Whilst an ecommerce website has a theoretically global reach and can potentially widen the scope of the services, prescriptions and health products you provide as a pharmacy, the people who benefit most from a well-designed website are in your close personal community.
Widening your scope of services is increasingly vital when pharmacy deserts have been a growing problem for years, and being able to arrange prescriptions, contact a pharmacist for advice or know if your nearest pharmacist several miles away does travel vaccines is vital.
However, an effectively designed, clear, comprehensive and detailed website does your community a service, and with a pharmacy, your best source of marketing is through the community you help keep well.
To explain why this is the case, it is important to explore the concept of hyperlocal marketing and ecommerce, where a global network is used to speak to someone down the street or across the road.
What Is Hyperlocal Commerce And Why Does It Matter For Pharmacies?
The biggest catalyst for this is the rise of hyperlocal commerce, or developing a website, online storefront and delivery services specifically targeted towards people close to the shop.
Whilst the idea of local businesses having websites is nothing new, and by the late 2000s almost every business had some form of online presence, some business sectors with strictly local customer bases, such as pharmacies, struggled to find a use for them beyond a landing page and a set of contact details.
Hyperlocal commerce fixes this by clearly defining the local area being served, offering tools to enable meaningful customer engagement and more closely connecting to social media and other web platforms with a focus on the local community.
It helps to provide services to people who are housebound or otherwise cannot regularly access a clinic or pharmacy, such as delivery or in-house visits.
How Do You Develop A Hyperlocal Website For Your Pharmacy?
The most important elements of your local pharmacy are showcasing what services it has available, detailing which ones are walk-in, providing a booking system to allow someone to book an appointment, setting up contact information and providing an electronic prescription service.
There are generally three main audiences to consider when designing a website for your local pharmacy:
- Your local customers who pop in for over-the-counter medication, prescription fulfilment, other services and advice.
- Any customers who live nearby who struggle to regularly get to the pharmacy, and may need prescriptions delivered, medical advice or to buy over-the-counter medication online.
- Customers outside of your catchment area who may need to go to your pharmacy for certain services such as travel vaccinations or weight management programmes.
These three audiences will have different customer journeys, require different services from your pharmacy, but will all need to easily and seamlessly travel through your website to get what they need.
As well as this, your blog should be regularly updated with medical advice and information relevant to your local area, such as news of any outbreaks, weather advice and news they may find interesting or informative.