Walgreens Ups E-commerce Ante
Drugstore retailer Walgreens is relaunching the Walgreens.com e-commerce site with new resources, tools and services. Walgreens claims the site receives more than 13 million visits a month and is the most popular drugstore retail site.
Following is a brief overview of Walgreens’ new online features in the mobile commerce, e-commerce, healthcare, and pharmacy areas.
Mobile Commerce
Walgreens allows customers to browse products, locate stores, view photos and order prints (including photos directly uploaded from an iPhone via a new iPhone app), and order prescriptions for in-store pickup using a mobile browser.
E-commerce
Customers can check availability of products at local stores online, as well as place orders from an expanded online product assortment for delivery either directly to their home or to a local store for pick-up.
Healthcare
Walgreens.com offers updated online information on healthcare topics, as well as interactive health tools and content such as calculators for body mass index and target heart rate.
Pharmacy
In addition to online orders of in-store prescriptions mentioned above, the Walgreens.com site also allows pharmacy customers to be automatically notified by email of when a prescription is ready for pick-up or needs to be refilled.
Walgreens set sales records during Q4 and fiscal year 2009, although net earnings and operating income declined. During the fourth quarter, prescription sales, which accounted for 66.5 percent of sales in the quarter, climbed 9%, while prescription sales in comparable stores increased 4.5% Walgreens filled 9.1 percent more total prescriptions in this year’s fourth quarter versus the year-ago quarter. That includes a benefit of 1.4 percentage points due to more patients filling 90-day prescriptions. Therefore easing customer access to prescription services online is a logical improvement for Walgreens to make to its e-commerce site.
In addition, by increasing its mobile commerce capabilities, Walgreens is joining an increasingly popular trend that cuts across retail verticals. Toy retailer Toys R Us took a leading position in retail mobile commerce this past weekend by launching full mobile access to its e-commerce site.
At least two other retailers have released iPhone applications with full transactional capabilities in recent months. Since August 2009, interactive direct retailer HSN has made its retail programming available on mobile device. The HSN Shop App allows customers to remotely browse and shop its full assortment of 35,000 products. HSN Shop App provides mobile access to HSN’s standard television and online content, including a seamless transactional experience which allows the user to call HSN directly or use the device’s browser to purchase an item.
In addition, fast food retailer Burger King launched an iPhone application in May 2009 that allows customers to automatically place orders for in-store pickup.