CEO, SHOP APOTHEKE EUROPE.
From the very first day when SHOP APOTHEKE started operations in 2001, our team simply followed one principle: Empower our customers to find health and beauty products that help them to live and feel better every day.
Now more than ever, that means providing a broad range of products and the best advice you can expect from dedicated trained pharmacists combined with best-in class functionality and an exceptional user experience.
As we expand our customer base across Continental Europe, our customers remain our core focus. All this brings us one step closer to the democratization of health in Europe.
*) as of December 31, 2019, **) as of July 6, 2020
Our customers' well-being is a matter of the heart for us. That's why we're especially proud that they voted us number one among online pharmacies in the 2020 /2021 Webshop Awards. In addition, the local Webshops in Germany and Austria were named “Best Online Shops”.
SHOP APOTHEKE plays a pioneering role in a highly attractive market segment where growth is driven by the shift towards e-commerce as well as the steadily growing demand for non-prescription (OTC) medications and pharmacy-related beauty and personal care products. We plan to further strengthen our market leadership and establish SHOP APOTHEKE EUROPE as the synonym for online pharmacies in Europe. Demographic change, growing health awareness and the trend towards self-medication are driving the demand for OTC medication and pharmacy-related beauty and personal care products. The ongoing trend towards online retail is positively influencing the growth of our markets in Europe, while at the same time our strong IT infrastructure and the country specific cultural know-how form a solid foundation to reach our goals.
Acquiring the Belgian online pharmacy FARMALINE in the autumn of 2016 was along with the successful IPO in Frankfurt a milestone in our internationalization strategy. In addition to strengthening our leading position in the Belgian and French markets, we also expanded simultaneously into Spain and Italy, in just one step. The acquisition of EUROPA APOTHEEK in 2017 has enabled us to further strengthen our European market leadership with an extended product range for the entire family as well as for chronic care patients who need continuous care with Rx drugs. With the acquisition of nu3, a company specialised in functional food, we have solid base to continue our growth story in the future.
We are always taking care to advise our customers with confidential and comprehensive advice. It is essential to us to provide safe and appropriate pharmaceutical products for our customers. Extensive pharmaceutical know-how is an important part of SHOP APOTHEKE EUROPE’s business strategy. Customers can always rely on our toll-free hotline where pharmacists and specially trained pharmaceutical experts provide individual recommendations.
Pharmacist and her team of experts.
All our parcels with OTC or Rx medications include a personalized letter to the customer that describes potential pharmaceutical interactions. We ensure this high standard of pharmaceutical safety for our customers by using our comprehensive database on medications, their proper use and possible interactions with other medications. This database helps us to give individual recommendations to our customers and to provide them with knowledge that empowers them to better manage their own health.
As one of the leading online pharmacies in Europe, TECHNOLOGY is of the highest priority for us so we can best fulfil all future demands. That’s why we are continuously refining our technological infrastructure as it is crucial to make all our processes run smoothly for the benefit of all stakeholders. We have the great advantage of being able to do that with our in-house team of experts.
Dedicated teams of experts always keep our customers in mind.
It’s our way to work efficiently: Since the business world is changing faster every day, we decided to establish cross-functional teams to further boost our flexibility and agility: Our staff at RedTecLab works in small groups of five to ten people.
A team of highly qualified and motivated people completely own a product during its entire lifecycle: They don’t just create it but are also responsible for maintaining it.
From 2020 onwards SHOP APOTHEKE EUROPE is making sustainability an integral part of the company’s strategic positioning. We became a UN global compact signatory. We are already managing our company in an intrinsically way. The official commitment to the 10 principles ensures that we adhere to our values in the future and challenges us to continuously rethink and further develop under consideration of human rights, labour, environmental and anticorruption aspects.
Head of Medical Programmes, SHOP APOTHEKE EUROPE
As the specialist for prescription medicines we have a high number of patients who suffer from chronic diseases and who therefore regularly need their drugs, among our most loyal customers. Professional advice is one of the keys to our success in building customer relationships.
SMART, our special patient programme for chronically ill people in Germany is a unique service only offered by SHOP APOTHEKE among online pharmacies. It is an important tool to improve patient compliance and further strengthen customer loyalty.
With the acquisition of nu3, SHOP APOTHEKE EUROPE further broadens its position and value creation in its European markets: In addition to expanding our product range with complementary products, huge cross-selling potentials will emerge by addressing affluent new customers.