Recently I bought a few medicines from HealthKartPlus.com and here is my review of their services based on my experience.
1. Product Availability: The medicines I ordered were mostly over the counter drugs. At times I have had issues with finding them at a few medical stores but thankfully I was able to find all of them on HealthKartPlus. Hence 10 out of 10 to HKP as far as product availability is concerned.
2.. Service Availability: Currently pharmacy coverage is available in Delhi/NCR, Bangalore, Chennai, Mumbai, Bhubaneshwar, Hyderabad, Pune. This mostly covers the top 8 cities barring Kolkata. In the absence of any substantial data about the online purchase behaviour of Indian consumers across cities, it is difficult to comment whether they should have gone for a higher coverage or not. That said, the more the better at least from a consumer standpoint. I would rate HKP 6 out of 10 given the fact that most of the new entrants in online retail do provide a better coverage than this. Even if you give consideration to the sector specific challenges, a quick comparison with sites like Aaramshop.com points to the fact that a higher coverage in terms of the number of cities covered should have been possible. More so because it is a pharmacy network and it should not be very difficult to find a couple better organized medical stores with educated owners who would be able to understand the concept and be a part of it in most of the cities.
3. Ease of Use: Unlike most of the online retail stores HealthKartPlus has a non-cluttered environment. There hardly were any brand specific promotions/banner Ads running on the homepage and that added to the simplicity.
On searching for a particular medicines you are shown multiple options to select for basis dosage amount, product substitutes, composition etc. On clicking a particular medicine you are shown the complete details under three sub-heads namely a) Salt Information b) Substitutes and c) Interactions. For Indian consumers not many of whom give enough consideration to the possible side effects, recommended dosages and drug interactions, buying medicines from HKP can be more informative than buying it from the corner medical stores. Product pictures are also available which does build the trust and aids identification. 10 out of 10 on this parameter too.
I would highly recommend consumers to use HealthKartPlus to get the information about various drugs if not for buying it online. On the first time purchase I even got a 15 percent discount which is never a bad thing to have.
4. Delivery: Lets talk about the positives first. The product came in good packaging, with a proper bill. COD (Cash on Delivery) option is available so the risk for the buyer is minimal.
The problem was the time taken in doing the delivery. Medicines esp. over the counter ones are mostly impulse or negative purchases. Nobody likes buying medicines. You purchase medicines because you need them. Hence it is very important that once the order has been placed there is minimal time taken to deliver the products which should not be a big challenge in a network based model. I did not receive any information other than a transaction code and a number that I could call in case of any issues. And I did have to call it when the medicines were not delivered even after 48 hours and after that I were told that it will be delivered in another 5-7 hours.
I am sure HealthKartPlus is a funded company and the only advice I have as a marketer and as a consumer for them is that they should improve upon the time of delivery. If mine was a one off case, you sure are doing good. But if that is the general amount of time taken to deliver the products, I think they better speed up else competition is always around the corner to take over!
1. Product Availability: The medicines I ordered were mostly over the counter drugs. At times I have had issues with finding them at a few medical stores but thankfully I was able to find all of them on HealthKartPlus. Hence 10 out of 10 to HKP as far as product availability is concerned.
2.. Service Availability: Currently pharmacy coverage is available in Delhi/NCR, Bangalore, Chennai, Mumbai, Bhubaneshwar, Hyderabad, Pune. This mostly covers the top 8 cities barring Kolkata. In the absence of any substantial data about the online purchase behaviour of Indian consumers across cities, it is difficult to comment whether they should have gone for a higher coverage or not. That said, the more the better at least from a consumer standpoint. I would rate HKP 6 out of 10 given the fact that most of the new entrants in online retail do provide a better coverage than this. Even if you give consideration to the sector specific challenges, a quick comparison with sites like Aaramshop.com points to the fact that a higher coverage in terms of the number of cities covered should have been possible. More so because it is a pharmacy network and it should not be very difficult to find a couple better organized medical stores with educated owners who would be able to understand the concept and be a part of it in most of the cities.
3. Ease of Use: Unlike most of the online retail stores HealthKartPlus has a non-cluttered environment. There hardly were any brand specific promotions/banner Ads running on the homepage and that added to the simplicity.
On searching for a particular medicines you are shown multiple options to select for basis dosage amount, product substitutes, composition etc. On clicking a particular medicine you are shown the complete details under three sub-heads namely a) Salt Information b) Substitutes and c) Interactions. For Indian consumers not many of whom give enough consideration to the possible side effects, recommended dosages and drug interactions, buying medicines from HKP can be more informative than buying it from the corner medical stores. Product pictures are also available which does build the trust and aids identification. 10 out of 10 on this parameter too.
I would highly recommend consumers to use HealthKartPlus to get the information about various drugs if not for buying it online. On the first time purchase I even got a 15 percent discount which is never a bad thing to have.
4. Delivery: Lets talk about the positives first. The product came in good packaging, with a proper bill. COD (Cash on Delivery) option is available so the risk for the buyer is minimal.
The problem was the time taken in doing the delivery. Medicines esp. over the counter ones are mostly impulse or negative purchases. Nobody likes buying medicines. You purchase medicines because you need them. Hence it is very important that once the order has been placed there is minimal time taken to deliver the products which should not be a big challenge in a network based model. I did not receive any information other than a transaction code and a number that I could call in case of any issues. And I did have to call it when the medicines were not delivered even after 48 hours and after that I were told that it will be delivered in another 5-7 hours.
I am sure HealthKartPlus is a funded company and the only advice I have as a marketer and as a consumer for them is that they should improve upon the time of delivery. If mine was a one off case, you sure are doing good. But if that is the general amount of time taken to deliver the products, I think they better speed up else competition is always around the corner to take over!
