Not too keen on online pharmacies
Belgians are pretty conservative when it comes to buying medicines on the Internet. Although the vast majority uses the web as a source of information, the past year, only a minority (15 %) bought medicines from an online pharmacy. It mainly concerned medicines without prescription, such as vitamins and food supplements. Price and convenience have been the main reasons why Belgians bought their meds online. However, it turns out that a greater part of the Belgians has a lack of confidence in online pharmacies and so it seems that they will not beat the local pharmacies any time soon.
The supermarket, your future store for medicines without prescription?
The supermarket, on the other hand, seems to be a popular sales channel. Most of the Belgians buy care products, baby food and first aid products in the supermarket and even 1 out of 3 would love to find medicines without prescription there. Supermarkets would really score with a separate pharmacy section, led by an accredited pharmacist who can give professional advice. For the purchase of prescribed medicines, the average Belgian still prefers the advice of the traditional pharmacist.
Will we soon be buying medicines from a vending machine?
Research shows that home delivery by a licensed pharmacy, nevertheless, is a very popular idea among most of the Belgians. Also, 1 out of 4 Belgians likes the idea of buying medicines from a vending machine, mainly because of the 24/7 access.
We can conclude that Belgians overall still prefer to rely on the expert advice of a pharmacist for prescribed medication but fancy the idea of home delivery. Also, the convenience of saving time by buying medicines without prescription in the supermarket would appeal most of the Belgians.
(*) Survey conducted among 1.557 Belgians, representative sample
