Flipkart launches its own pharmacy delivery app, Flipkart Health Plus

Flipkart, a Walmart group company, made its entry into the healthcare sector on Wednesday by introducing a new app Flipkart Health Plus to harness its reach and service more than 20,000 pin codes throughout the country. 

The Flipkart Health Plus system will integrate over 500 independent merchants with a network of licensed pharmacists for medical prescription verification and proper medication dispensing, as shown in a company release. 

Aim of Flipkart Health+

Prashant Jhaveri, CEO of Flipkart Health Plus, stated that since the COVID-19 pandemic, Indians have seen a major change in favor of wellness and preventative healthcare, with a greater emphasis on health and wellbeing than ever before.

Further, it was stated that with Flipkart Health plus, we hope to bridge the important gap in access to authentic medications, healthcare goods, and services across the country, particularly in the country’s most distant and underserved areas.

Flipkart Health Plus Operating Model

To start with, the Flipkart Health plus platform will have over 500 independent sellers and will operate with the marketplace model, in which third-party sellers will offer medicines and healthcare products on the platform.

Despite the fact that it is an intermediate marketplace platform, Flipkart stated that it has implemented several quality checks and verification methods to support the delivery of authentic pharmaceuticals and healthcare items from independent sellers to the customer’s doorstep.

What’s the reason for another app, you may ask?

Well, the company stated its vision and objective in the near future, “In the next months, Flipkart Health plus intends to onboard third-party healthcare service providers, who will deliver additional value-added healthcare services to customers such as teleconsultation and e-diagnostics.”

The news comes as the firm expands several of its new companies, including e-pharmacy, travel, and social commerce platform Shopsy, and doubles down on its supermarket operation. Flipkart poured $143 million into its healthcare segment last month, according to ET on March 31. In March, the firm also named former Apollo Health executive Prashant Jhaveri as CEO of its healthcare division.

Final Findings:

The news that Flipkart is entering the healthcare sector by launching Flipkart Health+ has now made it clear that pharmaceuticals and medicine delivery is set to be the next big thing after grocery delivery. In the last couple of years, the grocery delivery industry in India has grown quite rapidly with companies like Zepto, Blinkit, Dunzo, Instamart, and others launching 10-minute grocery delivery services. 

With Flipkart’s move into the pharmacy delivery sector, the market is anticipated to grow and more players will enter the space. Flipkart Health+ competes with companies like 1mg, NetMeds, and Pharmeasy, to name a few.