According to a VTsIOM study, 80% of Russians personally visit pharmacies to buy medicines. Only 4% order them online (11% of residents of the Far Eastern Federal District, 8% of residents of cities/towns with a population of 500,000 to 950,000 people). 9% of respondents said that they use online and offline pharmacies to an equal extent. 6% of the survey participants do not buy medicines at all.
Over the past three months, only 15% of Russians have ordered medicines to be delivered. Almost a quarter of them live in cities with a million-plus population, and 18% are residents of Moscow and St. Petersburg. Most orders in online pharmacies were made by women.
Almost 40% of the survey respondents who prefer going to the pharmacy mentioned the proximity of pharmacies and the convenience of going to them. 14% do not want to wait for delivery, and 12% do not trust drugs sold in online pharmacies.
Those who preferred to have medicines delivered reported the following advantages: low prices (73%), convenience (24%) and saving time (23%).
The majority of respondents (53%) prefer to use Apteka.ru to buy products online. Other popular websites include “Planeta Zdoroviya” (Planet of Health) (7%), “E-pharmacy” (6%), Farmland (5%), as well as Sberapteka and “Apteka so Sklada” (Pharmacy from the warehouse”) (4% each).