Health Care and Pharmaceutical Industry in India is growing at a pace which even most progressive economists never anticipated. Pharmaceutical Industry is the “Sunrise Industry” in India even when the western world is under recession. Today almost 24000 manufacturers in India are producing pharmaceutical molecules in forms of tablets, capsules, syrups and injectable. However, the pharmacy retail market in India is largely unorganized. Currently there are about 1.2 million privately owned chemist and druggist stores in India, more than 80% of which are “Mom and Pop” shops. Statistics reveal that pharmacy retailing in India has a market size of over Rs 68,000 crore.
Digital impact on Indian Pharmaceutical Retail is going to play a major role in terms of creating tremendous values in multiple ways. Specially digitalization will ensure speed, transparency, excellent pharmacy practice, good retail management, fair pricing and optimize profitability.
The increasingly health-conscious Indian today has numerous retail pharmacies jostling for his attention (and money). These pharmacies offer a great choice to the consumers. Two decades back, the average consumer spending on healthcare was eight per cent; today it is 20 per cent. The customer has also become aware of various offerings in the pharma market, and is demanding better services. Although some of the pharmaceutical giants and other corporates in the country have spotted the opportunity of organized pharmaceutical retailing in the country, there is still plenty of scope and growth opportunities in the space. Also, all the efforts to organize the pharmacy retail market has taken place at the brick and mortar level – very little to none has been done to organize this market at a digital level. As digital currency gains popularity post demonetization, consumers are gaining confidence with time to carry out transactions online and the willingness to go online for day-to-day activities is on the rise.
Written by – Partha Banerjee
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