Boots has been revealed as “the UK’s most prominent online pharmacy brand” over the past year, according to marketing company Salience’s annual sector report.
The agency today (June 3) said that it analysed 11 performance indicators – including search volume trends and brand awareness – to reveal the industry’s most successful names.
It found that Boots dominated patients’ search history over the last 12 months, having been searched 4.1 million times every month over the period.
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Left in the dust at 368,000 monthly searches, Salience said that Lloydspharmacy was the second most searched online pharmacy.
And Pharmacy2U – the UK’s largest online pharmacy – was searched 91,000 times per month, coming in third according to the agency.
Weight loss drug “opportunities”?
Salience’s report also revealed “the most highly reviewed” online pharmacies.
It found that “the top-reviewed online pharmacy site is pharmacy2u.co.uk, which has over 550,000 customer reviews”.
Weldricks and Chemist4U came in as the second and third most reviewed UK online pharmacies, it added.
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And the company said that it identified several phrases as “keyword opportunities” for contractors in the sector.
Top among them was “buy orlistat” – a weight loss treatment – which Salience revealed is searched 900 times every month.
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Meanwhile, patients search for where to “buy” glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonist (GLP-1RA) drug saxenda and type 2 diabetes drug metformin 500 times monthly each, Salience added.
“Smaller-scale keyword gaps…are just as significant as the larger, broader keywords,” it added.
“Including these niche keywords within your next campaign can significantly impact its direction by allowing your brand to explore smaller avenues,” it said.
Digital latest
The advice follows a report by the Tony Blair Institute that last month called for weight loss drugs to be rolled out “predominantly through digital channels”, in particular online pharmacies.
It comes as multiple claims around weight loss drugs have been raised with a pharmacy insurer, including one after a patient had to have their gallbladder removed.
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And reports last month claimed that a multimillion-pound deal “with a major pharmaceutical firm” is set to fund a national NHS weight loss jab prescription pilot in pharmacies.
Meanwhile, C+D last month revealed that one online pharmacy’s funds boomed almost 600% in just six months thanks to the thousands of weight loss scripts it processes every month.
