How to Create a Pharmacy App Like Walgreens?

Just like food and water, medicines are essential to lead a healthy life. Whether these medicines are for treating a chronic disease or health supplements, medicines are an essential part of any household. To purchase these medicines, you either have to fill up a prescription at a pharmacy or order them online. But with this pandemic situation all over the world, it has been challenging

Apart from the inconvenience caused due to the COVID-19 outbreak, purchasing medicines offline has its own drawbacks, such as waiting in long queues and overpricing. Not every one of us knows the exact amount of any drug or the correct usage of any salt. These online medicine delivery platforms like the Walgreens pharmacy app deliver the ease of ordering medicines with all the necessary details and precautions that come with it.

In current times, medicine delivery is a hot topic, and there is no surprise in the fact that the development of platforms like the Walgreens app is on the rise. Any business related to healthcare is rapidly growing in terms of usage and revenue. Walgreen health coach app has received tremendous response from the users as it offers all the necessary details related to any drug available online.

A survey reports, there has been a 48 percent increase in the number of users that prefer platforms like pharmacy delivery app Walgreens over purchasing in offline stores. Another report from the prime stats firm of America states that the platforms like Walgreens pharmacy app are the major contributor to the high revenue generation of the online pharmacy market. The on-demand pharmacy delivery platforms are expected to generate a revenue of 30 billion US dollars by the year 2022. Further, this figure will increase to a massive amount of 120 billion US dollars by the year 2025.

These numbers clearly state that modern customers are choosing these platforms like the Walgreens app, and the need for these apps will increase further. If you have a similar idea and want to make a name out of your business, this is the right to start the development of your medicine delivery platform, such as the Walgreens pharmacy app.

What Is the Walgreens Pharmacy App, And How It Works?

Walgreens app is one of the largest pharmacy chains across the United States of America. It is part of the retail pharmacy division of the Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc., which is known as the most prominent global pharmacy-led wellbeing and health enterprise. Currently, there are more than 11 million customers are associated with the Walgreens pharmacy app. Apart from the online platform, users also love to purchase essentials from their most convenient and cost-effective pharmacy stores across the country. 

Besides medicines, they also provide health and wellness services and advice through their Walgreens health coach app. Walgreens operates in all of the 50 states of the country with its ultra-modern app and 8000 plus drugstores. 

In late 2014, Walgreens announced the launch of their digital health advisor or the Walgreens health coach app. This app allows the users to create customized goals per their varying needs and draws action plans to achieve those goals such as eating better, losing weight, healthy living practices, quitting smoking, etc. Several features make the Walgreens health coach app different from other digital health advisors out there. 

The ease of access delivered by the pharmacy delivery app Walgreens is remarkable; customers can place an order for a prescription refill just by creating an account on the platform. Customers can access their medications, prescription number, and other records in their accounts. Just by scanning the prescription label, they can place an order. To remind the customers of their medication time, there is a pill reminder in the app. Apart from the timely reminder, the users can enable notifications for prescription refill reminders and set a passcode to protect this data. 

For $48, users can avail themselves of telehealth services that include seeing a doctor over the phone, which is only applicable for non-urgent issues. There is a chat option that allows users to connect to a pharmacy professional and can ask him/her general questions related to their medication and the drug pricing information.

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Must-have Features In An Online Medicine Delivery Platform Like Walgreens App

An online pharmacy platform should deliver certain functionalities to the users that are mandatory in this domain. You can add various premium features to your project, like the pharmacy delivery app Walgreens to improve overall functionality. Advanced features counted as an add-on can be a good decision, but it depends on your overall development budget. Here are some of the crucial features of such apps that are necessary from various perspectives. 

Registration/ User Account

Online medicine delivery platforms are not very common for many users; hence, your app should have an onboarding feature that guides them about its functionality. When the onboarding screen is completed, users should be redirected to the account creation page. Making the process too long can irritate the users. It is advised to keep it short and straightforward. Users should be able to manage their profiles, address, bills, and other crucial information. 

Upload Prescriptions

A platform like the Walgreens pharmacy app should allow users to upload their prescription images or directly capture the document from their smartphone camera. Please be aware that there are millions of fake prescriptions available online hence, your app should be able to verify its authenticity before proceeding forward. 

Filters

Everyone loves a simple and faster process; your customers will be no different. Your app should deliver a feature that allows them to filter their medicines according to various parameters such as salts, milligrams, dosage, brands, etc. This feature will increase the popularity of your app and ultimately increase revenue. 

A Detailed Description

While ordering medicines, a customer should know every detail about the medicine he/she is purchasing. Apart from the image and name of the medicine, your app should display important information related to that product on your app. The details should include pieces of information like name, contents, manufacturer, etc. A comparison filter will be a cherry on the top that allows the user to compare various medications.

Availability of Alternatives

If a particular medicine is not available in your app’s inventory, you should deliver the options of alternatives for that product to the customers. Ensure that the alternatives are verified by a doctor and have the same list of ingredients as the initially asked drug. This feature will increase your client retention numbers. 

Inventory Management

If you are developing a platform like a pharmacy delivery app Walgreens, you should know that medicines are hot products in terms of needs. Your app should have a feature that keeps the counts of the various available medicines on your app. This feature will help you in maintaining the stocks and a high customer satisfaction rate. The inventory feature should also update you about the expiry information of various drugs. 

Notifications

Notifying your customers about various things happening on the app is necessary. Your customers should be aware of their order status, availability of ordered drugs, and much more. Every time a new update generates, the users should receive a notification. If you are running a discount on several drugs, users would love to get notified about that. This feature can serve you in gaining back the customers who have been dormant in terms of using the app.

Convenient tracking

Like the Walgreen health coach app, your project should have a map integration that allows the users to track their orders in real-time. On the other hand, this feature can also help the delivery drivers track the customer’s delivery address quickly. A flawless trade never hurts, and it would help you in gaining the customer’s trust. Users should be able to call the delivery drivers in case of any delays and direction instructions. 

Chatbot

If you plan to give your customers a smooth shopping experience, this feature is a must. Customers can ask various questions about their medicines and receive solutions from a reliable source round the clock. You can feed the frequently asked questions and solutions to the chatbot, and it will generate an automated reply to the customers. 

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Development Process Of A Platform Like Walgreens Pharmacy App

The Healthcare sector is considered the most competitive domain in the world. The reasons are simple; this sector deals with fragile conditions. Your project can stand out among the others if you have the right idea and the exemplary implementation of the features and guidelines. To start the development process, you should either hire a marketing research company, or you can conduct diligent market research by yourself. 

Certain crucial factors will be revealed in this intensive research, such as the current market practices, the need of the customers, the expectations of customers from such apps, and much more. You can analyze your competitor’s practices and the features they offer to the customers on their platforms. With the right sets of features and technological stack, your project can achieve great success.

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Technologies To Consider 

An online medicine delivery app has a very complex back-end architecture, but you can simplify your development process with the right set of technological stack and APIs. There would be a need for flawless back-end and front-end development. 

• APIs 

  Application programming interfaces help your app integrate third-party features in your app, but it mainly provides a smooth interaction of the front-end to the back-end. There are several APIs available in the market that you can use to serve various purposes. For payments, you can use these APIs: Braintree, GooglePay, PayPal, Stripe, ApplePay, etc. For the purpose of analytics, you can use APIs like MixPanel, Google Analytics, etc. For the purpose of navigation, you can use Google Places, Google Maps, etc. 

  For marketing needs, you can use SendGrid, MailChimp, SendGrid, Twilio, etc. And to facilitate storage on your app, you can use Storm On Demand API, Cloud Storage, etc.

• Languages and Frameworks 

  Programming languages pave the way for an efficient back-end of your project, such as the Walgreens pharmacy app. There are various languages, frameworks databases that you can use for an effective back-end. These languages and frameworks include Java, Ruby, Python, PHP, Ruby on Rails, Flutter, Symphony, Laravel, etc. 

  For the purpose of database servers, web servers, and cloud servers, you can use MySQL, PostgreSQL, Nginx, Apache, Amazon Web Services, etc.

• Monetization 

  Pharmacy delivery app Walgreens follow a simple monetization strategy and earn a substantial amount of revenue generation. Your app should have a monetization strategy that can earn you a decent profit, which is the ultimate goal. 

  You can allow third-party vendors to sell medicines on your app and charge a fee or a part of the revenue generated by them. You can also follow the subscription model that allows users to purchase a subscription and avail discounts on their purchases and various perks such as free delivery. 

  Advertisements are another source of generating revenues, but too many ads on any app can irritate customers and compel them to abandon that platform. However, you can promote various other medicine brands through advertisements that are related to the customer’s needs. 

  If you are thinking of developing a platform that acts as a marketplace for various third-party vendors, then you can charge a fee for the in-house promotion and place a vendor in the recommended section.

• Team Requirements 

  When searching for a mobile app development company, you should check their background and their testimonials for a better understanding. Check their reviews with the previous clients, or you can hire a freelance engineer from various freelance websites. 

  Either way, you will need a generic team of mobile app developers to develop a platform like the Walgreens app. Please be aware of the fact that the cost of development will vary according to the experience and ratings of the development company. A freelance team can charge you less, but they will not be able to deliver the app of your expectations. 

  A generic team consists of mobile app developers, UI/UX designers, QA for the quality of the apps, and a project manager who will supervise the development process. Please note that the development cost will also depend on the number of features you choose to integrate into your app and the number of platforms.

Conclusion

Developing a project like the Walgreens pharmacy app has its own challenges. Still, a mobile app development company with good values and a dedicated workforce can help you build the app of your expectations. Your online medicine delivery app should be precise in terms of functionalities. Every industry is now developing its own apps, and you have to decide the factors that will make your project stand out from the crowd. 

If you are determined to develop an app like Walgreens, Matellio can help you with its vast professional experience and a team of proficient mobile app developers. We have served several clients with a flawlessly engineered online medicine delivery app; we can develop yours too. Call us to discuss more. 

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