Need meds urgently? 💊🚨

Imagine needing crucial medicines at the last minute—whether it's for a sudden fever or an ongoing prescription refill. Waiting hours isn't an option. That's where Apollo 24|7 Tez steps in. Our service ensures you get your medicines delivered to your doorstep within just 20-30 minutes, powered by the trusted Apollo network. It's fast, reliable, and always there when you need it most. 

Health emergencies can't wait, and with Apollo 24|7 Tez, neither should you.

​​

​Here’s Apollo 24|7 ‘Tez’ for you! 💊⚡️

1. Fundamental user need: 

The fundamental need that Apollo 24|7 Tez addresses is quick access to essential medicines during urgent situations. The service is designed to cater to scenarios where immediate medical supplies are required, whether for sudden illness, ongoing treatments, or emergency refills. By delivering medicines within 20-30 minutes, Apollo 24|7 Tez removes the anxiety of waiting and ensures that users have timely access to the healthcare products they need, especially when time is of the essence.

2. Product highlights:

• Quick Delivery (20-30 minutes): Ensuring users get their medicines quickly in urgent situations.
• Doctor Consultation Within 5 Minutes: If a user lacks a valid prescription, they can connect with a doctor online within 5 minutes. Once the prescription is generated, the order is immediately processed.
• Prescription Management: Users can save and reuse the same prescription for future orders until it expires, making reorders easy and convenient.
• Wide Network Coverage: Access to Apollo's extensive pharmacy network ensures availability and swift delivery.
• Real-Time Tracking: Provides transparency with real-time order tracking.
• User-Friendly Interface: Simple and intuitive app design for quick searches, orders, and tracking.
• Customer Support: Dedicated assistance for any issues related to orders, payments, or deliveries.

What is the scale? 📈 

PMF? Early scaling? Mature scaling?

The new product Tez has been launched recently and has saw its first 1000 users a few weeks ago. Also, after the pilot stage, key metrics like cancellation rate and TAT adherence are at acceptable levels as per success definitions (5% and 90% respectively).Hence the product has successfully obtained PMF and now is in early scaling phase.

Understanding the Users 👨‍🦰👩‍🦳

Speaking to 35 people who purchased a medicine in the last 30 days, ages 21-45, a few broad theme emerged:

What are the primary reasons users prefer retail (offline stores) shopping for medicines?

• “Convenience of shopping from pharmacy nearby”
• “Certainty of availability of medicines in some pharmacy in my area of not the nearest pharmacy” 

What are the primary reasons users prefer online shopping for medicines?

• “Convenience of shopping from home”
• “Easier to compare prices across different retailers”
• “Ability to read reviews and ratings of other users before purchasing”
• “Lower prices than offline retailers”

How are the users’ needs (urgent need of medicine) met right now? 

• Physical Pharmacy Visits: Visiting nearby pharmacies to purchase medicines directly. This method often involves time-consuming travel and waiting, especially if the medicine is out of stock at the first location.
• Standard Online Pharmacies: Using traditional online pharmacy services that offer home delivery, though these services typically take longer (usually 24-48 hours) for delivery, which may not meet urgent needs.
• Local Delivery Services: Some users may rely on local delivery services (e.g., Dunzo or Swiggy Genie) to pick up medicines from pharmacies and deliver them. However, these services are not specialized in pharmaceuticals and may lack the reliability or stock availability of a dedicated service like Apollo 24|7 Tez.
• Emergency Contacts/Help: In urgent situations, users might rely on friends, family, or neighbors to quickly procure medicines for them.
• Keeping Stock at Home: Some people preemptively keep a stock of essential medicines at home to avoid emergency situations, although this isn't a perfect solution due to the unpredictability of medical needs and the risk of stock expiration.

Apollo 24|7 Tez stands out by addressing the need for both speed and reliability in medicine delivery, a gap that existing solutions may not fully address.

One theme that stood out was that: For emergency needs users often end up going themselves or taking help of someone to purchase from the nearest pharmacy. In any case, due to lack of delivery options, users’ urgent needs are catered by retail pharmacies.

Ideal customer profiles: 👨‍🦰👩‍🦳

Customer profiles include those of urban households, the elderly, chronic patients, and busy professionals who prioritize convenience and quality in healthcare. After polling with users I spoke to, I have chosen to consider the following customer profiles:

1. ICP 1: Caretaker
2. ICP 2: Urgent need of Prescription based meds but don't have any Prescription 
3. ICP 3: Urgent OTC medicine needed
4. ICP 4: Last minute purchase: Niche Skin Care Products

Which ICP to focus on? 🎯

Lets evaluate the 4 ICP across key criteria

Based on the above, ICP 2 and ICP 3 should be prioritized.

NOTE: 

Calculations for TAM:

Assumptions for Calculations

1. Total Urban Adult Population in India: Approximately 300 million.
2. Percentage of Urban Adults in each Cohort (assumptions):
3. • ICP 1 - Caretaker: 5%
   • ICP 2 - No Prescription, Urgent Medicine Need: 15%
   • ICP 3 - Urgent OTC Products: 10%
   • ICP 4 - Non-Prescription, Skin Care Products: 5%
4. ARPU (Average Revenue Per Customer) per month: ₹1,000 per month across all cohorts.
5. Target Market Segment (percentage)
6. • ICP 1: 10%
   • ICP 2: 10%
   • ICP 3: 10%
   • ICP 4: 10%
7. Market Penetration/Share (assumptions):
8. • ICP 1: 10%
   • ICP 2: 10%
   • ICP 3: 10%
   • ICP 4: 10%

Formulae

TAM = Total no. of potential customers x Average Revenue Per Customer (ARPU) 

SAM = TAM x Target Market Segment (percentage of the total market) 

SOM = SAM x Market Penetration/Share

ICP Specific Calculations

ICP 1: Caretaker

• TAM: $2.225 billion
• SAM: $225 million
• SOM: $22.5 million

ICP 2: No Prescription, Urgent Medicine Need

• TAM: $6.75 billion 
• SAM: $675 million 
• SOM: $67.5 million 

ICP 3: Urgent OTC Products

• TAM: $4.5 billion 
• SAM: $450 million 
• SOM: $45 million 

ICP 4: Non-Prescription, Skin Care Products

• TAM: $2.225 billion
• SAM: $225 million 
• SOM: $22.5 million 

Understanding the Market 💹

(begin by doing a basic competitor analysis)

Key Market Trends/ Tailwinds:

• Increased Internet and Smartphone Penetration: There's a significant surge in the number of consumers accessing the internet, particularly through smartphones. This is expanding the reach of e-pharmacies into tier II and tier III cities, making it easier for more of the population to access medical products and services online.
• Growth in Chronic Diseases: With a rise in conditions such as diabetes and hypertension, particularly among middle-aged groups, there's an increasing demand for continuous medication supply, which e-pharmacies are well equipped to handle. 
• Government Initiatives and Digital Healthcare: Programs like Digital India and various e-health initiatives are supporting the growth of digital healthcare services. These initiatives are helping to establish a regulatory framework that favors the expansion of e-pharmacies across the country.

Headwinds:

• Regulatory Compliance and Legal Challenges: Despite supportive initiatives, e-pharmacies still face challenges regarding regulatory compliance. The requirements for registration and adherence to operational standards can vary, creating a complex environment for new and existing players.
• Competition and Market Pressure: The e-pharmacy sector is highly competitive, with numerous players vying for market share. This competition often leads to aggressive pricing strategies and promotional offers, which while beneficial for consumers, can put pressure on the profit margins of e-pharmacy businesses.

Market shares

​As per the calculation in the previous section, we have the following TAM, SAM and SOM for ICP 2 and ICP 3

ICP 2: No Prescription, Urgent Medicine Need

• TAM: $6.75 billion 
• SAM: $675 million 
• SOM: $67.5 million 

ICP 3: Urgent OTC Products

• TAM: $4.5 billion 
• SAM: $450 million 
• SOM: $45 million 

Acquisition Channels 📈

​

Organic Channel 🔍

Users needing medicines urgently are likely to go to google and search. Looking at key search terms, Apollo 24|7 has a lot of room to improve.

Search terms: 

• 10 minute medicine delivery
• instant medicine delivery
• now medicine delivery
• medicine delivery now
• urgent medicine delivery

Observation: Despite Apollo’s Tez being the only service that’s closest to fulfilling user’s needs, Apollo 24|7 does not appear on the first fold of results 

​

​Search term: How long does Apollo Pharmacy take to deliver?

Observation: Answer does not talk about Tez at all 

​

​

Content Loop ✍️

Currently blogs are a channel of content loop that is being generated. For these blogs:

• Hook: Health related information that attracts a health-conscious reader
• Generator: Apollo 24|7 content writers
• Sharer: Apollo 24|7 via SEO

​Observation: The engagement on these blogs is very little

Paid Ads 🤑

Currently, there is no effort being put into paid channels for promoting Tez, as seen below from Meta and google ads library. This because there is an org-wide effort in action to reduce expenses. 

Meta:

Google:

Product Integration 🔗

Currently there are no product integrations in place aimed at customer acquisition for Tez.

We know that customers from ICP2 and ICP3 use quick commerce products like Zepto, Blinkit, Bigbasket and instamart. 

Integrating with the above products could be considered.

Hence integrating with Zepto makes most sense.

Zepto Product Integration user journey/ mockups and impact

​

Pharmacy order impact guesstimate

• Zepto’s Monthly Orders: 21 million. (7L per day as per industry reports) 
• Estimated Overlap and Interest: Assuming about 20% of Zepto's customers might also be interested in ordering medicines.
• Conversion Rate: Assuming an effective conversion rate of 10% for those showing interest in medicine delivery alongside their grocery orders.

Guesstimate Calculation:

Potential Apollo Orders= 21,000,000×0.2×0.10

Potential Apollo Orders= 420,000 orders per month

We also know that customers from ICP2 and ICP3 use health tracking products like fitbit 

Fitbit Product Integration user journey/ mockups

​

Pharmacy order impact guesstimate

• Fitbit's User Base in India: Assume Fitbit has around 10 million monthly active users in India.
• Engagement Level: Given health and tech trends in urban Indian areas, assume 3% of Fitbit's users are engaged enough with their health data to respond to medication prompts.
• Conversion Rate: Predicting that 10% of those engaged users might act on a recommendation to order from Apollo 24|7 Tez due to a health alert.

Guesstimate Calculation:

Potential Apollo Orders=10,000,000 users×0.03×0.10

=30,000 orders per month

​

Referral Program/Partner Program 🫂

Apollo 24|7 currently does not have a live referral program. 

Here is a rough plan for the referral program:

• ​What would the Referral Flow be like?
• • User for whom order was delivered within 20 mins without any issues (like partial delivery/ damage etc) would be shown a referral prompt on the order delivery screen
  • User would be able to share a personalized referral code to their friend/ family etc
  • Once the other user transacts, the original user earns a coupon for 25% off. 
• Why would anyone refer a product? 
• • Upon successful activation of the other user, the original user earns a coupon for 25% off. 
  • User would be delighted by the fast delivery
• What should be the reward for the existing and future customers?
• • 25 off on next order
• What would be the referral message?
• • Something crisp and natural in language. TBD
• How the referrer can track his/her rewards?
• • There would a referral section on app where user will be able to track referral sent, referrals onboarded and referral activated. The user will also be able to send a reminder to users who have not been yet activated
• How can we increase the average referral per person?
• • There would a tier incentive system which would incentive users to keep on referring 

Which Acquisition Channels to focus on? 🎯

Applying the prioritization framework here for our proposed channel activities:

We can see that the best channels to experiment with and work on are Organic, Referral and Product integrations

Note: There is an org-wide effort in action to reduce expenses. Hence Paid ads would not be picked.

Summary 🎬

Analyzing the customer needs, our product, the market, our current scale and strategies, we can conclude that the best channels to experiment with and work on are Organic, Referral and Product integrations.

​