SimpleDose
Medication, made simple
SimpleDose is a startup based in Brisbane, Australia. The company has modernized the pharmacy industry in the country with a specially developed solution for sorting and dispensing medications, all through WooCommerce.
The concept of SimpleDose is as simple as it is brilliant. Instead of customers visiting traditional pharmacies, waiting in line, and receiving all prescribed medications, they have simplified this process by delivering pre-dosed medications directly to the customer’s door. This is achieved through a specially developed subscription solution on the WooCommerce platform.
The company was established as recently as 2021 by pharmacist Mark Dunston (left) and eCommerce specialist Andrew Hay (right). The founders knew early on that they needed a robust platform and a unique pricing model to make this project successful.
– We needed an e-commerce solution that could handle our concept. A solution that could be adapted to our complex pricing matrix, says Hay.
Getting Help from Automattic to Find a WooCommerce Partner
An acquaintance of Hay, who previously worked with Magento, recommended reaching out to Automattic to see if they had suggestions on how to solve this.
Ken Lam, who works as a leader on the WooCommerce Success Team at Automattic, confirms the story:
– SimpleDose came to us and asked who we could recommend to build a digital pharmacy online, he says.
Automattic is the team behind wordpress.com and WooCommerce. They help customers choose and achieve success with WooCommerce.
– Our job in this case was to find a recommended partner for the needs SimpleDose had.
Automattic worked with SimpleDose to understand all requirements and needs, including the need to comply with strict laws and regulations, as well as building a complex pricing matrix and recommendation engine.
– We then compiled a list of three strong providers that we believed were perfect for the task, says Lam.
Opting for a Norwegian WooCommerce Expert
SimpleDose chose Maksimer from this list to develop their WooCommerce solution.
Maksimer is a company that delivers e-commerce solutions on the WooCommerce platform to clients worldwide. They have offices in Norway, Sweden, England, and Serbia, with verified WooCommerce expert status.
– Maksimer’s experience and knowledge with backend integrations were what made them most interesting. The frontend in WooCommerce is so simple that practically anyone can do it with a bit of drag & drop. But it was the backend challenges that were difficult for us to solve, says CEO of SimpleDose, Andrew Hay.
The challenges Hay refers to were the possibilities of building support for dynamic pricing in the online store and exposing recommendations based on information customers entered.
– We cannot markup prescription medications for customers. Therefore, we had to find solutions that allow us to have dynamic prices based on how much they are shopping, additional products, and more.
– And what Maksimer has developed is truly beautifully solved, says Hay.
How the Solution Works
The solution Maksimer delivered was designed by Nenad Conic. He is the leader of Maksimer’s Serbian office and is very pleased to have been part of developing the solution for SimpleDose.
– This has been a unique project for us. It’s one of the first startup clients we have had, says Conic.
The entire online store is designed as a form wizard, making it very easy for customers to select the medicines they need and find relevant and recommended additional products.
SimpleDose now has all the information they need to execute a subscription for the customer. Customers can change, remove, and add products to their subscription at any time from their own page.
The solution is custom-built on the WooCommerce platform. What makes it unique is that the form accumulates the shopping cart based on the suggestions and information the customer enters. There is a complex pricing matrix in the WooCommerce store with over 3500 products considered based on who the customer is and the quantity of goods the customer needs.
Leveraging the Possibilities in WooCommerce
– The whole story here is that we have developed everything specifically for SimpleDose, says Nenad Conic at Maksimer. The form is built on Gravityform, which is a plugin in WooCommerce.
The difference between a traditional online store and SimpleDose’s solution is that customers here do not shop for products based on images and information, as in other online stores.
– Here, the customer knows what they want and fills out a form that has the ability to suggest additional products along the way, based on the information the customer enters, says Conic.
– It’s a brilliant result. There has been a lot of work to get there. A good and close collaboration. Maksimer has been very accommodating and helpful from day one. Maksimer has put in place a very nice architectural solution, concludes Hay at SimpleDose.
Jostein Nyquist
Head of Our E-commerce Manager Team
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