Medisouq started its journey in 2017 by creating a unique ecosystem that brings together healthcare products and services under a single umbrella in the form of a complete health and wellness store.
From its online marketplace portal Medisouq.com, it sells thousands of health and wellness care products across a wide range of categories. From personal care, baby care, vitamins & supplements, skincare, healthcare devices, rehab and support, OTC essentials, and health packages.
E-Pharma Business License & Regulatory in UAE
With the growth of smartphones adoption and internet availability in emerging markets, there is a continual change in shopping behaviour. As consumers are now opening to buying products online, rather than stepping out from their homes.
With the COVID-19 pandemic, e-commerce businesses have flourished. More businesses are now ready that offer doorstep delivery of all the daily needs, household, personal care, essentials items, including medicines, health and wellness products.
In U.A.E. to move your traditional retail store pharmacy business online, or to set up a new E-pharmacy or sell pharmaceutical products on the marketplace, you need to comply with the UAE Ministry of Health and Prevention (‘MOHAP’) and/ or healthcare regulator of the Emirate (e.g. Abu Dhabi’s Department of Health or the Dubai Health Authority).
Only after complying with their licensing requirements and guidelines, the shop owners can sell the healthcare and beauty products online.
But, if you are a marketplace owner, you only need to comply commercial trade license and comply with the Department of Economic Development. Read the complete article by Al Tamimi & Co., the largest law firm in the Middle East and North Africa.
Relaunching Medisouq with Magento 2.3
The client was already using the Magento 1 platform and wanted to revamp its website and upgrade to the Magento 2.3 release. Further, many new changes and features were needed to be added using Webkul extensions.
Find out more about what Webkul does for Magento Adobe Commerce development. Full range of development services from custom e-commerce stores or marketplaces, mobile apps, extensions, connectors, server setup and optimization and more.
Medisouq wanted to launch its new website as early as possible without sacrificing any quality or usability issues. The project involved many developers across teams for the front and back end development, mobile app development, UX design, etc.
Medisouq Project Work Plan:
- Move from development server to production server
- Assisting client with every query
- Installing many Webkul extensions
- Diagnose and resolve Magento 2.3 support issues
- Enabling the Arabic language for the Webkul Marketplace
- Develop white-label marketplace mobile app and deliver source code
- Wallet system payment method integration
- Social login for mobile app and web
- Mobile OTP SMS login for the web
Now below we will view some of the latest development changes done over Medisouq.com. Many Webkul extensions and Marketplace Add-Ons have been installed and different teams were committed to working together with the goal of revamping the Medisouq website.
Creating E-Pharma Marketplace
Medisouq wanted to build an online promotion marketplace platform to merchandise and sell several vendors’ products online. With that, the sellers make easy availability of healthcare products with the best possible rates.
The client wanted to replicate the same buying behaviour and deliver service as buying products through authorized retail stores traditionally.
All the sellers, marketplace and retail have to adhere to the same high standards of service and authenticity of their advertised items. The Medisouq customer support team was there to help shoppers with unconditional support.
Medisouq is using the Webkul Multi-Vendor Marketplace solution. With this, any pharmacist or medicine supplier or traditional retail store owner can signup as an online seller on the Medisouq marketplace and start selling products across Dubai and other nearby locations.
Also, enabling shoppers to add products from different vendors and buy them in a single order. The customers can also view the seller name and the delivery time for the products.
There is a custom theme installed on the Medisouq website and many UI frontend design changes have been done to make the online marketplace apt for showcasing pharma products.
Webkul Marketplace solution is completely customizable, you can use any third-party theme with it.
Further, front-end developers and web designers can make any changes they want, as the source code is open for customization.
Our multi-vendor marketplace solution is being used in many different types of industries and markets. Whether it is a business-to-business marketplace or retail-consumer marketplace, Webkul Marketplace is built for all sorts of commerce.
Mass Upload Bulk Product Listings
In the process of relaunching the website and making it ready as early as possible, Medisouq wanted to upload thousands of products. The mass upload feature already exists in the default Magento Admin Panel.
But for the marketplace, we needed to have a dedicated bulk-upload system where all the sellers can easily upload their hundreds or thousands of product listings in one go.
With Webkul’s Mass Upload Marketplace Add-On, the sellers can create and update products via. CSV, XML, XLS excel spreadsheet files.
- Allowing sellers to bulk add products from marketplace panel
- Uploading virtual products
- Uploading multiple product images using a zip file
- Upload an unlimited number of products (depending on your server configuration)
- Admin can also upload products for the marketplace sellers
- Support custom product attributes
- Assign bulk products to appropriate category and sub-category
Developing Whitelabel Mobile App
The client wanted to develop Android and iOS mobile apps for Medisouq buyers and sellers. Mobikul (M-commerce division of Webkul) offers various mobile app development solutions for businesses.
Mobikul development team works on all the modern mobile app development technologies. Like Kotlin, Java, Swift, Flutter, React Native and various other frameworks to provide the best user experience and design for app users.
For Medisouq, we developed the mobile apps using Swift and Xcode for iOS and for Android, Kotlin and Android Studio (IDE). Google Firebase for backend development and server end secure communication.
The client needed a complete white-label mobile app with its own branding and trademarking. Further, mobile app source code was delivered to the client for allowing further custom development changes in the application files.
The client customized the mobile app user interface and design and added some customized functionality like new products, most selling, top-rated products display etc.
Download the Medisouq iPhone App from the Apple App Store. The iOS app also with iPad tablets as well.
Medisouq is using MasterCard Internet Gateway Service (MiGS) through Mashreq Bank. It is the oldest privately owned bank in the United Arab Emirates.
It unveiled the online payment gateway service MiGS in the Gulf first-time for merchants that guarantees a secure online payments system for online purchases.
The MiGS payment gateway integration was completed by the Mobikul team and enabled shoppers to use their credit/debit cards in the Android and iOS mobile apps.
Moreover, the wallet payment method was also added in the mobile app which we see in the next section.
E-commerce Wallet System Payment Method
The wallet system is a widely used feature in almost all e-commerce platforms and marketplaces. With this, the customer can load up the money in its wallet account.
Then make payments for the orders without needing to visit the payment gateway page. Thereby reducing time and making the checkout process much faster than before.
While adding money to the wallet the admin can define the payment methods to be used. Like to disable COD [cash on delivery] option.
The COD payment was not completely disabled as Medisouq customers required it while purchasing virtual products like health service packages.
Further, if a wallet balance is not sufficient for the order amount, the customer can use another payment method together. Like in the below example:
- Wallet + Aramex COD Combination (normal products)
- Wallet + Magento COD (virtual products for health packages)
- Wallet + Debit/Credit Card (normal products)
- Wallet + Debit/Credit Card (virtual products for health packages).
As the client was using Mobikul Multi-Vendor Mobile App and Webkul Wallet for Magento 2. They also wanted to implement the wallet payment system into the Medisouq Mobile App.
Mobikul Wallet System supports both iOS and Android apps built by the Mobikul team.
But as the client requested for the source code as well, so our team provided the complete white-labelled mobile app package including the app base code with wallet code included.
With this, the client was able to customize the mobile app again as per their business requirements. Later in the next version, the wallet feature was available in the mobile app.
Authenticate Wallet Transfer with OTP
With the wallet system, the customers have an option to transfer their wallet amount to their friends who are registered on the Medisouq store. The customer can add payee details and confirm the email address.
The one-time password authentication code is sent to the sender for confirmation. Further, the customer can even transfer the wallet amount from the Medisouq wallet to their bank.
The details for the bank account details can be entered from the customer panel and then can be verified and approved by the admin.
Make Quicker Refunds With Wallet Money
Another major advantage of having a wallet system is that it allows the sellers and the customers to process refunds much quicker than card refunds.
So once the item has been returned to the seller, the amount can be released back via. Transfer Wallet Amount option, once payee is added. Rather than wait for the bank to credit back and reverse the transaction amount.
Bank refunds generally take 5-7 business days or more, but with the wallet system, money can be transferred quickly which can, later on, be used for placing another order.
Integrate Aramex Shipping in Marketplace
Founded in 1982, Arab American Express [Aramex] is the first courier company in the Middle East. During that time there were no international courier companies based in the region because of logistical and bureaucratic challenges caused by civil wars and complex political relationships.
Aramex is still the preferred shipping partner for all e-commerce businesses. Medisouq also offers Aramex shipping services to its Dubai and overseas clients.
Webkul integrated this shipping service via. Magento 2 Aramex Shipping Marketplace Add-On. The shipping rate calculation is based on the individual supplier’s addresses. Also, in the case of the admin product, the store admin’s address is used as the origin.
With Webkul Aramex Marketplace Add-On, the sellers and the admin can connect their Aramex account with the Medisouq and create shipments.
Also print Aramex-provided API shipping labels, packing slips, invoice slips and get tracking numbers that can be shared with the customer with one click email.
Social Login via. Facebook & Google
Another feature that is very common on all websites is a social login. With this, the new customers or first-time users don’t need to create a new account or fill up a large signup form.
- Reduces website bounce rate
- Increases sales conversions
- New sellers can also use it
- Also available during checkout
- Decreases cart abandonments
- Increases more customer sign-ups
On Medisouq, we have integrated the social login through Facebook and Google API. The social login works for both new customers and new sellers. So if someone wants to become a seller on Medisouq, the user can later do it from the account section.
More Features to Come
Although the Medisouq marketplace website and mobile apps are ready and live, there are still more new features to be available for the customers, sellers, and the admin.
A newer version of the updated mobile application will also be released soon with more features and improvements. Plus, with the release of Magento 2.4 [Adobe Commerce] and the end of Magento 2.3 support, the whole platform and currently installed extensions will also be updated.
Also, read ipharmerci case study, a similar online pharmaceutical marketplace from Singapore, built with the Opencart platform.
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