It's time for pharmaceutical enterprises to take advantage of the potential to open up the market outside the hospital

This year's "double 11" is another "double 11" that has constantly broken the historical record According to tmall data, in 2019 tmall global carnival, the turnover of more than 10 billion yuan took only 96 seconds, 29 seconds less than that in 2018; the opening hour was 03:59, with sales exceeding 100 billion yuan, 43 minutes and 25 seconds faster than that in 2018 The same is true for the pharmaceutical sector According to Alibaba health, just after 0:00 on November 11, it took only 2 minutes and 25 seconds for tmall to make a turnover of more than 100 million yuan Different from the previous "double 11" Alibaba health and Jingdong health "two strong fight", this year, due to the strong online of pinduoduo health, a good play of "Three Kingdoms" was staged Obviously, the vigorous development of pharmaceutical e-commerce will bring new opportunities for pharmaceutical enterprises to explore a broader market Especially for those pharmaceutical enterprises that have always taken public hospitals as their main sales channels, it is necessary to reexamine the previous marketing strategies, boldly marry with pharmaceutical e-commerce, and exploit the market outside the hospital In recent years, pharmaceutical e-commerce has developed rapidly The old e-commerce platforms Ali, Jingdong, etc all operate the pharmaceutical sector as the core sector, gradually focusing on nearly 130 million consumers Moreover, with the rise of pinduoduo, the traditional "two strong struggle" between Ali health and JD health has become the "Three Kingdoms" For the new market pattern in the field of pharmaceutical e-commerce, Zhang Ming, marketing manager and regional manager of Qingdao Zhongzhi pharmaceutical marketing planning Co., Ltd., said that more e-commerce platform involvement means more model attempts and more choices for enterprises and consumers Internet medicine market is a fast growing market, whether B2C or B2B, or o2o mode enterprises, will have a good development Moreover, more enterprises entering this field can promote the improvement of policies faster Once Internet medicine goes on a healthy development path and forms a scale, the impact on the whole pharmaceutical industry is unprecedented, and it will certainly subvert the existing pharmaceutical sales mode Shao Qing, a senior industry expert, is also looking forward to the improvement of the policy He said that compared with the past, the policy now has more support for medical e-commerce, especially after the implementation of the new drug administration law, the online sale of prescription drugs has also been conditionally liberalized In the future, medical e-commerce will show a more rapid development trend However, with the increase and rapid development of platforms, many new problems have emerged in the field of pharmaceutical e-commerce, such as the "two choices" problem exposed during the "double 11" this year For this problem, Shao Qing analyzed that "two choices one" is mainly caused by the intensified competition among e-commerce platforms, which is certainly not welcome and should be explicitly opposed, but it will not have too much impact on the pharmaceutical industry, and there are many measures to avoid in reality Shao Qing said that at this stage, there are more serious problems for pharmaceutical e-commerce than "two choices one", such as serious competition between e-commerce platforms and merchants For example, when Alibaba and JD have their own proprietary platforms, they will guide traffic more to the proprietary platforms, which has a great impact on the merchants In addition, the competition is too fierce and the way of competition is too simple and rough At present, the pharmaceutical e-commerce is still in the stage of price competition, the characteristic operation has not been released, and the profit of the business is very low, even no profit Moreover, there are still policy problems Although the state has some policies to guide and encourage the healthy development of medical e-commerce, the pace of implementation is inconsistent in local areas, such as "online sale of prescription drugs", now some places have been completely opened, some places are playing side ball, and some places are still "hide and seek" Finally, there is the issue of security At present, there are still many security risks in the sale of drugs on the Internet, such as personal privacy disclosure, illegal promotion of drugs, sale of fake drugs, etc These problems need to be solved in the future development process Zhang Ming also analyzed the current problems faced by pharmaceutical e-commerce: "at this stage, the main problem is trust, including the trust of enterprises to e-commerce, the trust of consumers to e-commerce, etc For example, many e-commerce companies are unable to guarantee the reasonable price of drugs, and malicious price reduction, which makes many enterprises interested in e-commerce dare not try easily " He said that medicine is not a general commodity Before the bidding based procurement mode was abolished, the price was fatal for every enterprise E-commerce should fully face up to this problem In addition, when many enterprises intend to enter e-commerce, they will encounter the obstruction of the third terminal partners in the past, and are not allowed to sell online This is also a problem that should be solved Although there are many problems in the development of medical e-commerce, its rapid development is unstoppable, and the policy level is gradually improving Now the newly revised Drug Administration Law has conditions to open the online sale of prescription drugs Xu Shengmin, deputy inspector of the drug administration department of the State Food and drug administration, also disclosed that the drug administration is studying and formulating the regulatory measures for online sale of drugs For the benefits brought by the policy of "limited release" of online prescription drugs, Shao Qing said that after the release of online prescription drugs, the pharmaceutical e-commerce field will usher in a huge market increase, which will increase sales by at least RMB 100 billion in the short term, and may have a market increase of RMB 230 billion in the long term This will undoubtedly attract more enterprises to join in Of course, how to solve the problem of prescription compliance after the opening of online prescription drugs is a great challenge for all parties concerned In addition, the release of online prescription drugs is also a good thing for consumers, who can buy cheaper drugs For pharmaceutical e-commerce, policy compliance and security are always two issues that need to be considered in the future development Zhang Ming pays more attention to the risks beyond the policy benefits "The combination of the Internet and traditional industries has great potential, but at the same time, it also hides huge risks," he said Drugs, especially prescription drugs, are closely related to the health and even life of the people We should be more cautious, rather lack than abuse, and not rashly advance Medical e-commerce should have a broader vision, more actively think of ways to ensure the rationality and safety of patients' medication, and combine the "medicine" that determines the prescription with the "medicine" that realizes the prescription If a breakthrough can be achieved in these areas, the Internet sales of prescription drugs will not only be a matter of course, but also get greater support from the policy " It's not just the dividend brought by the "loosening" of laws and regulations With the comprehensive expansion of "4 + 7", the pharmacies of public hospitals gradually turn from "profit center" to "cost center", and the willingness of prescription outflow of public hospitals becomes stronger This will also bring market dividends to pharmaceutical e-commerce But what can we do to share this dividend? Zhang Ming said that the current out of hospital market is not standardized, and even becomes a position for enterprises to evade the "two vote system" and hospitals to evade the "proportion of drugs"; the product structure is also very deformed, most of which are "large space" and expensive, and even there are no lack of food, health care products and some consumer products This makes many patients feel disgusted and distrust of out of hospital pharmacies and doctors In this situation, pharmaceutical e-commerce can give full play to the advantages of o2o, communicate online and offline, not only assume the responsibility of drug supply, but also have the determination to regulate the market Through the characteristics of openness and transparency of the Internet, to a certain extent, regulate doctors' prescriptions, while selling drugs, undertake the task of educating and popularizing patients, and truly become a "solid bridge" between doctors and patients 。 However, Shao Qing believes that "4 + 7" cannot be directly linked with the outflow of prescriptions and the sale of drugs on the Internet, because even without "4 + 7" and the outflow of prescriptions, medical e-commerce will continue to develop However, whether "4 + 7" has a positive or negative effect on the outflow of prescriptions has not been determined Because some small varieties of small enterprises depend entirely on doctors' prescriptions After "4 + 7", they may "die" and there will be no "outflow"; on the contrary, those large varieties of large enterprises, such as Plavix, have a large consumer population and will benefit from the outflow of prescriptions Of course, he also said that if "4 + 7" can really promote the outflow of prescriptions, e-commerce will undoubtedly be the first recipient of this dividend, and drugstores outside the hospital will be the second recipient Taking advantage of the situation to lay out e-commerce channels Driven by the policy and market, it has become the choice of many pharmaceutical companies to quickly cut into the field of e-commerce and take advantage of the potential to lay out the market outside the hospital But what kind of enterprise is more suitable to open up e-commerce channels? Which products are more suitable for e-commerce channels? Zhang Ming said that the future e-commerce channels, just like OTC and clinic, are independent but not isolated channels, interconnected with clinic and OTC, from which every type of enterprise can get help (except for controlled drugs) New drugs can expand their influence and benefits through e-commerce channels, and generic drugs can save sales costs E-commerce channels will definitely be further subdivided in the future At present, two types of drugs are more suitable One is those with large base, convenient use and thin profit, which are not enough to support the entity channel; the other is those with unbalanced distribution of sales resources, which urgently need to expand the market Shao said more directly that the following three types of products are more suitable for e-commerce channels The first type is consumer products that have been sold well by e-commerce at present, such as weight-loss drugs, contraceptives, cold medicines, etc.; the second type is chronic disease drugs that patients need to take for a long time, such as liver disease drugs; the third type is scarce drugs On the contrary, those generic drugs, which have no obvious characteristics, are not suitable for sale in e-commerce channels Zhang Ming said that pharmaceutical companies should first choose the right platform according to their target customers For example, if the target customer is a clinic rather than a terminal patient, you can choose a platform such as pharmacist's help; if the customer is directly facing the patient, you can choose 1 drug network, Jingdong online drugstore, etc He said that cooperation between pharmaceutical enterprises and pharmaceutical e-commerce is more about mutual benefit and win-win results, not about competing with platforms In the process of cooperation, it is not about wholesale drugs to e-commerce, but about jointly cultivating products Enterprises should do a good job of offline market extension and service, cooperate with e-commerce sales, so as to form a benign ecology, and realize the brand effect and maximize the interests of enterprises Shao Qing also suggested that pharmaceutical companies and all e-commerce platforms should cooperate, because all platforms can bring you market growth However, before cooperation, we should first develop a suitable e-commerce development strategy When appropriate, we can use "external brain" to consult, and then decide whether to open a flagship store, do distribution business, or cooperate with internet hospitals E-commerce can not only be an important channel, but also a fulcrum of strategic transformation Obviously, as an emerging channel, it is very important for pharmaceutical companies to make necessary preparations before entering Building the corresponding organizational structure is one of them Shao Qing said that pharmaceutical enterprises should first establish an e-commerce department, or transform the original marketing department into a new retail department This department is either in parallel with the original marketing department, under the direct management of the boss, or under the big marketing center, parallel to the retail department or business department It should be relatively high in the internal level of the enterprise, and positioned as the first level department or the second level department It's not a three