The pharmacy world has encountered a paradigm shift, grappling with the massive wave of digitalization. As online pure players continuously grow and underprice local pharmacies, these establishments are in dire need of a digital overhaul. The solution? Lochting! Lochting combines the strengths of technology with that of the pharmacies. Local pharmacies won’t win the pricingbattle, but they can play out their many other strengths.Timely delivery of medication, extensive personal services, profound advice and an ongoing extension of first line care (such as vaccinations) do strengthen their position in the market. The universal challenge lies in seamlessly integrating these advantages into digital solutions.
What is Lochting?
To understand Lochting, you need to understand what pharmacies use on a daily basis. Multiple platforms dedicated to help with a small portion of what a pharmacy does. A software platform for all sales, a program for the stock robot, a separate website or webshop, a database platform for all the products and a different platform for their TV screens or other robots. Lochting has bundled all these different aspects into one unified commerce platform with fully connected sales, database and communication channels. We are basically talking about a 360° approach.
Lochting’s platform pivots around three core solutions:
- Webshop: ensuring online presence of the pharmacist, allowing them to better service their patients.
- Digital Signage: Providing crucial information to clients on any given moment.
- Vending Machine (Robot): 24/7 availability that allows you to boost sales, even outside of your opening hours. Connection with webshop is possible, providing an even better service for clients.
Additionally, Lochting automates the catalog management processes, slashing the build time from two months to just 30 minutes per pharmacy. And the best part? All of this comes at a fraction of the initial investment cost.
Lochting partners
To achieve all this, Lochting needed partners from within the pharmaceutical industry. Meditech, robot and automation specialist, set the first stone. Lochting is the latest addition to their already impressive portfolio. We made it possible to integrate their vending machine (MT.Matic) and TV screens (MT.Vision) into the Lochting platform, while also connecting the Lochting webshop to their hardware. This allows our pharmacists to manage all settings on a centralized system.
Needless to say, you can’t sell products without a database. That’s where Medipim comes into the picture. Already providing 80% of all Belgian pharmacies with product information, prices, pictures, video, brochures… They make the perfect partner for a growing database. To facilitate the distribution of products to pharmacies, we partnered up with a customer’s familiar face: Febelco. As a Belgian leading cooperative wholesaler with expertise in (para)pharmaceutical products, a partnership with them ensured Lochting and its customers a consistent and reliable supply chain.
When it came to webshops, we had to look outside of the pharmaceutical world. Baldwin, a digital agency specialized in Magento 2, Hyvä, WordPress, and custom development, turned out to be Lochting’s most suitable partner. They provide the pharmacies with an easy to use webshop that requires no IT knowledge to manage it.
One of Lochting’s biggest strengths lies in the integration with our customer’s pharmacy software. We established a collaboration with the current Belgian software companies that develop stock, pricing and order management for pharmacies. These integrations are an ongoing effort that both sides continue to enrich. The goal is to have fully automated processes for both webshops and vending machines. As of now, we partnered up with Corilus, Farmad, Officinal, Pharmony, iPharma, Sabco and Nextpharm.
Meanwhile, Lochting’s eyes are set on international horizons. We’re already setting foot in France, Germany, Spain, and Australia. However, this expansion brings forth its own set of challenges – from cultural nuances to legal differences. The solution? Collaborating with local distributors and crafting tailored strategies for each market.
Lochting’s impact for pharmacies
Lochting’s key benefits are user-friendliness, time saving, and customization. It features an embedded autopilot while allowing user modifications. We provide extensive support through manuals, tutorials, and a customer helpdesk.
Challenges faced by pharmacies:
- Lack of time and knowledge to digitize in a competitive environment.
- Disconnected applications and suppliers consume time and money.
- Local business and e-commerce lack seamless integration, causing product availability and home delivery challenges.
- Serving customers everywhere requires a unified foundation with seamless data flow.
Solutions provided by Lochting:
- Lochting provides a unified sales management platform to efficiently reach patients.
- Lochting platform integrates webshop, app, self-order kiosk, digital screens, and product database for a unified sales channel management.
- Lochting offers standardized templates that streamline operations, offering a straightforward solution for seamless integration.
Innovation Impact Award 2023
On the 12th of October, Lochting received its most prestigious award yet: the Innovation Impact Award of 2023 by FeWeb. The impact Lochting has had on both pharmacies and patients over the last few years is tremendous. With this award, our efforts and vision for the future have been officially acknowledged. It’s an honor for the entire Lochting team, as well as proof for our customers that they made the right choice to strengthen their position in the future world.
With an incredible overview of all sales data, a database provided by Medipim, an easy to build website and webshop in one, the management of both the MT.Vision and MT.Matic of Meditech, Lochting is just getting started. Our unified platform will only continue to grow, helping our customers to truly become the pharmacy of the future.
Conclusion
The landscape of global retail is shifting, and industries must adapt in order not to risk obsolescence. Lochting stands as a beacon for pharmacies worldwide, illustrating how digital transformation can not only enhance business operations but redefine customer experiences as well. By addressing core challenges head-on and leveraging the best of technology, Lochting proves that tradition and innovation can harmoniously coexist. In this journey of redefining pharmacies, Lochting isn’t just a tool or platform; it’s a partner for progress. We’re ensuring that local pharmacies remain indispensable in a digitized world. As we look to the future, it’s clear that Lochting’s impact will extend far beyond its current scope, setting new standards and perhaps inspiring other industries to take their own leaps into the digital age.
