June 28, 2024

Seven-Eleven Japan Plans to Offer Prescription Drugs at Over 1,000 Stores in the Metro Area

Ned Snowman - stock.adobe.com

Seven-Eleven plans to integrate an app that provides online medical care and prescription services with a delivery locker located in their stores. This will allow customers to receive medications prescribed through online medical care conveniently at a familiar location, thus promoting the use of online medical services.

Prescription drugs can be picked up at the "PUDO Station," a delivery locker located in the store. The service was launched at some stores in Tokyo, Kanagawa, and Saitama prefectures, where the lockers are installed. The pharmacy delivers the medicine to each store, and users can receive it on the same day of medical treatment at the earliest. There is no delivery charge. In the future, the company will consider hand-delivery in stores.

Seven-Eleven has teamed up with JFRONTIER’s "SOKUYAKU", an app that handles electronic commerce (EC) for pharmaceuticals and other products. The app completes everything from online medical care at medical institutions to medication instruction by pharmacists and delivery arrangements for prescription drugs. As of the end of February 2024, about 3,600 medical institutions and 10,700 pharmacies nationwide were participating.

Consumers enjoy benefits such as reduced wait times at the dispensary. Instead of making trips to the hospital and then the pharmacy every time an elderly person with a chronic illness needs medication, they can receive online medical care and then go to a nearby Seven to pick up their prescription.

Services for receiving prescription drugs outside of pharmacies are expanding rapidly. In the convenience store industry, FamilyMart has implemented this service in approximately 4,500 stores in the Tokyo metropolitan area, and Lawson is also working with Qol Holdings, a major pharmacy company, to offer drug pickup and delivery services at dozens of stores with dispensing facilities. Drugstores and food delivery companies such as Uber Eats Japan are expanding their prescription drug services one after another.

Seven-Eleven sees prescription drugs as a product that will motivate customers to visit its stores. As part of the hub's expansion, the company intends to increase the number of customers who buy food and boxed lunches, thereby boosting its profits.