Philippines
https://southstardrug.com.ph/
Business Profile
Founded in 1937 by Tomas Dy-Makao, Southstar Drug began as a small outlet for Chinese herbal medicines and has evolved into one of the leading pharmaceutical retailers in the Philippines. With over 500 stores nationwide, it ranks among the top 500 corporations in the country. In response to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, Southstar Drug accelerated its digital transformation to ensure continued reliable and convenient access to medical supplies for its customers across the Philippines.
- Brand: Southstar Drug
- Industry: Healthcare
- Platform: Advanced Shopify
- Location: Philippines
- Founded: 1937
- Employees: 1,001-5,000
- Logistics Partners: Fewer than 10
- Integration Details: Not Applicable
In 2020, Southstar Drug’s long-established footprint in the Philippines was in a perilous position due to lockdowns imposed by the Filipino government in the wake of the COVID-19 outbreak in the country. Business came to a standstill, but Southstar’s customers still needed access to their medicines and vitamins. COVID-19 protection supplies were also in demand.
These challenges saw the old brand pivot towards digital with the launch of a website to serve customers across the Philippines. With the website going live came the question of how to ensure customers can get their orders on time and follow the journey of their packages conveniently. The company also needed a reliable order tracking solution before availing more products online.
Having forayed into the digital world a few years before this, in 2018, with the launch of its website, Southstar Drug wanted to maximize the potential of this channel at this time. The brand pondered how to ensure customers can place their orders on time and track the deliveries conveniently. The company also needed to have a reliable order tracking solution before making more products available online.
The challenge: How to transfer brand excellence online
As a trusted name in pharmaceuticals, Southstar Drug faced the significant challenge of migrating its renowned customer service and product quality online amidst the pandemic. The primary issue was ensuring that customers accustomed to in-person shopping could easily transition to online ordering, with an emphasis on overcoming logistical hurdles to maintain timely and reliable delivery.
The Southstar Drug team resolved to look for an order tracking solution that would empower customers to get updates on their orders. Having an order tracking app was also viewed as the best approach to making the company’s website a magnet for Filipinos looking to buy medicines online.
The search: Introspecting to find the best solution to help customers track their orders
To identify how best to help their customers track their medicine orders, Southstar Drug allocated time to searching for the most robust order tracking solution. After analyzing what their new digital channel lacked and considering customer feedback, the company set out to look for a tracking solution that had to have the following features and capabilities built into it.
- Support For Courier Partners: Southstar Drug wanted an order tracking solution that supported its current logistics service providers, including GoGo Express and LBC Express.
- Customizable Tracking Page: The order tracking solution of choice should allow Southstar Drug to customize the design on the tracking page to align with its overall brand. Furthermore, it had to have a feature that enabled Southstar Drug to hide the courier name and logo, thus making Southstar Drug’s tracking page the only source for tracking updates.
- Manual Delivery Status Updates: The order tracking app also needed to support manual delivery status updates to align with Southstar Drug’s in-store pick-up option.
The solution: Optimizing delivery time and tracking with CWILL Order Tracking
Southstar Drug’s team embarked on a thorough 10-day solution researching and testing process in August 2020 that eventually led it to partner with CWILL Order Tracking. The app stood out from the rest because it met the above criteria for an ideal order monitoring solution that the company was looking for.
It was also a cost-effective solution that enabled Southstar Drug to keep its order tracking costs under control, even with an increase in order volume. The tiered pricing plan based on volume rather than per order meant that the drug store could easily upgrade its plan when necessary to meet the need to track more orders as more customers embraced buying online.
CWILL’s tracking app was also easy to implement on the brand’s Shopify store without requiring a specialized team. This low-code solution could be deployed seamlessly and help customers track their orders almost immediately.
The results: Increased customer engagements boost revenue
“Our delivery time for orders within the Metro Manila and Rizal areas was a day to three days and up to 14 days in provincial areas. CWILL Order Tracking helped us turn this around, and the average is now just 1.6 days for all online orders,” explained Vien Leonoras, eCommerce Manager at Southstar Drug.
Jervee Del Rosa, Digital Marketing Specialist at Southstar Drug, chimed in, “Through our website, we wanted to boost customer engagements. CWILL Order Tracking’s branded tracking page helped us achieve this, as our customers now look up their orders at least 5.4 times throughout the delivery cycle. Our ROI from tracking is at a satisfactory 102%.”
Southstar Drug has experienced the following positive changes since implementing CWILL Order Tracking.
- 102% Tracking ROI: The customizable tracking page with product recommendations has helped boost sales, enabling Southstar to achieve a 102% ROI in tracking.
- 5.4 Average Order Lookups: The branded tracking page with a hidden courier name and logo has made Southstar Drug the only option for tracking shipments. Customers now visit the page an average of 5.4 times per order.
- 1.6 Days Average Delivery Time: The shipping time has improved eightfold, with the average lead time down to 1.6 days from an excruciatingly long two weeks previously. Customers can now get their pharmaceutical supplies faster.
The future: Providing seamless omnichannel shopping experience with CWILL
“The power of digital is evident, and we would like to enable our customers to experience omnichannel shopping with optimum delivery times. CWILL Order Tracking is our long-term partner as we actualize this ambition,” shared Vien Leonoras, eCommerce Manager at Southstar Drug.
Southstar Drug wants to be the premier drug store chain in the Philippines, offering all its customers a seamless omnichannel shopping experience. With CWILL Order Tracking integrated with its business systems, Southstar Drug can track transit time by courier and generate detailed shipment reports to help optimize delivery times and enhance the customer post-purchase experience.
