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Private online pharmacy website development
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UPW Case: A Triumph in Compliance and Conversions for Private Online Pharmacy

This online pharmacy that operates in the private space clearly needed to work with an agency who knows how they operate to get them out of a sticky situation. Now, they have a new system and a dedicated pharmacy-led agency to supercharge their growth.

About This Pharmacy

A private online pharmacy that extends its services not just across the UK, but globally. Distinguished by its unique variety of products and commitment to customer service, the pharmacy faced significant challenges due to a non-GPhC compliant website and a GPhC inspection that required them to adapt. Positioned for growth, they required urgent and comprehensive solutions.

The Challenge

The pharmacy approached us in the face of distressing circumstances. They have used several agencies in the past but none of them could help them navigate through the evolving GPhC landscape of selling POM’s and P-lines online. Some of the things they were challenged with:

  • Non-GPhC Compliance: An impending GPhC inspection had signalled a multitude of compliance issues on their previous website.
  • Broken Website: Several functionalities of the website were non-operational, creating a less-than-ideal user experience and jeopardising trust and sales.
  • Website Presentation: Poor quality medicinal images, formatting of critical pages and blogs. The website was in need of a huge face-lift.
  • Database Transfer: A massive database consisting of 100’s of products needed to be transferred seamlessly to a new platform, as well as a database of 1000’s of patents.
  • Digital Marketing Bottlenecks: Poor SEO strategies and challenges in paid advertising were shunting online visibility and sales potential.

The pharmacy team desperately needed to work with an agency who could guide them from a pharmacy, marketing and development perspective.

Pharmacy Mentor was the ideal solution.

The Solution

Since this business was already operating, a more detailed discovery session needed to take place, where we covered everything from website technical architecture, website transfer, GPhC compliance, content and marketing. Our discovery sessions with websites of this nature are always led by our CEO, who is a pharmacist, developer and marketeer. He’s usually accompanied by the Web Project Manager and Head of Development/Marketing.

The discovery session is a critical phase, and we developed a plan that consisted of a bespoke website designed around the online prescribing solution we had built i.e. the UPW.

  • Web Design & Development: Designed and built a GPhC-compliant website with a professional aesthetic. The website was constructed on the UPW platform, providing a robust foundation for growth and seamless user experience. We developed bespoke features for this pharmacy in accordance with their unique needs.
  • Database Management: Successfully transferred a large product database to the new system without disrupting sales or user experience
  • SEO and Paid Advertising: Rolled out a new and improved SEO strategy and tactfully circumvented ad blockers, thereby driving targeted traffic to the website
  • Social Proofing: Implemented a new review and testimonial strategy that had traditionally been neglected and forgotten about

The Results

Only nine months down the line, and this online pharmacy is reaping the rewards of working with an award-winning agency, dedicated purely to pharmacy:

  • GPhC Compliance: The pharmacy is now ticking the boxes when it comes to GPhC compliance, reinstating operational viability.

Not all standards were being met by this pharmacy, and their previous website was letting them down. We changed that.

  • Professional, Premium Website: The pharmacy is no longer stuck in the dark age. Their clean, professional website contends amongst the big players out there.
  • Enhanced User Experience: The newly designed website has an improved user experience, enhancing the overall patient experience.

A professional, clean and well-designed pharmacy website is crucial for growth

  • Sales: Almost £250,000 in online sales in the first 8 months of being with Pharmacy Mentor, with an ambitious goal to double this revenue in the next nine.
  • Paid Advertising: We’re continuing to drive revenue successfully from expert advertising, circumventing policy issues, testing new Ad variants and improving overall ad performance
  • SEO Success: We’ve seen a sharp rise in SEO from the consistent, quality content generation and technical improvements. The website is regularly receiving over 250 targeted organic website clicks per day

Going from strength to strength for this pharmacy business. More visibility = more sales

  • Elevated Social Proofing: Generating over 200 5-star reviews bolstering the pharmacy’s credibility and customer trust.

Social proofing is critical in helping a pharmacy website of this type grow

 

What’s next for this pharmacy?

There is a lot of potential for this pharmacy, and we have plans to help them grow. We envisage doubling their revenue in the next year and implementing more advanced marketing tactics to encourage higher user engagement. The sky really is the limit…

Ready to take your pharmacy to the next level?

Whether you have an existing prescribing business online, or you are just starting out, Pharmacy Mentor can help you grow. We’re a team of talented individuals helping pharmacies of all shapes and sizes drive revenue in new ways. Talk to us to see how we can help you:


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is bing losing you pharmacy patients?

Is BING losing you pharmacy patients?

I’m confident that unless you’re one of the few people I’ve spoken to already, you have no idea what is happening on Bing & Yahoo Search for pharmacies.  Fair warning: what you’ll read about in this article might annoy you…

If you Bing “pharmacy”, and you’re a community pharmacist, you’ll encounter a problem. Though you may not realise it.

This is something I noticed by accident, stumbling across the issue when one of Pharmacy Mentor’s laptop browsers was set to Yahoo Search by default.

Big pharmacy companies are advertising on Bing search engine across the whole of the UK for the term pharmacy. You might question why. You might question why you should care. Let’s explore both of these questions step-by-step below.

What is Bing?

Bing is the Microsoft equivalent of Google’s search engine, only less popular. Because Bing is Microsoft’s search engine, it comes pre-installed on all Microsoft Devices as standard.

Other search brands use Bing’s search engine too

Yahoo Search is just Bing search with a different branding, and is the default search function for Mozilla Firefox. Yahoo’s search engine is powered by Bing, which means both Bing & Yahoo deliver the same results, including adverts.

Why should pharmacies care about Bing, or Yahoo Search?

The fact is, Google dominates the search engine market, with 92.47% global market share (91% in the UK) as of June 2021 (Statista, 2022). It seems most people don’t care about Bing or Yahoo Search. So why should you?

Bing Pharmacy PPC (Pay-per-click) Advertising

Advertising on Bing, which feeds through to AOL & Yahoo, has a considerably smaller Cost-per-Click (CPC) than Google.

Still irrelevant to you?

  1. Go to a Bing-powered search engine
  2. Search for “pharmacy near me”, or even your own pharmacy name.
  3. Look at who appears first.

Saving you a bit of time, I’ve already done searches for “pharmacy near me” as well as “Pharmacy John O’Groats” and “Pharmacy Lands End” below, demonstrating the issue for pharmacies anywhere in the UK.

Scroll through the image sideshow below to see the searches.

12345

But here’s where you get annoyed…

What I didn’t search for, was your specific pharmacy name. Open a Bing search, and search for your pharmacy name.

If you didn’t just utter “you crafty cusses”, or words to that effect, you don’t yet understand what is happening.

So let me enlighten you a little more.

(N.B. If you don’t see Ads, it might be that the adverts have reached the maximum daily/monthly budget. But they’ll be back.)

Who uses Bing?

91% of the UK uses Google. 5% use Bing. Whilst 5% doesn’t sound like a lot, it translates to approximately 3.35 million people using Bing.

According to the macro statistics, if you open up your browser and Bing is your default search engine, you probably go into your browser settings and change your default search engine.

You know who doesn’t do that? People who don’t know enough about browser settings, or don’t know how to do it.

You know which demographic doesn’t know how to work the Internet? The one that needs prescriptions the most.

It’s an incredibly savvy tactic.

Have another look at those screenshots. Can you see how minimal the indicators are that the top results are adverts? Again, the people with eyesight sharp enough for “Ads related to: pharmacy near me” aren’t generally the ones using Bing.

Advertising over people’s businesses on Google is noticeable.

Why?

Because the business owners use Google. So they’ll probably see.

But doing this through Bing is sneaky. You avoid a snarling dog, because it’s obvious. But the mosquito that gets you in your sleep bites you all they like.

What can you do about it?

Unfortunately the only way to fight Bing Ads is with Bing Ads. (The same is true with Google Ads.)

If someone puts a poster over a signpost to your pharmacy, preventing that means either asking them to stop, or putting your own poster up over their poster. If it’s a local competitor who’s doing the advertising, there’s a good chance of finding an agreement that works for both parties.

But do you think the companies who’re paying for adverts targeting “pharmacy” all over the UK will stop because you asked nicely?

Are Bing Ads for pharmacy it worth it?

These big pharmacy companies advertising on Bing think so.

It’s worth noting, they advertise on Bing, but not on Google. The budget on Google is too high to cover the entirety of the UK all the time, but because of the smaller user base of Bing, it’s possible.

pay per click costs for pharmacy on Google Ads

But they wouldn’t continue to do this unless they had a valid reason to. The reason is that the predominant user base for Bing is people who don’t know how to change to Google. And that’s pharmacy’s target market.

How much does it cost?

Advertising on Bing obviously has a cost, typically between 25-50 pence per click. Pay-per-click on Google for Pharmacy is more like £1-3 per click, for reference.

But don’t worry about competing with a big company advertising budget. Competing with them in your local area won’t cost anything like that much.

Weigh up whether or not remaining inactive whilst these big companies skim the cream off the top of your catchment area is worth less than to you than a couple of hundred pounds a month.

Worth noting: The patients these companies pick up could be searching for your pharmacy, but they could be from any pharmacy searches in the UK. You aren’t being directly targeted.

Not Just Protecting Your Pharmacy Business

And don’t forget – advertising on Bing isn’t just protecting your pharmacy’s existing patient base. You’re actively promoting your pharmacy and attracting new patients too. Advertising on Bing is probably a worthwhile endeavour even if you weren’t being forced into it.

Found this article valuable? Sign up for our Newsletter below! Get Pharmacy Growth Hacks & important updates like this and get notified every time we release a new article.

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why distance selling pharmacies need a dep website immediately
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The NHSBSA are checking if Distance Selling Pharmacies (DSPs) have a DSP Website

The NHSBSA is currently checking if Distance Selling Pharmacies are operating without a fully-compliant DSP website.

Why you need to have a Distance Selling Pharmacy (DSP) website 

Back on the 5th January, 2021, we released an article called “Distance Selling Pharmacy Websites – What the New Regulations Mean For You”. That article takes you through exactly what the GPhC regulations mean for DSPs.

Essentially, if you want to run a licensed DSP,  you need to have a website, and it needs to fulfil a specific set of criteria. If you need the details, check out the article.

The NHSBSA Check-up

The Pharmacy Provider Assurance Team, part of NHS Business Services Authority (NHSBSA), are in the process of requesting Distance Selling Pharmacies provide them with proof (e.g., a working link to their website) that they are operating with a compliant website.

What this means is you cannot simply get away with not having a website. There are ongoing checks, and these are regulations. So ultimately, you’ll face regulatory action if you aren’t compliant.

How do I create a DSP Website?

Creating a DSP Website is no longer as simple as using a website builder to create a basic website. Since the changes in regulations by the NHS, you need to create a website that adheres to their professional standards. To create a compliant Distance Selling Pharmacy, use our Distance Selling Pharmacy Websites – What the New Regulations Mean For You article as a reference. If you’re building the website by yourself, you can use it to make sure you include every element you need to be compliant.

Outsourcing Website Design

Of course, you might want to leave the website design to the professionals. Pharmacy Mentor work with Rushport Advisory, creating fully-compliant Distance Selling Pharmacy websites for your pharmacy. With our websites, you’re safe in the knowledge that you will pass any NHS auditing of your site.

You don’t want to pay for a website only to find out it isn’t compliant. You’ll have to pay for more development, or worse yet, a whole new website.

Pharmacy Mentor websites are yours to own from Day 1 (some web providers simply rent you their software and it doesn’t belong to your business) and feature everything you need to pass any NHS audit.

Setting up a Distance Selling Pharmacy?

If you’re simply in the process of setting up your Distance Selling Pharmacy, and you’re reading this to understand what you need to do in future? Check out How to Setup a Distance Selling Pharmacy in England. It’s a comprehensive breakdown of all the steps you need to take to set up.

Have any questions about this article? Want us to build a fully-compliant DSP website for you? Get in touch using our contact page.

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distance selling pharmacy website
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Distance Selling Pharmacy Websites – What the New Regulations Mean for You

The new Distance Selling Pharmacy Websites Regulations come into effect on both January 1st and then April 1st, 2021. What do the regulations mean for you? We break everything down so you understand what you need to do.

 

We’re working in collaboration with Rushport Advisory, a leading consulting firm covering the pharmacy market. They have helped us curate this article and are guiding us to deliver the most robust and legally compliant distance selling pharmacy website on the market.

What do the new regulations say?

The exact wording for the Distance Selling Pharmacy Website Regulations are as follows:

28B An NHS pharmacist in respect of distance selling premises must ensure that there are arrangements in place at those premises which enable a person performing pharmaceutical services to communicate confidentially with a person accessing pharmaceutical services—

(a) by telephone or another live audio link; and

(b) via a live video link.”

This regulation is effective from January 1st, 2021.

28C “An NHS pharmacist (P) in respect of distance selling premises must ensure that P has a website for use by the public for the purpose of accessing pharmaceutical services from those premises, on which there is an interactive page, clearly promoted to any user of the website when they first access it, which provides public access to a reasonable range of up to date materials that promote healthy lifestyles by addressing a reasonable range of health issues.

This regulation comes into effect on April 1st, 2021.

What does that mean for you?

A closer look at 28B

Most pharmacies already have a telephone line and internet access already. But the requirement of confidentiality from the pharmacy premises means you need an area where a member of the pharmacy staff cannot be overheard when communicating with patients.

As well as communicating by phone (or an “audio link”), note the regulations state AND via a “live video link”. This means you need to have both options available. This is fairly straightforward to implement provided you have a laptop and internet connection through apps like Zoom, Teams or Skype.

video and audio call software for patient consultation

We’re in the digital age. So people expect digital communication.

A closer look at 28C

This regulation is a little bit trickier to get into place and is also quite vague. Terms like you must provide access to a “reasonable range” of up-to-date materials clearly depends on who you are reasoning with.

The local NHS area teams ultimately will decide and so it’s likely to be their standards you must match. But don’t try and match the requirements. Blow them out of the water. The difference isn’t big between the two and will ultimately benefit your business anyway.

Here’s everything you need to comply with Regulation 28C

A website

Most DSP’s still do not have a website, believe it or not. If you’re operating without one, you need to get one.

An “interactive page”

A website that doesn’t have interactive pages is known as a “brochure website” because it performs in the exact same way as a brochure or leaflet. That is to say, it doesn’t really do anything other than display information. An interactive web page makes the user actively engage with the site (think links to other resources.)

distance selling pharmacy website

Your website needs to be interactive. We design the best interactive modern sites.

The interactive page must be “clearly promoted” to any user of the website when they land on your site. This is another term in the regulations that is open to interpretation with both terms.

What does clearly mean?

It could just be that you don’t hide links to the page within a huge body of text (though it’s unclear why you’d ever do that.)

In which case, having it as part of the “menu” of your website, accessible on every page would meet that requirement.

What does promoted mean?

Do you have to draw attention to it? If so, a banner on every page encouraging visitors to the interactive page would meet the requirements.

It’s highly unlikely that the regulatory teams will nit-pick, provided you show them a modern website with a great user experience (ie. it’s intuitive) and up-to-date information (rather than NHS regulations from 2013 – we’ll talk about that now).

A good range of health content

Pharmacy Services

DSP’s need to showcase their service offering

This is where you may get frustrated. Creating content is a time-consuming process when you’re not familiar with it. Naturally, you want to be doing other things with your time. Outsourcing this work will save you a headache. We can help you with this (and the whole project) in a cost-effective way because we live and breathe health content and create pharmacy websites every day.

It’s tempting to simply copy and paste content from other pharmacy websites, but resist this temptation. Copied and pasted content is traceable and you could find yourself in breach of copyright laws with regards to someone’s intellectual property.

Embrace the compliance, improve your service

The crux of the new regulations is there’s no hiding as a product-only pharmacy, where you do little more than package prescriptions. Offering a channel of communication for consultation with the patients using your service is now mandatory.

You’re expected to carry this into your website. It can’t be just a prescription production line anymore.

We mentioned this before, but ultimately these Distance Selling Pharmacy website regulations improve your service to patients. That isn’t something to begrudge, but something to embrace. Realise that with an amazing website that is simple for your patients to use, those same patients will show you more loyalty.

Looking for help in meeting the new Distance Selling Pharmacy website regulations?

Please get in touch with us. As we offer website services almost exclusively to pharmacies, we have all the knowledge already of what you’ll need to get set up.

We’ll be glad to help.

 

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