Online pharmacies see up to 20% jump in sales


Demonetization has neutral impact on sales of medicines after the first week of government's "bold'' announcement, while a substantial part of consumers also switched to ordering medicines through online pharmacies like PharmEasy and 1mg.

While retailers and stockists did not register any dip in sales, e-pharmacies are witnessing a sales spurt of 10-20%, with many consumers stocking up for a month or so, and preponing their medicine purchase. This could also be attributed to the fact that consumers were allowed to buy drugs with banned Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes against a prescription. The currencies could also be used at retail stores, as well for cash-on-delivery in online orders.

Retail data collated from stockists across the country showed no reduction in their sales, pharmaceutical research firm AIOCD Awacs said. The survey of 350-plus leading stockists across the country, representing over 2% of the organised pharmaceutical market sales, was done to understand the impact of demonetization on secondary sales in the week ended November 15. Generally, the inventory is two-three days at the retail level, and any reduction in retail (sales) has an immediate impact on stockist sales (secondary trade).

The survey showed no unusual dip in sales, with the fluctuation being within the range, an AIOCD Awacs official said. In small towns and rural areas which deal in only cash, retailers used cheque, bank transfers or part-cash in transactions with stockists.

Initially there was a dip and now there is a spike (in sales). "The (initial) dip was due to confusion over the old currency, but now it's back to normal. The value of transactions are up, while on an average we are adding 10% new consumers every day," Dharmil Sheth, co-founder, PharmEasy told TOI.

Online pharmacies feel that demonetization will have a positive impact going forward. "We saw the sales dip in the first few days, but since then we are seeing a spurt of 20-25% over normal. However, there is also some contribution of the fact that pharmacy is an exempt category and can accept old notes. We expect long-term impact to be positive, since few people go back to cash payments once they learn about the convenience of e-payments," Prashant Tandon, founder and CEO, 1mg said.

In October, the domestic pharma market had witnessed a slightly muted 8.3% growth year-on-year at Rs 10,600 crore. The overall sluggish growth for October constitutes only a minor blip on the market's journey back to its long term average growth rates of 12-13%, analysts say.

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