Mail order pharmacies Austria: A comparison

In the European region, it is possible to purchase pharmaceuticals online. In the meantime, many different mail-order pharmacy concepts have established themselves and offer their services either as a classic mail-order pharmacy or as part of Quick Commerce. Care must be taken to ensure that patients or buyers only purchase medicines from registered online retailers. A brief comparison of some such Internet pharmacies can be found here.
Woman opens a pharmacist's cabinet made of wood and glass and inspects a medicine. Pexels/cottonbro

What is an Internet pharmacy?

If a mail-order pharmacy sells its medicines online, it must be publicly visible and registered with the responsible regulatory authority and is monitored by this authority. In Germany, for example, this would be the BfArM (Federal Institute for Drugs and Medical Devices) and in Austria the BASG (Federal Office for Safety in Health Care). A detailed list of all responsible EU regulatory authorities can be found here. To protect consumers from counterfeit medicines, the quality requirements specified in the German Medicines Act and the associated Distance Selling Regulation are met by the respective regulatory authority. This ensures that only legal medicines that meet the requirements are sold.

Note: Within Austria, such Internet service providers may only sell over-the-counter medications that are approved in Austria - if these medications come from another EU country, they may not be sold or delivered to that country.

How do I recognize a legal Internet pharmacy?

A registered pharmacy offering medicines online can be recognized by the presence of a logo with a white cross, green lettering and a matching national flag (i.e. the location of the Internet pharmacy and the medicines authority) on its website. Clicking on this logo will take you to the appropriate regulatory authority.

There may also be mail order pharmacies that are already listed in the register but are not yet in operation.

In general, we distinguish two types of Internet pharmacies:

Mail-order pharmacy or "mail-order pharmacies".

Mail-order pharmacies in the classical sense are pharmacies open to the public, which have a permit to ship medicines. This allows buyers to order the drugs by mail, telephone or online at an associated website.

Platformem in the field of quick commerce

Compared to traditional mail order pharmacies, online platforms (website, app) do not belong to a public pharmacy that offers the shipment of medicines, but are companies that cooperate with different partner pharmacies. The platforms take care of the ordering process and delivery, similar to e.g. Lieferando or Mjam, but they are not allowed to sell medicines themselves. As a result, medicines can be delivered to the doorstep within one hour of ordering within the delivery area. In Austria, there are also some delivery platforms such as Gurkerl, which now also offer certain medicines, but in this article we have compared mail-order pharmacies and platforms that specialize in medicines. We compared the following mail-order pharmacies in the process:

Terms:

Market Share: The percentage of visitors to a website in relation to the total number of visitors in the entire competitive group.

Bouncing Rate:The bounce rate shows the percentage of visitors who call up a website but do not perform any action and leave the website again after visiting only a single page.

Mail-order pharmacies:

Worldwide (April 2022) Market Share
Monthly Visitors
Bouncing Rate
Shipping after order
Assortment Shipping costs
Delivery
Other
Public pharmacy

Store pharmacy

77,88% 490.100 33,54% Within 48 hrs. +40.000 products Free shipping from€ 29. Below € 3,95.

Austria, Germany, France (respective website)

  • Has an app.
  • Store Pharmacy NOW!
  • Same or next day delivery of your order.

Erik de Rodeweg 11-13, Sevenum, Netherlands

Pharmacy.at

9,4% 59.100 41,46% After 1-6 business days N/A From € 29 free shipping.

Einkauf: € 9,00 bis € 19,99 Versand:
€ 5,95

Einkauf: € 20,00 bis € 28,99 Versand:
€ 4,95€

Mindestbestellwert: € 9,00

Austria
  • Has an app.
  • Bonus program: collect points and save

Express 2, Duiven,
Niederlande


Vamida

4,59% 28.900 52,62% Delivery within 24 hrs. +9.000 products From € 45 free shipping.

Unter € 45 Einkauf: € 4,50 Versand
Austria, Germany (respective website)
  • Order before 13:00 (in stock) will be delivered within 1 business day
  • € 5,- welcome voucher (for newsletter registration)
Spáčilova 1109/15, Brno, Czech Republic

Medistore

4,1% 25.800 25,48% Delivery within Austria: 1-3 business days n/a

from € 45 free shippingin Austria

from € 89 free shippingin Germany

Austria (also whole EU) Self-collection in pharmacy possible Ottakringer Straße 39, 1160 Vienna, Austria

Servus Pharmacy

4,03% 25.400 40,68% 1-3 working days +30.000 products

From € 39 free shippingin Austria.

from € 59 free shippingin Germany

from € 98 free shippingin rest of EU

Austria (also whole EU) Purchase on account possible

Martinstraße 2,1180 Vienna, Austria



Quick Commerce Platforms:

Global (April 2022) Total Visits Delivery App Downloads Assortment Shipping Costs Delivery time Opening time Other

Mayd

259.308 (Vienna and Germany) 100.000+ +5.000 products free of charge 30 min. Continuous (also Sundays and holidays) Find product by symptom

Pluz Care

x< 5,000 Specialized in Viennese pharmacies No app (website only) +1,000 products Free shipping from € 35
Darunter € 2,90
60 min.

Mon-Fri 8am-6pm

Sat 8am-12pm

Delivery with e-bike (without CO2)
Produkt nach Symptom finden

First A

21.471 (Germany) 10.000+ +3.000 products free of charge 30 min. 8-22 o'clock Mon-Sun Delivery time can be planned.
Wurde von Shop Apotheke gekauft


Conclusion:

There is also a clear trend toward quick commerce in the pharmaceutical retail sector. It has already been shown in the food trade by delivery companies such as Foodora, Mjam, etc. that such a system works. Now investors are paying more and more attention to the pharmaceutical market, as there is (still) an opportunity here to redefine the medication industry in terms of delivery time. The partially free shipping could also appeal to many many customers. It is not for nothing that the mail-order pharmacy Shop Apotheke bought up the quick-commerce company First-A, after having dared to try it out itself with Shop Apotheke NOW! However, the question also arises as to how pharmacies themselves feel about this emerging concept, since at least the direct consultation with a pharmacist at the point of sale is omitted by the generated supplier, as is also the case with the mail-order pharmacy. Since some drugs are subject to strict regulations regarding storage and transport (e.g., refrigerated goods) , it remains exciting to see how bicycle couriers will overcome this logistical challenge in quick commerce.

Danilo Glisic

Danilo Glisic


Last updated on 13.06.2022


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