Another Way To Spend More With Amazon – A Pharmacy

Amazon is opening up a new income-generating portal. It was predictable. Amazon has launched its new Amazon Pharmacy. It combines online and mobile prescription medication ordering with fulfillment options. It’s been barely two years since Amazon picked up Pillpack. A prescription medication delivery service. That cost Amazon about  $753 million.  And considering every other revenue stream Amazon has been moving into over the last 5 years, it comes as no surprise that the pharmacy approach would soon follow.

Techcrunch reports once you have a secure pharmacy profile set up, you have options to add your insurance information, choose payment options, and manage any or all of your medical prescriptions at Amazon Pharmacy. There’s a “self-service help” tool at the new online pharmacy. But you can also take advantage of talking with an Amazon Pharmacist over the phone. Amazon is not hiding the 24/7 availability of what it characterizes as, “friendly and knowledgeable pharmacists”. For many people worldwide, that is a huge draw.

The new pharmacy from Amazon fits in nicely with its launch of over-the-counter medications just last year. Techcrunch offers that the combination offers a massive revenue stream for Amazon. It is all the more evident with the impact of the COVID-19 virus outbreak which has been forcing millions to rely on remote medical care along with increasing reliance on the internet for virtually all of their shopping options. Even groceries. And we’ve seen the development over the past 10 years in particular as more previous pharmacy only outlets have expanded to offer food and household items. And more grocery and hard goods stores have expanded to offer a notable lineup of medications and even their own pharmacies. The battle has been engaging nearly every big grocery and pharmacy chain in America.

The Amazon Pharmacy entry into the marketplace has not gone unnoticed. Major financial markets immediately responded. Some with dropping stock prices for companies that previously focused solely on pharmacy operations. Business Insider reports several major drug outlets are being “Amazon’d” by the new announcement.