Five tips to buy in an online pharmacy with peace of mind
Despite being one of the most traditional businesses, the truth is that the pharmacy has also made the leap to the network. For you to make your purchases with peace of mind, it is convenient to have some clear ideas, as with almost any purchase on the network.
The rise of electronic commerce is something unstoppable. Today it is possible to buy practically everything we need online. However, there have been certain sectors that, due to their regulation, have taken a little longer to join this trend. One of them is the world of pharmacies. The first step these businesses took was to start selling parapharmacy products, although today it is even possible to buy medicines without a prescription or over the counter online.
However, it is essential to take some precautions when it comes to finding the best drugstore products. Some precautions that are not far from those of any online purchase but that, due to the nature of the products that we are commenting on, we must always take into account. So that you don’t get lost and nobody deceives you, these are our recommendations.
1. Check the origin and identification of the website
Currently, there are two main groups of pages dedicated to the sale of medical devices through the network. We have already commented on these groups previously: parapharmacies and pharmacies. The main difference is in the need for express authorization for pharmacies, which, in turn, allows them to sell medicines and other products that are not available on parapharmacy pages.
So, in the event that we are buying on an online pharmacy page, it must indicate on the web the information related to the owner of the pharmacy, with its authorization number, name, address or telephone number. All this information, except for the license, must also be present in the case of parapharmacies, in accordance with the corresponding legislation for the sale of products on the network. If this information does not appear on the web, then we can already begin to distrust it.
2. Checking the content of the page
The fact of including the data that we have mentioned before already gives some peace of mind, but nobody prevents a malicious businessman from taking the data of any pharmacy in the network and including them on his page. That is why it is also advisable to take a look at the content of the page. Many false pages destined for the Spanish market have been created based on automatic translations, so that the texts sound strange when reading them. This is one of the details that tells us that the page is not trusted.
Another detail to consider are the graphics and images present on the page, which on a real website will always have good quality and will even come from the images that the pharmacy or the company has taken of the products. The presence of photos with products labeled in another language, in very poor quality or with other strange details, should also make us suspicious.
3. Beware of the sale of unauthorized products and exaggerated offers
As we mentioned at the beginning, currently only those products called parapharmacy can be marketed through the network, as well as those from a pharmacy without a prescription or over the counter, on those pages authorized to do so because they are owned by a pharmacy. So, if on a page we find medicines whose sale requires a prescription, this is usually something that should make us suspicious.
In parallel, it is also advisable not to trust too much those pages whose prices are well below what is normal for the product we want to buy. It is another of the techniques that fraudulent pages often use to attract orders, enter money through purchases and later close the page without delivering the purchased products.
4. Check payment options
One of the main problems when shopping online has to do with payment options. It is true that if you have taken the proper precautions and have followed our steps so far then you should not have to worry about anything else. But the truth is that the security of our card data also deserves a little interest.
Therefore, it is convenient to distrust those sites that only offer us as an option for payment by credit card. The usual thing today is that companies offer us payment options such as Paypal, bank transfer or even cash on delivery, in addition to card payment. Options that can be a safer alternative to giving a credit card. In such cases, payment through PayPal or cash on delivery is the most recommended, since in case of not receiving the order or something different we can always claim or not pay, in case of using cash on delivery.
5. Details that give us security
As a last piece of advice, there are a series of details of the page that we are using that give us extra peace of mind. One of these details is that the website is attached to Confianza Online or some similar platform. These platforms certify the security of the pages and can even act as mediators in the event of a conflict between the parties.
Another interesting detail is to search the network for opinions about the website that we are analyzing. Many pages are dedicated to collecting user opinions and warnings regarding fraudulent pages, which makes it easier to detect one of them if necessary. Regarding licensed pharmacies and an open physical office, we also have at our disposal the opinions of Google, which can help us to distinguish a really open and operational pharmacy from a false one, which has been created to cover a false page.
As a final piece of advice, if you have any doubts, it is best to refrain from sending any order or even from registering on the page, looking for another page that gives greater confidence and peace of mind when making purchases.
