In 2020 - telemedicine was all about video calls between physicians and patients. 

In 2021 - telemedicine was all about streamlining entire clinical workflows. 

In 2022 - telemedicine is all about 360-degree care solutions including eCommerce stores for medical devices, drugs and wellness products!

But the question is, 

How did telemedicine emerge from video chat to eCommerce solutions?

Before we move forward, it is worth discussing what a 360-degree care solution means. 

Unlike typical telemedicine solutions, 360-degree telemedicine solutions enable patients to –

• Book the virtual appointment 

• Get ePrescription 

• Get sick notes

• Get drugs and wellness products from the same platform itself via built-in eCommerce features 

This way, a telemedicine eCommerce platform streamlines the entire care delivery process from – appointment to prescription to drugs and wellness products delivery. 

How the concept of telemedicine eCommerce emerged from nowhere?

In 2020, people adopted telemedicine to a great extent and its startup market heated up to its peak. 

To survive the competitive market, many new and existing virtual care startups added several new features to their telemedicine products. 

Things went so extreme that now there are many telemedicine apps with integrated eCommerce capabilities.

And people are loving it now. 

Because if you see, they don’t just want medical consultation from a telemedicine app. 

They also want to purchase drugs and wellness products from the same platform with the same comfort too.

Hims and Hers is the best example of telemedicine eCommerce 

Hims and Hers is the most innovative and strategically executed telemedicine startup. 

Hims .Inc is a telemedicine company that runs two separate brands – Hims for men and Hers for women.

It offers virtual care and personal care product solutions for – hair loss to skincare and mental health to sexual health.

And it is the fastest startup to earn a unicorn status after a mobility startup named Bird. 

One of the reasons why Hims and Hers earned the unicorn status is because it is not just limited to telemedicine. 

It also provides healthcare eCommerce services from its platform. 

But it also sells several men’s wellness and women’s wellness products. 

The following are some of them. 

How does telemedicine eCommerce improve care experience and revenue at the same time?

Let’s understand it with a simple example.

Scenario-1: No eCommerce capabilities

A patient comes on your platform for virtual doctor consultation. 

The physician assesses the patient and writes the ePrescription. 

Because there are no eCommerce capabilities, the patient has to visit the nearest pharmacy store or online pharmacy to get drugs.

At some point, it's inconvenient, isn’t it?

Scenario-2: Telemedicine with eCommerce capabilities

A patient comes on your app for online consultation solutions.

The doctor assesses the patient and writes an ePrescription note. 

Now because telemedicine is integrated with eCommerce, the patient needs to follow a few steps to get medicines at home.

• Find and select the drug as per the prescription note

• Upload prescription note in a form of an image or PDF

• Order the medicines

You can clearly see that it saves their time and is a much more convenient option for them. 

On the other hand, this helps you enhance customer loyalty and generates one more revenue stream for you! 

Hims and Hers are doing exactly the same thing and that’s why they are a unicorn telemedicine startup! 

How to integrate eCommerce with telemedicine?

When you integrate eCommerce with a telemedicine app, the app would have extra features that enable your users to buy the products you are selling through the app. 

More particularly, your telemedicine app would get the following features: 

And to integrate eCommerce with telemedicine – you have two options. 

You can either,

• Integrate 3rd-party eCommerce platform

• Integrate all eCommerce features in telemedicine by hiring experts

Now the question is, which one is best for you and your app users?

Look, 3rd-party eCommerce platforms such as Shopify and WooCommerce do not offer you the eCommerce features you wish to add to your telemedicine app. 

Moreover, you also need to pay monthly or yearly fees to 3rd-party eCommerce solutions. 

In contrast, first, you need to pay an app agency to integrate a 3rd-party eCommerce platform.

And then paying monthly fees to a 3rd-party eCommerce platform.

Isn't that a rational idea at all?

Thus, the most workable solution here is – hire an app agency!

Because it charges you one time to integrate all custom eCommerce features into your telemedicine app.

Most importantly, it also addresses your unique needs, supports custom workflows and does not put compliance readiness at risk.

What can you sell online through your telemedicine eCommerce platform? 

If you are planning to sell medical drugs – you must integrate Kroll with your telemedicine platform 

Kroll is the most popular pharmacy management solution in Canada. 

It supports e-refills, viewing medication lists, checking prices after insurance, single-click patient data, drug details, drug inventory management etc. 

To get instant access to these features and drug & patient data, you should integrate Kroll into your telemedicine app. 

You should read this: How to integrate Kroll? 

Get local Canadian tech help to build a telemedicine platform with eCommerce features 

We’re an Ontario-based healthcare-specific app development agency. 

We have been proactive in the North American healthcare industry for 8+ years and have worked with several healthcare providers including long-term care homes. 

Telemedicine is our most-trusted and well-explored expertise. 

That’s the reason, we even provide a white-label telemedicine solution. 

With our in-house compliance experts, we make sure we only deliver the compliant mobile app. 

Because, as local healthcare IT experts, we understand the importance of compliance. 

Here, we would like to share the case study of how we developed a HIPAA/PHIPA/PIPEDA compliant telemedicine app. 

So, let’s have a productive conversation where you share your requirements – we share our tech, business and compliance knowledge!