With the launch of Amazon Pharmacy in the US last November, online pharmacy companies are worried about the industry giant Amazon’s entry into the healthcare industry.
The head of Quick Meds, an online pharmacy firm that had only recently been established, believes it will have a huge impact on the industry.
“I’m worried,” he said. “They’ll have a massive marketing budget, and they’ll definitely take a sizeable chunk out of every other pharmacy on the market. There will be closures as a direct result of it.”
Pharmacies have complex, inefficient supply chains which the online retail giant could outcompete with its massive, streamlined operations. Amazon is already purchasing its first fleet of aircraft to compete directly with large courier companies like FedEx, taking advantage of plummeting aircraft prices in the wake of the pandemic.
Scott Galloway, professor of marketing at NYU Stern, entrepreneur and author of Post Corona: From Crisis to Opportunity, believes that consumers will benefit in the short and medium term.”For the most part of Amazon’s history, as a consumer you’re getting products for near cost or sometimes even below cost and that has just been an incredible boon for consumers and shareholders,” he said.
The company would use information from its other business areas to create a database of each customer’s health, enabling it to target goods and services.
“With their new wearable Amazon Halo, the company can build a 3D image of their consumers and they can then combine this with the foods you eat through Whole Foods, data from Amazon Prime and Alexa, and information such as your post code, relationship status, demographic data,” said Mr Galloway. Compared to the largely reactive medical industry, where consumers seek out medical services, this is a sea change.
“They can use this to offer proactive healthcare services,” he said.
Source: BBC News
