Drugstore.com may look like a pure-play online retailer, but its 3-year-old multi-channel strategy is paying off. The number of online orders that customers pick up at partner Rite-Aid stores has been growing as much as 20% quarter to quarter for the last year, President Kal Raman tells Internet Retailer. “Our partnership with Rite-Aid has been phenomenally helpful,” Raman says. Drugstore entered into a 10-year agreement with Rite-Aid in June 1999.
Today, 35% of Drugstore.com’s pharmacy orders get picked up at one of 3,600 Rite-Aid stores in the U.S. Such sales amount to $47 million a year, Raman says. The amount is the proverbial drop in the bucket to Rite-Aid, which has sales of about $15 billion a year. Nonetheless, Drugstore, which has annual sales of nearly $200 million, is enthusiastic about the future of the arrangement. “The opportunity is unlimited,” Raman says.
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