Barriers of medicinal products sales over the Internet in Poland

Abstract

The basic aim of presented article is the identification and the systematization of the inhibitory factors in development of virtual pharmaceutical market in Poland. The phenomenon of barriers of market development is the object of many publications, however the majority of the affirming was not supported by empirical investigations. The study presents the results of questionnaire survey taken on a group of 582 respondents making the medicine purchases via the Internet. Thanks to that, it was possible to identify empirically real barriers and their range, recognizable only theoretically so far. On the basis of the resources the e-pharmacy consumer profile has been created. In the next part of the article, the systematization of unfavorable factors regarding to pharmaceutical online market was undertaken. Additionally, the opinion of the importance of key factors will be created in future. 2013 © Curr. Issues Pharm. Med. Sci.