ETtechWalmart-owned Flipkart, the latest entrant into the e-pharmacy business through Flipkart Health+, said it aims to go pan-India and deliver medicines beyond metro and tier-1 cities including in remote locations.
The ecommerce major is also planning to expand into multiple other healthcare services to take on its rivals.
The Flipkart Health+ platform currently offers 83,000 prescription medicines and healthcare products, delivering to over 20,000 pincodes. “We’ve kick started this journey by giving access to genuine medicines and healthcare products across the country, including remote areas,” said Prashant Jhaveri, CEO of Flipkart Health+, in an email interview to ET.
“We plan to expand into multiple other healthcare services to provide affordable, caring, and innovative healthcare solutions,” Jhaveri added. He said Flipkart Health+ has built a network of trusted pharmacists and doctors to meet the needs of customers.
Flipkart forayed into the healthcare business by picking up a 75.1% stake in Kolkata-based SastaSundar Marketplace, which owns and operates online pharmacy and digital healthcare platform SastaSundar.com — now renamed as Flipkart Health+.
SastaSundar, which still owns a 24.9% stake in Flipkart Health+, is the wholesale partner, supporting the latter’s seller pharmacy network with its 20 warehouses across India. ET, in March, reported that Flipkart had pumped in $143 million into its healthcare unit, quoting regulatory filings made in Singapore.
Flipkart will be competing against Tata 1mg, Reliance Industries-owned Netmeds, PharmEasy and Amazon in India. It will look to gain market share in a highly competitive but fast growing e-pharmacy sector, which typicaly sees discounting of up to 20%.
“While the e-pharmacy sector has been around for close to a decade, its online penetration is less than 5%...,” he said.
“The need of the hour is to ensure that citizens across India, including in tier-2/tier-3 cities and remote areas, benefit from the same accessibility and availability of affordable medicines and healthcare products without compromising on quality and genuinity,” he added.
The ecommerce major is also planning to expand into multiple other healthcare services to take on its rivals.
The Flipkart Health+ platform currently offers 83,000 prescription medicines and healthcare products, delivering to over 20,000 pincodes. “We’ve kick started this journey by giving access to genuine medicines and healthcare products across the country, including remote areas,” said Prashant Jhaveri, CEO of Flipkart Health+, in an email interview to ET.
“We plan to expand into multiple other healthcare services to provide affordable, caring, and innovative healthcare solutions,” Jhaveri added. He said Flipkart Health+ has built a network of trusted pharmacists and doctors to meet the needs of customers.
Flipkart forayed into the healthcare business by picking up a 75.1% stake in Kolkata-based SastaSundar Marketplace, which owns and operates online pharmacy and digital healthcare platform SastaSundar.com — now renamed as Flipkart Health+.
SastaSundar, which still owns a 24.9% stake in Flipkart Health+, is the wholesale partner, supporting the latter’s seller pharmacy network with its 20 warehouses across India. ET, in March, reported that Flipkart had pumped in $143 million into its healthcare unit, quoting regulatory filings made in Singapore.
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Flipkart will be competing against Tata 1mg, Reliance Industries-owned Netmeds, PharmEasy and Amazon in India. It will look to gain market share in a highly competitive but fast growing e-pharmacy sector, which typicaly sees discounting of up to 20%.
“While the e-pharmacy sector has been around for close to a decade, its online penetration is less than 5%...,” he said.
“The need of the hour is to ensure that citizens across India, including in tier-2/tier-3 cities and remote areas, benefit from the same accessibility and availability of affordable medicines and healthcare products without compromising on quality and genuinity,” he added.
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