In order to boost the medical supply and to end the shortage of stock in the pharmacies, Softbank-backed B2B e-commerce firm Udaan has started delivering stocks to pharmacies four times a day across six cities and plans to scale up the service to other places after six to eight months, the company said on Thursday.
The 4X4 delivery service has been rolled out after a pilot programme and receiving extensive feedback from pharmacies in select cities, which required enhanced delivery capabilities. During the pilot phase, the business witnessed a 45 per cent rise in orders in the select cities.
According to the statement of company, Udaan will provide medicine delivery to pharmacies every 4-hour with four delivery slot options in a day to order medicines across six cities - Kolkata, Jaipur, Indore, Ahmedabad, Bengaluru and Pune. The company plans to scale the ‘4X4 delivery service’ to more cities and towns in the next 6-8 months. Udaan Business head for Pharma Category Sanjay Sharma said the company will leverage for the convenience and faster delivery of medicines to the pharmacies.
“Our Pharma business has evolved massively towards a chemist-centric model over the past three years based on the needs of the buyers and pharmacists. We believe this industry-first initiative will enable us to cater to the daily needs of pharmacies in a more efficient manner, who in turn will be able to offer quick and better service to their end customers. The 4X4 delivery service has been made possible due to our extensive logistics and distribution network capabilities," Sharma said.
Udaan has a network of over three million retailers, chemists, Kirana shops, HoReCa, farmers and 25-30,000 sellers across more than 1,200 cities in the country covering more than 12,000 pin codes.
With this move, the retail business of pharmacies in these cities will see a growth after getting stocked up. They will be able to serve their consumer in a better way while building trust between the pharmacies and consumers.
Earlier this year, the government had reached out to the All India Organisation of Chemists and Druggists (AIOCD), asking it to ensure the availability of critical drugs for the management of Covid-19 and other essential medicines to meet challenges in times to come as the government was concerned that the cases of Omicron and Delta variants may increase, so there should not be any shortages of medicines in the country.
