The Retail Scientist Blog

The Retail Scientist Blog

Case Study

E-commerce Integration for Pharmacies

By partnering with RPM this group of independent pharmacies have connected their websites to their instore inventory for a seamless customer experience.

The Independent Pharmacy Group success story shows that an effective online offering leads to improved performance of brick-and-mortar stores.

By partnering with RPM to synchronise inventory data in real-time, these pharmacies unlocked new revenue streams and increased their instore foot traffic.

This case shows that bridging the gap between online and offline is an important way to improve customer experience and drive business growth.

The Challenge

60 owner-operated pharmacies throughout New Zealand needed more modern websites including an online shop displaying their top-selling products. With the spread of the big corporate discount pharmacies, these community pharmacy owners wanted to be found online in Google searches and needed to accentuate their unique, local expertise with a professional, up-to-date online offering.

The Solution

To address this challenge, RPM developed an automated integration which connects each pharmacy’s POS system with their online shop on individually branded Rocketspark websites. RPM captures POS data from every pharmacy and aligns the stock levels and retail prices with each online store. This integration bridged the gap between online and offline inventory management systems, enabling a seamless ecommerce experience for customers.

The Results

The RPM ecommerce integration yielded significant results for The Independent Pharmacy Group:

Modern, up-to-date websites

With a personalised look and feel for each pharmacy, The IPG websites now present a modern, professional brand to each IPG pharmacy’s customers. See examples at: www.pharmacy53.co.nz www.sumnerpharmacy.co.nz www.antidotepharmacy.co.nz

230% Increased Website Traffic

Stores began receiving increased website traffic from Google immediately with an average increase of +230%. Notably, 39% of of all website traffic goes to the online SHOP, demonstrating the effectiveness of the integrated ecommerce solution.

7% Increase in In-Store Customer Traffic

The improved online customer experience has resulted in improved instore customer traffic too – with positive growth in retail traffic in Independeent Pharmacy Group stores.