L. Yltävä
Research expert
Pharma e-commerce in the United Kingdom (UK) – statistics & facts
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It appears that pharmacies have caught the internet bug in the United Kingdom (UK), as the number of them offering online services has increased in recent years. This shift to e-commerce was greatly boosted by the COVID-19 pandemic, which pushed consumers to obtain their medications via the internet and compelled businesses to swiftly adapt to digital commerce. As a result, the online pharmacy revenue in the digital health market grew from around 1.5 billion U.S. dollars in 2019 to an estimated 2.7 billion in 2024.
The traditional pharmacy model in the UK is being challenged by other online retailers, including supermarkets that can now dispense NHS prescriptions. This shift has opened the market and therefore made it easier for consumers to purchase both over-the-counter medicines and prescriptions over the internet. A similar trend is happening in the United States, with online marketplaces entering the pharma sector. It remains to be seen how this will affect the otherwise highly regulated industry.
The market leader
Pharmacy2U is the leading online pharmacy in the UK, pioneering the first digital prescriptions in the country at the turn of the century. In 2023, the pharmacy2u.co.uk site generated e-commerce net sales of approximately 261 million U.S. dollars, outperforming all other digital pharmacies. The company manages the National Health Service’s (NHS) repeat electronic prescriptions and owns other popular e-pharmacies in the region, such as chemistdirect.org and lloydsdirect.com. In 2024, Pharmacy2U facilitated the first supermarket’s entry into e-prescription delivery services in the UK, with Asda Online Pharmacy, making it a market leader with strong expertise in tech development within the pharma industry.Bet your boots there is competition
Even though Pharmacy2U is the industry leader in the UK, it faces stiff competition from Boots. Boots, a prominent beauty and personal care retailer, also operates in the online pharma segment, allowing its customers to fill their NHS prescriptions. In 2024, boots.com led the online visibility ranking of digital pharmacy brands in the UK, scoring a ranking of over 10 million, far surpassing competitors such as lloydspharmacy.com at 720,000 and pharmacy2u.co.uk at 210,000. Additionally, boots.com was the most searched for online pharmacy website, with roughly four million monthly searches, compared to pharmacy2u.co.uk’s half a million.The traditional pharmacy model in the UK is being challenged by other online retailers, including supermarkets that can now dispense NHS prescriptions. This shift has opened the market and therefore made it easier for consumers to purchase both over-the-counter medicines and prescriptions over the internet. A similar trend is happening in the United States, with online marketplaces entering the pharma sector. It remains to be seen how this will affect the otherwise highly regulated industry.
