The study of the practical aspects of the functioning of mobile applications of pharmacy chains in Ukraine

In the context of active digitalization of the pharmaceutical market and the growth of the share of sales through mobile channels, a detailed analysis of the practical aspects of the functioning of mobile applications of pharmacy chains is critically important for ensuring their competitiveness and customer retention. Aim. To study the practical aspects of the functioning of mobile applications of pharmacy chains in Ukraine. Materials and methods. To achieve this goal, the content analysis, desk research methods, logical generalization of results and the graphical method were used. The study analyzed user reviews from Google Play and App Store platforms, as well as review aggregator sites. The data was collected using a web search for queries. In total, more than 1,650 reviews were reviewed for five pharmacy chains. The methodology included the qualitative analysis of complaints about the user experience, functionality, registration, search and performance, considering the frequency of mentions of problems. Results and discussion. Based on the analysis of more than 1,650 user reviews, it has been found that low ratings of pharmacy chain apps in Ukraine are mainly associated with three groups of problems, such as technical problems (crashes, low performance), inconvenient interface (UX/UI), and the unsatisfactory overall user experience. The key errors that are often the subject of user complaints have been identified. They are: problems with registration and authorization (users often reported difficulties and failures when creating an account or logging in, often related to sending confirmation codes or linking to loyalty cards); an inconvenient home page and navigation (the home screen often lacks key functional elements or its structure is confusing, which makes it difficult for users to quickly find the necessary sections or promotions); errors in purchase scenarios (a significant number of complaints focus on difficulties in the final stages of the order, such as the inability to select the delivery/pick-up method, errors when applying discounts or bonus points, as well as payment failures); geolocation problems (inaccurate or slow determination of the user’s location, as well as incorrect display of availability and stocks in the pharmacy directly lead to frustration and order cancellation); search shortcomings (the search function often lacks flexibility and accuracy (e.g., poor handling of typos, inability to search by active ingredient, or inability to return relevant results), which makes it difficult to find specific medicines); the illogical catalog structure and filtering (users noted that the organization of product categories was often misunderstood, and the filtering options were insufficient or did not work correctly); problems on the product page; poor performance. Conclusions. Low ratings of pharmacy chain apps in Ukraine are due to technical problems (crashes, slowness), inconvenient UX (registration, search, navigation) and the lack of key functions (data storage, filters). This leads to the loss of customers since 67 % of e-commerce sales occur through mobile channels. Recommendations on mobile applications of pharmacy chains in Ukraine have been developed; it helps to increase the rating of apps and the patients’ satisfaction of pharmacy chains.