THE SHIFT OF NON-DRUG PRODUCTS TO NON-PHARMACY ONLINE CHANNELS AS A FACTOR IN THE DISRUPTION OF MARKET STABILITY OF PHARMACEUTICAL RETAIL

In this article, the authors examine the preservation of the market stability of brick-and-mortar pharmacies in the pharmaceutical market amid the development of non-pharmacy online sales channels, the shift of demand to online, the consolidation of digital consumption patterns, and the increasing share of marketplace sales in the non-drug segment. The authors view the decline of the latter in the structure of pharmacies' revenue base as an irreversible process caused by the growth of online sales, where the online services of large pharmacy chains are under significant and increasing pressure from marketplaces, effectively pushing the market onto a more challenging development trajectory. The article argues that in the Russian market, pharmaceutical retail will struggle to maintain sales stability based on the US or European pharmacy retail model due to both regulatory restrictions on product range expansion and pressure from domestic FMCG chains. The latter are implementing a defensive strategy and going online to maintain revenue in the context of digitalized consumption, whose patterns are only just taking hold at ePharma. The appeal of non-pharmacy online channels is based on customer experience, convenient logistics, low prices, including for unbranded parapharmaceuticals, and other factors.