With the continuous development of the Internet, pharmaceutical e-commerce brewing in the silence of the market development explosion. According to statistics, China's pharmaceutical B2C continued its explosive growth in 2013. The annual transaction scale reached 4.26 billion yuan, an increase of 166% from the 2012 transaction volume of 1.6 billion yuan. Among them, the scale of platform-based B2C transactions reached 2.58 billion yuan, accounting for 50.56%; the scale of transactions for autonomous B2C websites (medical B2C official website) was 1.68 billion yuan, accounting for 39.44% of the total.

Although medical e-commerce has maintained a rapid growth, but from the perspective of market size, the development of medical e-commerce is still in its infancy, and it faces many “stumbling blocks”.

Last year, the scale of pharmaceutical e-commerce approached 10 billion

As we all know, e-commerce has been expanding into various consumer market segments, and the medical hot potato is also seen as the last blue ocean of vertical e-commerce. However, due to the prudent attitude of the Food and Drug Administration to the development of the pharmaceutical e-commerce market, this area has been in a state of slow development and tepid.

However, at the beginning of 2014, a news disrupted the pharmaceutical e-commerce industry. CITIC 21st Century Co., Ltd., a subsidiary of CITIC Group, announced that Alibaba teamed up with Yunfeng Fund to make a strategic investment of US$170 million in CITIC's 21st century. The reason why Alibaba has focused on gold in the 21st century is to obtain an online drug trading license for the 95095 medical platform of Hebei Huiyan Medical Technology Co., Ltd., which is a 21st century company. In recent days, Kangmei Pharmaceutical has won the B2C license for medicines: "Internet Drug Trade Service Qualification Certificate". This is also the first time that the Food and Drug Administration has opened a very valuable certificate since its strict review system was implemented in the past year.

In fact, online shopping has gradually become a new online shopping habit. At present, there are thousands of shops selling drugs on Taobao, including the Tmall Medical Museum, which was shut down after being on the line and was finally on the line. One of the most critical factors for the Internet giant's involvement in pharmaceutical e-commerce is that the industry has entered a period of rapid development. According to 2013 medical e-commerce data, the annual scale of online medicine in 2013 has approached 10 billion. Take the Tmall Medicine Hall as an example. In the 10 months of February 28, 2012 when Tmall Medicine was again on the line, this figure reached 750 million yuan. In January 2013, the monthly sales of the Tmall Medicine Museum exceeded 120 million yuan.

Development meets many "stumbling blocks"

In recent years, the emergence of online pharmacies and dark horses has shown that the entire market is a blank period and the demand is very strong. However, after all, medical e-commerce belongs to a rather special area. It is different from the clothes and shoes that we generally buy online. Many internal and external factors have become the “stumbling block” for its development.

From the external environment, the policy bottleneck is one of the factors of its development. Drug regulatory authorities have strict management of pharmaceutical sales. Therefore, strict supervision and high thresholds have to some extent blocked the development of medical e-commerce. A typical case is that Taobao Medical Museum, which is led by e-commerce vendor Taobao, has been considered by the industry as having a “milestone” of e-commerce for e-commerce. It has been ordered to rectify the sale of drugs in violation of regulations in less than a month. In fact, since the first online pharmacy was approved for business, the competent authorities have been very cautious in granting access to online pharmacies. In the past eight years, they have issued only more than 100 "Internet Drug Trading Service Qualification Certificates." Although caution is a good thing, but it is also greatly The development of this market was inhibited and many of the original long-awaited capital were disheartened.

On the other hand, the space for medical e-commerce is also affected by the health insurance policy. As we all know, in Medicare designated pharmacies and community pharmacies, consumers can use Medicare cards to purchase drugs. However, whether online drug sales can enjoy the same policy and which online shops can obtain such qualifications require policy confirmation or support.

From the internal environment, the immaturity of the medical e-commerce market itself has restricted the development of the company. Medical consumption is related to physical health. Consumers tend to be more cautious when purchasing medicines. However, analysis shows that the quality of medicines sold on the Internet is mixed, and there are many medicines with no approval number, no manufacturer and address. Therefore, it is very difficult for consumers to establish trust in the drug purchasing companies, which makes consumers infiltrate drug online shopping more slowly than other categories of online shopping habits.

Chaos forced medical e-commerce regulation
Nowadays, it is an Internet age with rapid development of information. The development trend of pharmaceutical e-commerce is irreversible. According to data from investigators, the US currently has 35% of retail sales of pharmaceuticals already online, and consumers have begun to take the initiative in drug consumption. At the same time, some analysts said that the relevant state departments are considering gradually increasing their support for pharmaceutical e-commerce, and they are currently intensively holding related seminars and inspections. The adjustment of the e-commerce policy for pharmaceuticals is already in sight. Once policies are loosened, pharmaceutical e-commerce companies will usher in tremendous opportunities for development.

The development momentum is gratifying, but all investors must consider a problem. The mobile Internet is coming. What should a medical e-commerce company do?

In the process of building their own platforms, pharmaceutical e-commerce companies must assume the important task of regulating drugs. For pharmaceutical companies taking e-commerce channels, without any publicity and no physician guidance, relying solely on the consumer’s own judgment, it is difficult to achieve sales success, and even let companies fall into a disorderly price war. This has led to the situation where inferior drugs have dispelled good medicine. Therefore, e-commerce providers should strengthen the supervision of drugs and, if necessary, establish a team of doctors to ensure the quality of drug distribution.

On the other hand, improving service quality is also crucial. Pharmaceutical products have stricter requirements for quality and safety. The e-commerce providers should coordinate online and offline, strengthen regional core medical service system, and improve service quality. The big platform should not only be the "battlefield" of price wars, but also the medical e-commerce platform. The Internet is a silk culture, and it is only possible for the user to recognize and treasure every user. In order to get user recognition, it is to let users experience surprises. For example, in the product quality and distribution to achieve compliance with the national GSP standards; the use of high-quality carton and strict packaging procedures; implementation of no reason, unconditional return policy. By raising the level of service, cultivate the user's spending habits.