Cold season is approaching, giving many people a reason to fill in the gaps in their medicine cabinets. Is it worth shopping in the online pharmacy here? Despite many price offers, a current comparison is always useful. The reason: There are often enormous price differences between mail-order pharmacies.
In a recent test by the German Institute for Service Quality, many mail-order pharmacies score well with professional websites, often attractive prices and customer-friendly ordering and payment conditions. Two mail-order pharmacies achieved the quality rating “very good”, 17 others are good and only one online pharmacy achieved a satisfactory overall result.
There are clear price differences in all the non-prescription products examined: When choosing the cheapest online pharmacy compared to the most expensive one, you can save on average more than a third (around 35 percent) – in individual cases even up to a good 63 percent. The test reveals which online pharmacies have an overall attractive price level. However, there is not one provider who is the cheapest for every drug. The choice of online pharmacy therefore always depends on the customer’s individual order requirements.
In terms of online service, online pharmacies are well positioned. The website offers a wide range of specialist information about medicines and how to order them, for example with package inserts for medicines or tips on filling medical prescriptions. The ordering processes are also transparent in most mail-order pharmacies, and even new customers often have the customer-friendly option to pay by invoice.
One shortcoming: only four of the 20 online pharmacies tested offer express or 24-hour delivery. For those who urgently need medication due to an acute illness, online pharmacies are not necessarily the first choice. Markus Hamer, Managing Director of the German Institute for Service Quality, advises: “All tested providers deliver free of charge from a certain order value. It is therefore advisable to order several medicines that you need again and again together. This is easy on the wallet and with less packaging waste also the environment.”
The test winner was Arzneimittel-per-Klick.de with the quality rating “very good”. The company is a leader in price analysis and scores with the most attractive product prices overall – in 14 of 35 cases examined, no mail-order pharmacy offered a lower price in the test. The website has a very high information value and, unlike many competitors, also provides a glossary with explanations of technical terms. There are also many payment options available.
Disapo.de took second place, also with a very good overall result. The online pharmacy achieved the second-best result in the price analysis, with all the products examined being priced below the industry average. Free delivery is possible for orders of ten euros or more. The contents of the website are also prepared in a way that is understandable from the user’s point of view.
Fliege-Pillen.de is in third place with the quality rating “good”. The provider achieves very good results in terms of prices as well as the ordering and payment conditions. In addition to the attractive price level, the customer-friendly variety of payment options, such as by invoice, direct debit, credit card and Paypal, also has a positive impact.
(This article was first published on Wednesday, September 28, 2022.)
