Reliance Retail has entered the offline pharma retail request through its attachment Netmeds; the company has reportedly opened its first standalone store in Chennai. Until now, Netmeds was riveting on online trade and delivery of medical drugs. Along with conventional drugs, the pharma store will also sell indispensable drug orders similar to Ayurveda, Unani and Homeopathy. Although opening offline stores through Netmeds will mark Reliance Retail’s sanctioned incursion into offline pharma business, it presently runs shop- in- shop pharma stores across Reliance Smart Bazaar in metropolises, and Smart Point stores in municipalities and townlets.
Two, a major battle is brewing in the online drugstore request with Amazon lately launching ‘Amazon Pharmacy’ on a trial base in Bengaluru. Reliance Retail may have stolen a march with the accession of Netmeds, an formerly known name in the online drugstore space along with other players similar as 1Mg, PharmEasy and Medlife. Reports suggest that a junction is being bandied between PharmEasy and Medlife, indicating the trend of connection and presence of big players in the membership. The online drugstore and digital health request is said to have huge growth eventuality, catalysed further by the epidemic that has accelerated home deliveries of drugs.
From about $1.2 billion in FY 20, the broader-health request is anticipated to quadruple in the coming time and further to touch $ 16 billion over the coming five times, say reports. Reliance Retail will increase its equity stake in Vitalic through secondary purchase and primary investment to at least 80 per cent stake by April 2024, with an option to increase it to 100 percent. The consideration for this hike in stake in the future is unclear now.