Parapharmadirect: an e-pharmacy boom during the Covid-19 crisis

While the majority of French people were confined to their homes, many companies in all sectors continued their activities, as did health professionals, whose commitment to caring for and reassuring the population was remarkable.

Among them, pharmacists. At the heart of the crisis, how did they manage their activity? And what about those of them who launched into e-pharmacy, via an online shop?
Olivier Grenier, director of the ParaPharmaDirect website, agreed to answer our questions, to explain how pharmacy e-commerce has been impacted by this period, from good security practices to a vision of the future for e-pharmacy

What were your priorities when the containment was announced?

As healthcare professionals, we were aware of the concerns related to the Coronavirus long before the containment was announced, so our first priority was to protect our 25 employees, both in the physical pharmacy and in the warehouse in charge of our e-commerce orders.

We therefore put in place measures to separate and distance the teams before the containment. Our fragile employees (in particular a diabetic colleague) were quickly put into teleworking; the others willingly agreed to stay at work. But we were “lucky” in that our pharmacy and e-commerce teams were already working in two separate areas, thus limiting the spread of the virus.

In addition, we are used to dealing with seasonal flu and gastro epidemics every year, and we already had the reflex of certainhygiene and safety measuresin the warehouse and in the shop, such as careful hand washing. All we had to do was to intensify these reflexes, and also deploy them for our customers, in the shop.

How has the Covid-19 crisis affected your pharmacy e-commerce business?

The first three weeks were tough, both from the point of view of physical commerce and e-pharmacy.

• On the one hand, we had to deal with a big drop in shop traffic, with fearful customers who didn’t want to take any risks by leaving their homes.
• On the other hand, the e-commerce of our pharmacy exploded, and overnight our number of e-commerce orders doubled, especially for products that were no longer accessible via closed shops or for which massive stock-outs were announced.

Despite this imbalance in our distribution channels, we are the only large pharmacy in the region that has not had to lay off any staff. In fact, the opposite is true: we have had to recruit to cope with the influx of e-commerce orders.

Have you encountered any challenges in terms of stock management?

Absolutely. Some of our suppliers, pharmaceutical companies, saw their activity almost completely reduced in the early days. Their delivery times were multiplied by 2, even 4, overnight.

Under normal circumstances, we already operate on a just-in-time basis, for both e-pharmacy and physical retail, but our suppliers were no longer able to meet the usual 5-day lead times, and we experienced problems with customer orders that had to be cancelled or postponed.

Add to this source of customer dissatisfaction the stress of the pandemic on our customers, of orders increasing, of shipping falling behind… Yes, there were multiple challenges during the containment.

You talk about the shipping of your e-pharmacy packages: how did it go with your carriers?

Like manye-retailers during the Covid-19 crisis, we experienced a major bottleneck in the activity of ColiPoste (the services of the French Post Office), one of our main parcel shipping partners.

To deal with this problem, we tried several times to switch part of our activity to another carrier, in particular Mail Boxes Etc (MBE). However, some time later, the problem shifted, and we had difficulty in managing our customers’ parcel shipments in detail.

The most difficult thing, apart from the increased delivery times, was undoubtedly the number of problems linked to the after-sales service for deliveries. It is usually the role of the carrier to inform recipients of the tracking of parcels and delivery times. However, as our carriers were unable to provide our customers with this information, we had to deal with our customers’ queries ourselves.

How did you communicate with your customers during this crisis?

On our e-pharmacy, we made it a point of honour to inform visitors of the availability of barrier products, which were in short supply throughout France. Our role was really to reassure our potential customers on our site.

The ParaPharmaDirect site put up “news” information at the top of its home page, to make targets aware of new developments concerning Covid-19

This being the case, we also had to announce, at the very beginning of the containment, that we were giving priority to delivery to professionals for a time. Given that we were out of stock on many products, we initially focused on sales to companies in various sectors (logistics, transport, etc.) in the region.

We had to make this clear to private customers, but now we can consider taking orders in smaller formats.

Did you have to equip yourself with specific products to ensure your activity?

Absolutely, both in our e-pharmacy warehouse and in the shop itself.

All our employees were equipped with surgical masks before the lockdown, as well as hydroalcoholic gels. They each carried a vial of gel in their pocket, but also had pumps available in the common areas.

We have also installed, in the pharmacy, plexiglas protective screenswe have also installed an air-conditioning system in the pharmacy, thus limiting the emission of saliva droplets, and therefore the spread of the virus.

These barrier products, the vigilance of the employees, as well as new reflexes (such as not letting delivery people into the warehouse), have enabled us today to have no cases of Covid-19 in our teams.

On the logistical side, with the increase in orders, we have of course had to double our orders for boxes, which is a real challenge, since twice as many boxes to order also means twice as many boxes to manage, store, organise and, of course, to fill.

On this point, RAJA was able to support us and offer optimal delivery times. Pascale, the RAJA sales representative, really worked hard, even though she was working from home, to speed up the delivery of our cardboard boxes, which were at a critical point in time: a real plus in this complicated period.

What challenges do you see ahead for pharmacy e-commerce in relation to Covid-19?

Our physical and e-commerce networks are starting to balance out again, now that customers are gradually returning to pharmacies. However, I see three challenges on the horizon.

On the one hand, in May, there will be continuing supply tensions, particularly for certain products that include Chinese components (labels or product caps, for example). In June, most products should be delivered within the usual timeframe, but until then, just-in-time stock management and customer dissatisfaction may well persist.

In the first 4 weeks of the lockdown, we had to deal with a lot of parcels that never arrived, which are only now being picked up.

Finally, we must continue to protect our teams and our customers in the same way. Even if, as health professionals, we are aware of the right gestures, the protection of people must remain our first priority, in a constant vigilance.

Thanks again to Olivier Grenier for accepting our interview, sharing with us his good practices in managing an e-commerce pharmacy during this complex period.