China Jo-Jo online sales soar

China Jo-Jo Drugstores says its online sales are skyrocketing and now account for nearly one in every five RMB of its turnover.

The Nasdaq listed pharmacy says online sales soared 90 per cent year on year, with its own brand pharmacy online pharmacy sales doubling. Offline sales in traditional pharmacies grew 20 per cent in the year to March 31.

China Jo-Jo says its old US$14 million of products online, representing 18 per cent of its total sales. In the 2014 year online accounted for about 11 per cent of sales.

The future looks even brighter for the company given the recent relaxation of regulations in China relating to the sale of prescription drugs over the internet.

“Since 2013, China Jo-Jo’s management team has been directing its focus towards building and expanding its online pharmacy business in China, with ultimate goals to support long term organic growth, improve profit margin and enhance shareholders’ return,” the company said in a statement.

“The preliminary result from our online pharmacy division, which exceeds the company’s internal projection of $13 million, reflected our balanced strategy of collaboration with third-party B2C e-commerce partners, such as Taobao, JD.com and Amazon.com, while building our own online pharmacy brand. During the fiscal year 2015, our business was also positively impacted by new initiatives, such as close cooperation with certain large commercial insurance companies in China, partnership with Shanghai Jianbao Technology, a leader in China’s Pharmacy Benefit Management (PBM) sector, as well as the launching of Alipay service, China’s dominant mobile payment system, to our customers.”

China Jo-Jo expects the growth in its online pharmacy division will continue in the current fiscal year and beyond.

China Jo-Jo Drugstores has 59 retail pharmacies in Hangzhou and a wholesale arm which supplies its own stores and rival retailers.

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