Reliance Retail Enters Offline Pharma Retail With Netmeds Store In Chennai

Reliance Retail has entered the offline pharma retail market through its subsidiary Netmeds; the company has reportedly opened its first standalone store in Chennai. Until now, Netmeds was focussing on online sale and delivery of medicines.

Following its first store in Chennai, Reliance Retail also plans to open more than 2,000 standalone pharmacy stores in a year, Times of India reported.

Along with conventional medicines, the pharma store will also sell alternative medicine categories such as Ayurveda, Unani and Homeopathy.

Although opening offline stores through Netmeds will mark Reliance Retail’s official foray into offline pharma business, it currently runs around 1,000 shop-in-shop pharma stores across Reliance Smart Bazaar in cities, and Smart Point stores in towns and villages.

After the onset of the pandemic, Reliance Retail entered the online medicine delivery space in August 2020 by acquiring a 60% equity stake in epharmacy startup Netmeds for INR 620 Cr ($83 Mn).

“The addition of Netmeds enhances Reliance Retail’s ability to provide good quality and affordable health care products and services, and also broadens its digital commerce proposition to include most daily essential needs of consumer,” executive director of Reliance Retail Ventures Limited, Isha Ambani, said at that time.

Netmeds was founded in 2010 by Pradeep Dadha. The startup is a licenced pharmacy marketplace that offers authenticated prescription and over-the-counter (OTC) medicine digitally along with other health products.

In the January-March quarter of 2022, Reliance Retail pharma segment’s’ new commerce operations scaled up to 1,900 cities from 1,200 cities in the previous quarter, while its merchant base grew two times on a quarter-on-quarter (QoQ) basis.

In the third quarter of FY23, Reliance Retail’s pharma business saw a revenue growth of 93% year-on-year led by growth across all channels, the company said in its earnings release.

In the crowded epharmacy segment, Netmeds competes with the likes of Tata’s 1Mg, IPO-bound PharmEasy and Amazon Pharmacy and Flipkart Health+. Interestingly, players such as 1MG, PharmEasy are also experimenting with`omnichannel strategy for expansions.

According to a Researchandmarkets.com report, the Indian online pharmacy market was estimated at INR 25.50 Bn in 2021. It is anticipated to expand at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 22.20% from 2022 to 2027, to reach INR 89.47 Bn.

India’s healthtech segment has more than 5,000 startups which raised nearly $6 Bn between 2014 and November 29, 2022. Among healthtech startups, online pharmacy startups raised $1.25 Bn during the same period, showing robust growth, according to Inc42 data.