Industry: Healthcare
Market: the U.S.
Project duration: 7 months (ongoing)
Products and features:
Technologies:
The COVID-19 pandemic served as a catalyst for innovation, compelling the healthcare industry to address long-standing challenges that had persisted for decades.
At the same time, eCommerce began its expansion beyond the traditional boundaries of selling consumer goods. So the two joined forces.
This partnership ushered in a new era, where eCommerce platforms embraced both B2B and B2C medical establishments, empowering them to provide enhanced solutions to individuals in need of medical assistance. This expansion has now encompassed a wide array of healthcare acquisitions, ranging from prescription medications and vitamins to medical instruments, wellness products, and home healthcare devices.
Moreover, to underscore this transformation, Vantage Market Research estimates the value of the healthcare eCommerce market at $302.3 billion and predicts that it will reach $994.2 billion by 2030.
The integration of digital commerce has significantly upgraded the healthcare industry and patient care, as people can now take an active role in their treatment. They can browse and purchase their medication without geographical constraints, schedule online doctor consultations, receive a diagnosis, and get necessary medicine delivered to their doorstep. People can also access resources and support, gaining holistic experience and always available healthcare services.
On the other hand, B2B and B2C healthcare providers got the chance to:
Pharmaceutical companies, in particular, are jumping on the bandwagon to bridge the gap between healthcare professionals and patients more successfully. They utilize eCommerce solutions to maintain a strong position in a competitive market.
The Inviggo team worked on developing a cutting-edge SaaS DTC (Direct-to-Consumer) virtual health platform, seamlessly integrating with pharmaceutical, telehealth, and diagnostic providers. The platform’s mission revolves around empowering companies to offer their customers convenient access to prescription medications and virtual healthcare services. This, in turn, elevates the quality of healthcare and overall customer satisfaction.
Our primary role in this endeavor involved collaborating on the creation of a robust and user-friendly white-label platform. We built it to be uniquely tailored to meet the specific requirements of clients within the healthcare industry and their discerning customer base. The bulk of our work centered on constructing a comprehensive product catalog equipped with user-friendly search and filter options, a seamless checkout process, secure payment, and precise order tracking features, all aimed at enhancing the customer experience.
Our process was largely influenced by the data privacy and accessibility challenges, which is why we chose the development strategies that will allow us to navigate and overcome these complexities:
The integration of various digital health tools and the rapid adoption of telemedicine in the e-commerce healthcare sector has introduced significant data privacy challenges. Safeguarding the confidentiality of patient records has become increasingly complex, and our job was to strike the right balance between convenience and adhering to the intricate web of rules and regulations.
Recognizing the gravity of this issue, our project began with an in-depth examination of market requirements and regulatory frameworks. This meticulous research allowed us to prioritize absolute compliance, serving as the cornerstone of our development approach and choice of technology stack.
Our main goal was to build a platform that would protect delicate user information from the ever-evolving landscape of cyber threats. To construct the eCommerce healthcare platform that will secure the privacy of patient information, our team took the necessary steps to ensure full compliance with the European Union's GDPR and the U.S.'s HIPAA regulations.
Whenever we develop digital telemedicine solutions, we strive to build accessible digital tools that cater to individuals facing disabilities or impairments, ensuring they can effortlessly engage with telehealth products despite their limitations.
In the earliest days, we lined up the primary web accessibility standards to promote inclusivity. This involved aligning our solution with legislative frameworks like the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), the European Accessibility Act, and the UK's Equality Act.
We also took into account the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), and initiatives like the Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI), with a particular focus on their prominent product, the Accessible Rich Internet Applications (ARIA) standard.
Given the unique challenges and specific product needs, we carefully selected the following set of tools to build a resilient and secure system:
We decided to build the entire system on AWS cloud infrastructure due to its cost-effectiveness and flexibility, enabling seamless scalability to meet platform requirements.
Regarding Kubernetes, the system helped us to streamline the deployment, scaling, and management. We appreciate that it supports the deployment of applications in a highly available and fault-tolerant manner. It also optimizes the U.S.e of underlying resources, allowing us to run applications more efficiently.
Backend development follows a microservices architecture, employing AWS services alongside Kafka, chosen for real-time, high-throughput data streaming. It enables efficient and instantaneous data transfer between different parts of the system, essential for eCommerce platforms that deal with vast amounts of data. Kafka can also be used to create comprehensive audit trails and logs, crucial for maintaining compliance with healthcare regulations.
But more importantly, we employed OpenSearch to guarantee that the platform will effectively handle large amounts of data. It provides advanced search capabilities, which are critical for healthcare ecommerce platforms where users need to search and retrieve relevant information quickly. The key selling point was that it supports fuzzy searches and considers typos and possible spelling variations when retrieving results.
In the frontend, Next.js is utilized with module federation, which enables parallel development and independent deployments.
Allowing multiple teams or developers to work independently on various components of the e-commerce platform accelerates development, enhances collaboration, and reduces potential bottlenecks. Furthermore, with the option to deploy different application parts separately, we had an easier time managing updates, rollbacks, and changes to specific components without disrupting the entire platform. This modularity is especially useful for handling the healthcare industry dynamics, where regulations, features, and services may need to be updated or added without causing downtime or disruptions to the platform.
These technologies also allowed us to build a solid foundation that offers scalability and high-performance capabilities. The final result was a responsive user experience and fast, intuitive access to information and products.
BigCommerce centralized dashboards enable easy management of eCommerce experiences. It is a user-friendly platform characterized by mobile accessibility. It also provides robust security features and allows for the integration of secure payment gateways, helping healthcare businesses maintain compliance with industry standards.
BigCommerce is also widely praised for its ease of integration with third-party services and systems, like electronic health records (EHR) systems, product and inventory management, shipping and order tracking, and more.
We integrated Sanity CMS primarily for dynamic content, but the decision was influenced mainly by its impressive range of features.
The platform's flexibility, support for real-time collaboration, robust content versioning, rich media handling, integrations, content localization support, and stringent security measures collectively made it the clear and compelling choice for building the healthcare e-commerce platform. These features perfectly align with the intricate demands of managing dynamic and diverse content within the healthcare industry.
We used CyberSource for secure payment processing. It prioritizes security and compliance, prevents fraud, offers support for multiple currencies, and is an efficient mobile payment solution that allows users to access our e-commerce platform from their mobile devices.
Furthermore, CyberSource's rich suite of tools and features plays a pivotal role in enhancing the checkout experience, effectively reducing friction and ultimately leading to heightened customer satisfaction.
Inviggo was part of a larger team that worked on developing a comprehensive eCommerce platform for people seeking healthcare solutions. On our end, we helped build the following features:
We know strong online presence can make or break a healthcare provider, since most people today conduct online research before making a final decision.
A well-designed product catalog is the backbone of an eCommerce healthcare platform: it influences user experience, sales, and the overall platform's success. It serves as the foundation for providing people with the information and options they need to make informed choices about their medical purchases.
We helped build search and filter options that enable users to effectively browse the platform’s online catalog and quickly find the products they need. This not only enhances user satisfaction but also contributes to increased sales and a better overall user experience.
We built a dependable user and account management system to ensure a secure, efficient, and personalized experience. Some of the main components and features we implemented to achieve this include:
We incorporated intelligent algorithms to ensure the platform offers users more personalized and convenient care. The platform now includes a symptom recognition system that allows users to input their symptoms through user-friendly interfaces. In return, the platform lays out the most relevant over-the-counter products or articles they can refer to for more information.
To facilitate efficient transactions, we build a secure and accessible cart and checkout process. The intuitive interface enables users to easily add, remove, or update quantities of items in their cart. At the checkout, we established a secure user authentication process to protect user accounts and personal information. The entire system is integrated with a secure payment gateway to handle transactions securely.
To develop an order tracking feature on an eCommerce website, we integrated different components to provide users with real-time updates on the status and location of their orders.
The resulting product offers a seamless and user-friendly shopping experience, making product selection and ordering effortless. The innovative symptom-based recommendation system will empower users to discover products aligned with their specific health needs. The system is built to scale and accommodate increasing user traffic, potentially expanding through partnerships with healthcare professionals and companies.
The final product meets the demands of the ever-evolving healthcare industry and empowers users, healthcare providers, and companies alike. We understand integrating eCommerce into healthcare is more than a technological advancement; it is a paradigm shift that aligns with the growing digital landscape and the changing expectations of healthcare consumers.
As we navigate this transformative era, our commitment to innovation, compliance, and user-centric solutions remains steadfast, driving positive change in the intersection of healthcare and eCommerce.
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