chat with a pharmacist, account security in the form of a pin for medication data, and the use of advanced analytics to analyse and monitor data to prevent adverse drug reactions.
Walmart is also seeing the opportunities and it is anticipated that it could soon set up an addition to the Walmart+ program for pharmacy delivery in an attempt to remain abreast of the competition.