According to research made by Convert Group, online pharmacies in Greece recorded a growth rate of 38.3% in online shopping value in the first quarter of 2021. Moreover, in the first quarter of 2021, online pharmacy visits worldwide reached 2.7 bln in a total of 96 countries with global traffic growth reaching 43% compared to the corresponding quarter of 2020. The traffic data used concerns a total of 3,478 pharmacies from 96 countries.
Athens, Greece: 8 July 2021
The largest increase in the value of online Greek pharmacy shopping from January to March 2021 was recorded in the following categories:
46.6% in beauty and personal care products;
36.3% in dietary supplements and vitamins;
33.4% in health products (with pharmaceutical masks falling into this category);
15.4% in baby and children's items.
According to the survey, Greece also stands out as one out of five countries where its residents cannot buy non-prescription drugs online:
Greece
Algeria
Cyprus
Morocco
Turkey
According to Convert Group,
"This makes the experience of Greek consumers very difficult in this area and the same for the digital transformation of the country."
In its report, Convert Group notes that
“By not allowing the online purchase of non-prescription medicines through e-pharmacies, Greece and Cyprus remain the only ones in Europe that has not been harmonized with the European directive 2011/62 / EU and the European Regulation 699/2014. At the same time, Greece has not yet implemented the directive of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) for the sale of non-prescription medicines through online pharmacies - as recorded in a report of the Organization in 2017 on the conditions of the industry competition.”
According to Money Review, a total of 47 of the 96 research countries already allow the purchase of prescription drugs (Rx) online. It is noted that many countries that were negative in the sale of prescription drugs online changed their position due to the pandemic.
Although Greek consumers’ online buying habits are limited to online purchases of cosmetics, nutritional supplements, baby, and hygiene products, the popularity of the online channel is remarkable in Greece. In 2020, an average of 8 online visits were made per Greek resident in an online pharmacy.
Online visits per resident in 2020:
Sweden: 18 visits;
England: 10 visits;
Greece: 8 visits;
Belgium: 7 visits;
USA: 6 visits.
According to Money Review, the average shopping cart in the first quarter of 2021 increased to € 43.2 with VAT from € 41.4 in the first quarter of 2020. The average quantity of products remains stable at 4.2 pieces with 2 of them being Care and Personal Care products.
The findings show that consumers are five times more likely to come through a search engine (eg Google) than a direct visit to a pharmacy website. Google ads and Organic Results brought 26.6% and 26.2% of orders respectively, recording an increase of 3.2 and 5.3 percentage points in the first quarter of 2021 compared to the same period in 2020.
Sources:
Money Review. 08 July 2021
Money Review. 08 July 2021
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