India’s tryst with express delivery began when popular QSR (Quick Service Restaurant) chain Domino’s, claimed that it could deliver a pizza within 30 minutes or else the pizza is free. The fact that a pizza company hurrying through jam-packed roads of India could precisely deliver within the said time, added to its popularity. 

Cut to 2021, where the e-commerce space is crowded with an influx of online companies emerging in the space of pharma, retail and food giving more or less similar products and services. The competition to deliver goods to consumers at a quicker pace has grown immensely which has resulted in becoming the point of differentiation. Startups are now excessively focusing on express delivery of 4-hour or 1 hour or even same day. 

According to a report by RedSeer, quick commerce deliveries in less than 45 minutes is projected to be a $0.3-billion market in 2021 and is expected to grow 10-15X in the next five years -that is, $5 billion by 2025.

Why do e-commerce companies want to join the express delivery rush? 

In an offline shopping experience, people get to take the product home instantly after purchase . To replicate the same, E-commerce companies are building their capacities on express delivery to up the game of customer satisfaction. The rate of customer satisfaction in online shopping is linked to the shorter turnaround time. Moreover, essentials like medicines and perishables like dairy products remain fresh for a short time.

Battling through a nascent 4-5 years since its inception, nobody could ever imagine that a deadly virus would usher in the growth of on-demand medicines or precisely online pharmacies in India. 

The cascading effect of the virus in the second covid wave especially in the metropolitan cities coupled with regional lockdowns has crippled the supply chain that resulted in stock shortages of medicines in medical stores. Therefore, leaving people with the only option of purchasing medicines online. This has surged the sales of online pharmacies by 25-35 percent. 

The future of online pharmacy in India seems promising with the revelations of a joint report released by EY and IPA (Indian Pharmaceutical Alliance) in September 2020. It says that the Indian e-pharmacy market is estimated to reach $4.5 Billion by 2025 by rapidly growing at the rate of 44 percent from 2019- 2025. The online pharma market will account for 10-12 percent of pharma sales by 2025 as compared to the 2-3 percent in 2019. 

Growth Trajectory of Online pharmacies – 1mg, Netmeds and Pharmeasy

Unlike other e-commerce companies in India where delays can be considered, it is non-negotiable in e-pharma verticals. 

The growth of online pharmacies can be attributed to:

• Quick turnaround of medicine deliveries
• Use of strong analytics in purchase orders and sales data
• Sharing real-time visibility of secondary data with pharma companies 
• Better management of drugs inventory ensuring no lapse in medicine supplies 
• Fulfilling the successful delivery of medicines. 

All-under-one-roof 

Besides these, online pharmacies such as Medlife (now Pharmeasy), Netmeds and 1mg are providing quality healthcare and convenience by all-under-one-roof solutions where teleconsultations, booking lab tests and purchase of medicines can take place.  

Express Delivery

In the second covid wave, 1 mg, with its majority stake in Tata, has witnessed a demand surge of 40-50 times on its platform for medicines like Fabiflu and Doxzee used for treating mild Covid-19 cases. 

It also plans to bring express delivery i.e. delivery of medicines within an hour to consumers. It has already begun delivering medicines within 4-5 hrs of placing an order in parts of New Delhi and Gurugram and will ramp up its express delivery operations across the country. 1mg’s total income swelled by 158 percent from Rs 19 Crore in financial year 18-19 to Rs 49 Crores in 2020.  

Similarly, Reliance-owned Netmeds offers a standard quick turnaround time of 24-48 hours which sometimes stretches upto 72 hours on some platforms due to local mobility restrictions. 

India’s biggest online pharma company Pharmeasy generated double revenue worth Rs 637 in 2020 as compared to Rs 340 crores in 2019.

Medlife, which was recently acquired by Pharmeasy registered a growth of 165% in revenue to Rs 363 crore in the year ended March 31, 2019.