Guwahati, Feb. 2: Tired of elbowing your way to the medicine counter? Now you can log in to dawailo.com, the Northeast's first medical e-retail platform, to check out all that you need and place an order to be delivered right at your doorstep!
The e-pharmacy, launched by Guwahati-based entrepreneurs Pankaj Maheswari and Abhimanyu Modi, has a list of 1.8 lakh products, primarily medicines, on offer.
"We have completed three months of test marketing in the city, having serviced over 1,000 customers based on orders through a toll free number, 8822-555-555. We are offering a discount of 11 per cent on our products currently. From today, we will deliver products to other states of the region," Maheswari said at the launch here today.
Products worth Rs 300 and above ordered through the platform can be availed of in Guwahati within 24 hours while those ordered from other states of the region are available at the doorstep within four days, the platform claims. "All that a consumer needs to do is register on our website, send a copy of the prescription online and place orders through WhatsApp. In case the medicines have to be ordered from outside the region, we may take more time to deliver," Maheswari said.
The platform will soon launch an app to make medicine accessible to remote corners of the Northeast. "Besides, we will soon start facilities such as doctor consultancy and appointments, lab testing and diagnostic centre appointments," Modi, a computer applications graduate, said.
It will also send reminders to regular clients who buy medicines for a month. "The reminders would be made over phone in advance so that the clients can place subsequent orders," he said. "We believe the Northeast is still an untapped market. In the interiors of the region, patients still take alternative medicines just because the prescribed ones are not readily available with local pharmacists. This experience led us to believe that this is not just a business we are operating, but also a service that ensures availability, quality and ease of procurement for anyone in the region," Maheshwari, a law graduate, said. "Currently, there are over 20 medical e-retail platforms in the country," he said. The e-platform has put in place the requisite infrastructure and market logistics. "We have a call centre at Panbazar and a distribution team across the region. We source our products through C&F (carrying and forwarding) agents. There is a warehouse where we stock our products," he said.
The platform also claims to have the best-in-class packaging of products. "Ice-box packaging is done for medicines which require storage below room temperature," Maheshwari said.
