E-COMMERCE
Hydramed.shop A win-win scenario
Keeping the practice in the sales loop
www.hydramed.shop is an innovative e-commerce site that supports independent practices by cutting them in to the sale, writes Ellie Jarman It has long been established that the majority of mild to moderate dry eye sufferers buy their drops from all sorts of outlets – and rarely via their optician. It is estimated that the optometric sector has about a five per cent share of the overthe-counter market, which is valued at around £80-100m at retail (excluding the similarly sized prescriptions market). On the one hand, this is a depressing fact but, as some practices who buck this trend can testify, there’s a great profit opportunity for High Street optometry to target. The perennial frustration to the optical sector is the fact that many products like contact lenses, eye drops and supplements, that are originally prescribed and/or recommended by eyecare practitioners, end up being purchased elsewhere. Increasingly, this is online. A significant and important development during lockdown was that people almost totally relied on the internet for buying things outside of their weekly shop. If the internet genie wasn’t completely out of the bottle for optics before lockdown, then I think it’s fair to say that it is now. Many patients, perhaps believing their practice to be closed, have searched online for fresh supplies of ancillary products and discovered that, in addition to the convenience of home delivery, many brands seem much cheaper than on the High Street. It still puzzles us as to why so many practices continue support manufacturers who flood the internet and, for that matter supermarkets and pharmacies, with their products. Perhaps more concerning is just how many eye drop companies actually have a direct-to-consumer sales website – effectively biting the practitioners’ hands that feed them.
E-COMMERCE WITH A DIFFERENCE It is against this background that Positive Impact (PI) has launched hydramed.shop – a new and innovative way to support independent practitioners and their patients
in receiving HydraMed eyedrops to their home. This new consumer website is an e-commerce platform with a difference, HydraMed: unique HA and is unique and TSP formula in supporting the business of our independent customers who recommend HydraMed. The website’s USP comes from allowing the patient to buy online without cutting out the practice from the sale. When ordering HydraMed via the website, the consumer enters a unique code provided to them by their practitioner. This code enables the patient to get access to special offers and free delivery. Additionally, the code is a unique identifier for the patient’s practice, thus guaranteeing the practice receives a share of the transaction value. As well as meaning the patient isn’t forced to either travel to the practice or, for convenience, resort to purchasing elsewhere, this model ensures that we don’t cut out the source of the original HydraMed recommendation. We feel this novel alternative approach is the classic win-win scenario. Consequently, this website turns the conventional stock-in-trade model on its head. It allows the patient to order their supplies immediately they need them, 24/7, whilst the practice generates revenue just as if they had sold the product themselves, without ever having to buy the stock. Of course, we would recommend that the practice continues to hold a small stock for patients to purchase their initial supply, as well as to repurchase when they’re in town. Ellie Jarman is digital marketing coordinator at Positive Impact.
A WEBSITE WITH A CONSCIENCE Hydramed.shop is a direct-to-consumer website with a commercial conscience. It provides your patients with the convenience of buying HydraMed online, with free home delivery, whilst the practice receives reimbursement on every sale. There are three order sizes: three, six or nine months (excluding any additional free promotional items).
How it works • Recommend HydraMed to your patient and sell (or sample) them their preferred format from stock • We give you a unique practice code and a pack of HydraMed.shop ‘business’ cards • Write the unique practice identifying code on one of the HydraMed.shop cards and give it to your patient • When patients buy on the site, they simply enter your unique practice code at checkout to get free delivery • The practice receives a monthly statement showing all the patients who ordered using the practice code • The practice receives the total rebate owed Practice benefits • The practice receives a cash rebate on every website sale • Reduces cash tied up in stock • Reduces the likelihood of your patient searching out other online retailers
Patient benefits • Home delivery of three, six or nine months’ supply • Order when they need to 24/7 • Free delivery with code from their ECP • Ideal when patients can’t get into the practice e.g., during the current pandemic, or when they live far away
Vision Now SEPTEMBER 2020
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