The benefits of accepting recurring payments for your online pharmacy business and how to do so.

As you get ready to launch your online pharmacy, there are many factors to think about. Deciding on who your customers should be and what products you want to specialize in are just two of the most important.

Before you get started, you should also consider the many advantages of investing in recurring billing software from your merchant account for online pharmacy providers.

Why start an online pharmacy business in the first place?

Providing digital pharmaceutical services to your customers enables you to meet an ever-growing need. There are numerous benefits online pharmacies offer. 

• Enhanced convenience. Patients can obtain their prescription medications without ever needing to leave home. This is especially helpful for ill or disabled buyers and became an even more compelling selling point during the worst of the coronavirus pandemic.
• Reduced prices. Because of lower overhead costs, online pharmacies can pass prescription cost discounts onto their customers.
• A greater selection of products in stock compared to brick-and-mortar stores.
• Greater privacy and discretion. Customers can obtain prescriptions and have them delivered discreetly.

These factors have combined to turn digital pharmacies into one of the most lucrative and fastest-growing sectors on the internet.

Entering the high-risk business ecosystem.

Even though you must adhere to strict regulations, online pharmacies are still considered to be high-risk businesses by banks and other merchant account providers. This is because the industry sells products that can cause harm if used improperly, particularly by young people.

In addition, many online pharmacies source their products from overseas, which is seen by financial institutions as riskier.

Finally, the likelihood of chargebacks and fraud is greater. Therefore, finding a competitively priced merchant account for online pharmacies will necessarily mean paying higher costs and potentially having to provide a little extra paperwork during the application process.

Even so, there are several compelling reasons to jump through the extra hoops necessary to launch your online pharmacy. Although the costs will most likely be higher than you would experience in a lower-risk business category, the rewards can be lucrative.

The key to success in this sector involves giving customers maximum payment choice and flexibility combined with the medications they need — in stock and on time.

What are recurring payments?

In recent years, customers and merchants alike have come to appreciate the so-called subscription or recurring payments model.

As the names suggest, this involves you setting up a system that allows for an agreed-upon amount of money to be electronically transferred from a customer’s credit card or bank account to your business account at specified intervals for a set period of time. In general, recurring payments fall into two categories.

• Regular or fixed. In this model, a specific amount is withdrawn each time.
• Variable or irregular. This model is especially useful if the customer’s usage of products or services fluctuates from one billing period to the next.

In general, recurring payments work through the following steps.

• You set up your system to accept recurring payments with your merchant account provider.
• The customer chooses “recurring payments” in their payment settings.
• The customer agrees to the terms and conditions you have set, including payment frequency, amount charged, expiration date if any, and so forth.
• The customer enters their bank account or credit card information, which is then securely saved in your recurring billing software.
• At the beginning of each billing cycle, funds are transferred from the customer to your business merchant account.
• Your payment processor contacts the acquiring and issuing banks and the customer’s card network. If approved, funds are sent to your merchant account.
• Your software sends an invoice after each payment letting the customer know that it has been successfully withdrawn.

Benefits of recurring billing for your online pharmacy.

The subscription payments model has become popular across numerous industries in recent years. This is because it provides advantages to customers and merchants alike. Here are just some of the bonuses that you and your customers will find with this model.

• Greater convenience. Shoppers don’t need to lift a finger to ensure that their payments arrive accurately and on time. As a result, they can rest assured that their medications will never be late due to delinquent payments.
• No more need to chase down late payments.
• Predictability. Buyers know exactly how much will be withdrawn each billing cycle, improving personal budgeting. The same is true for your business cash flow, which will be much easier to track and rely upon.
• Better rapport between you and your customers. When payment expectations are clear and pre-planned, much of the guesswork and potential for confusion is eliminated. This leaves you better able to meet the individual needs of each of your valued customers.

It should go without saying, however, that no payments model is perfect or set-it-and-forget-it. For this reason, you need to have mechanisms in place that keep track of credit card expirations and monitor for account closures so that you can address these situations before or as soon as they arise. As long as you take these precautions, recurring billing can be just what the doctor ordered for boosting revenue at your online pharmacy.

How to get started.

Setting up recurring payments is easy. You simply need to get in touch with your payment technology or gateway provider to ensure that your current software is equipped to be configured to accept this model. Then let them know that you want to start accepting recurring payments. It’s as easy as that.

When you own an online pharmacy, you can provide high-quality subscription services to a wide array of customers both locally and abroad. However, the online pharmacy landscape is becoming increasingly competitive. If you are to succeed and rise above your competitors, you need to go the extra mile to attract and keep clients.

Offering recurring payments may seem like a relatively insignificant bonus, but giving this enhanced degree of flexibility and predictability might just turn out to be that little something extra that tips the scales in favor of your business.

Most likely, you already have everything you need to get started without needing to make any additional investments. Talk to your payment technology partner today to add this compelling feature to your online pharmacy business.