Quanyuantang Completes Grid-Based Deployment in Chengdu with 24/7 Smart Pharmacies

Falling ill at night and being able to purchase medications via mobile phone with home delivery, without leaving your house, is no longer a hypothetical scenario.

VCBeat (WeChat: vcbeat) has learned that Quanyuantang, a leading digital healthcare services platform in China, recently announced the implementation of a grid-based layout for its smart pharmacies across core areas of Chengdu. With more than 40 Quanyuantang Smart Pharmacies covering major business districts and communities throughout the city, the network has become a key channel for users to access integrated online-to-offline digital health management services.

Meanwhile, the aforementioned pharmacies have fully launched their 24/7 non-stop health services, covering users within a 3-kilometer radius. Customers can purchase medications online around the clock through five major platforms—Ali Health, JD Daojia, Ele.me, Meituan, and WeChat Mall—with delivery to their doorstep available within 30 minutes.

Image source: provided by the company

Difficulty in purchasing medications at night and the urgent need for medication have long been significant pain points for a wide range of consumers. With the boost provided by the “Internet + Healthcare” model, 24-hour pharmacies have increasingly become an essential component of health-related consumption. The Specifications for Retail Pharmacy Operations and Services, implemented on December 1, 2012, explicitly encourages retail pharmacies to establish nighttime service windows to ensure 24-hour medication availability.

Somewhat awkwardly, the high costs of round-the-clock operations have kept “24-hour pharmacies” largely at the conceptual stage. In July this year, media reports about Xiao Wu, a young woman in Chengdu who, with the help of a food-delivery rider, managed to purchase medication in the early hours after considerable difficulty, further sparked widespread public discussion on the challenges of buying medicine at night.

By leveraging digital tools and big data analytics to gain insights into regional users’ medication habits and health management needs, Quanyuantang has partnered with over 40 smart pharmacies in Chengdu’s core areas and integrated five major traffic platforms to fully launch its 24/7 non-stop health services. The company also commits to a “price-match guarantee,” providing more precise, timely, and round-the-clock health protection for consumers.

Within Quanyuantang’s 24/7 non-stop health service ecosystem, users within a 3-kilometer radius of Quanyuantang Smart Pharmacies can easily locate nearby stores and access pharmaceutical information via major platforms at any time. After submitting their pharmaceutical needs online following the prescribed process, they can enjoy convenient home delivery of medications within 30 minutes.

Meanwhile, to provide users with real-time professional medication guidance and health management consultation services, Quanyuantang has seamlessly integrated its team of 100 gold-certified pharmacists into its online platform. By implementing specialty-specific operations based on disease categories, the company offers round-the-clock services to a broad user base, promptly addressing their urgent needs ranging from medication purchase and delivery to scientific medication use.

Driven by favorable policies such as the separation of prescribing and dispensing and the outflow of prescriptions, new-type pharmaceutical retail—anchored in data, technology, and operational capabilities—is evolving into a high-growth market brimming with potential. With its strong internet DNA, Quanyuantang is leveraging its strengths in pharmaceutical e-commerce to empower its offline operations, emerging as a distinctive player in the new pharmaceutical retail landscape.

With more than 40 Quanyuantang Smart Pharmacies establishing a presence in Chengdu’s core districts, Quanyuantang has entered a new phase in its grid-based network layout in the city. Meanwhile, comprehensive digital transformation and upgrades of these stores have significantly enhanced operational efficiency and redefined the scenario-based medication purchasing experience for customers.

“Chengdu is a fertile ground for the health consumer market and the new economy. The pharmaceutical retail data aggregated from each individual holds significant value for us to gain insights into and transform user health consumption scenarios,” said Chen Zhouhua, General Manager of Quan Yuan Tang. “Chengdu boasts a profound foundation in both dietary culture and the new economy. By strengthening its offline outlet network in Chengdu, Quan Yuan Tang will activate synergy between online and offline channels, achieving coordinated effects across its platform, supply chain, and pharmacists, thereby maximizing its ability to meet users’ diverse health consumption needs across different time frames.”

As a model market meticulously developed by Quanyuantang, Chengdu has evolved from the company’s earliest pilot site for new pharmaceutical retail into a thriving hub where online and offline channels are deeply integrated, with O2O orders accounting for nearly 60% of each store’s sales. Currently, more than 40 Quanyuantang Smart Pharmacies in Chengdu’s core areas effectively facilitate the interaction and penetration of health-related consumer traffic between online and offline channels. These pharmacies lead the market in terms of transaction volume, growth rate, user conversion rate, and number of O2O orders. The synergistic effects of online-offline integration are becoming increasingly pronounced, enabling refined management of both product offerings and service capabilities.

As part of the implementation of Quanyuantang’s new retail strategy, Quanyuantang Smart Pharmacies differ from traditional pharmacies. They are a new species of pharmaceutical retail empowered by data and technology, as well as one-stop health management experience spaces integrated into business districts and communities. With the successful grid-based layout achieved in the Chengdu region, services such as 24/7 health accessibility and 30-minute home delivery have been introduced to meet market demand, making the outline of Quanyuantang’s offline presence in Chengdu even clearer.

Since the launch of its new pharmaceutical retail strategy in early 2017, Quanyuantang has consolidated its strategic resources to build a more extensive new pharmaceutical retail ecosystem, while maintaining its position among the top three pharmaceutical e-commerce platforms in China. Leveraging the favorable policy environment created by documents such as the “Guiding Opinions on Promoting Classified and Graded Management of Retail Pharmacies (Draft for Comments)” and the “Opinions on Promoting the Development of ‘Internet + Healthcare’,” Quanyuantang holds significant growth potential under the new circumstances.

With the widespread adoption of innovative delivery models such as “online ordering with in-store pickup” and “online ordering with home delivery,” Quanyuantang leverages internet and big data technologies to reshape pharmaceutical retail. By extending its service radius, overcoming time constraints, and integrating service resources, the company enhances user experience and empowers online and offline sales, operations, and services. This strategy aims to build an ecological closed loop connecting hospitals, physicians, physical stores, online platforms, pharmaceutical companies, consumers, and insurance institutions.

Chen Zhouhua stated that efficiency and operations are key to building Quanyuantang’s “moat” in its new pharmaceutical retail ecosystem. Over the next three years, Quanyuantang will consolidate its existing position among the top three players in pharmaceutical e-commerce, continuously optimize and replicate its Chengdu market experience, leverage big data and resource synergy, and establish 1,000 Quanyuantang Smart Pharmacies across more than 50 key cities nationwide—including Shanghai, Guangzhou, Chongqing, Chengdu, and Xi’an—thereby achieving continuous upgrades in user experience, brand awareness, and business dimensions.