The question for Phlo is how to provide additional services to its established customer base. This relationship is particularly nurtured with customers who order repeat prescriptions. Phlo’s business model enables it to build trusted relationships with customers: it has a direct path of communication and delivers prescriptions to patients’ homes. Telecoms operators could be key partners for application providers. What do you think about the role telecoms operators can play in digital health? For this reason, Phlo expects to retain new users of its services – both old and young. The pandemic gave this bracket of consumers the push they needed to try online.Įven as the UK comes out of lockdown and in-person services recommence, Phlo thinks that consumer behaviour will not return to pre-pandemic norms: the use of digital services has been normalised and accelerated. The pandemic, however, has widened the age group of Phlo’s users and demonstrated that older consumers – and those typically less tech-enabled – are ready and able to procure digital services. These consumers are familiar with digital services and are accustomed to procuring products online. Previously, younger consumers – and those typically more tech-enabled – were the main users of Phlo’s services. The pandemic also impacted the composition of Phlo’s core customer base. This is unsurprising amidst lockdown and social distancing measures: Phlo provided patients with a way to receive their prescriptions safely and securely, without the need to physically go to pharmacies. To start with growth, there has been a significant increase in the adoption of Phlo’s e-pharmacy solution. The COVID pandemic has impacted Phlo in two main ways: growth and customer base. How has the COVID pandemic impacted Phlo? By putting patients at ease and providing them with a certainty of delivery comparable with going to pharmacies themselves, Phlo is knocking down barriers to e-pharmacy adoption. Phlo addresses the uncertainties of mail order through its on-demand delivery model: patients receive their prescription on the same day and are able to track the order in real-time as it comes from the fulfilment centre to their home (think Uber or Deliveroo). This is because prescriptions, unlike the vast majority of other e-commerce items, are time-sensitive: delayed or non-delivered orders can have serious implications on heath.
This uncertainty of order delivery, however small it might be, is a deterrent to using e-pharmacy solutions. While this method of delivery is largely reliable, Phlo believes that it carries an unavoidable risk: as soon as you post an order, you are no longer in control of the end-to-end process. Phlo differs from other digital pharmacies with respect to delivery.ĭigital pharmacies traditionally use mail order to send prescriptions to patients. How does Phlo differ from other digital pharmacies? Patients therefore have a seamless experience, receiving their care and ordering prescriptions from within one app. It provides virtual consultations to its patients and, through integrating with Phlo, is also able to digitally cater to prescription orders. Telemedicine providers, for instance, are leveraging Phlo’s capabilities to improve their virtual care offering.īabylon is an interesting example. Having built out its business (technology stack, physical pharmacy, and delivery services), Phlo identified value in providing a B2B2C service and now also partners with other digital health players. In this B2C model, Phlo controls the customer relationship end-to-end: the patient orders on the Phlo app and the order is fulfilled by Phlo’s delivery services. Phlo originally worked with prescribers and doctor services within the NHS, building custom cloud-based technology that allowed patients to order and manage prescriptions. Phlo is a digital pharmacy that allows consumers to order prescriptions online, track the order in real-time and have it delivered within hours on the same day. Interview with Phlo Digital Pharmacy What is Phlo’s business model? His insights and opinions will be useful to those operating in digital health, as well as to telecoms operations looking for partners in this vertical. As an application provider, Nadeem provides an interesting perspective on business models and new growth areas in digital health. In this article, we relay our interview with the founder, Nadeem Sarwar. We recently wrote an article on 15 digital health companies to watch in 2021 and now want to deep dive on one in particular: Phlo Digital Pharmacy. As countries around the world begin to ease COVID restrictions, STL Partners has been reflecting on the digital health use cases which have surged in growth over the last year.
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