One of the largest e-commerce stores in India — Blipkart — wants to launch an e-pharmacy section. What should be their strategy to enter the market?

Clarification : Define E-Pharmacy - Diagnostics Services ( Tests) or Medicines or both

Why launch ?
- New customers
-Additional revenue [ increase LTV of existing customers]
-Profitability 
-Any other reasons

-Why do a section and not a new app?

What is the objective : Launch in 3 months and profitable in 18 months. But 
- What revnue should we hit?
-New customers added?
-Existing customer Bill Penetration? 
-Bottomline and customer satisfaction guardrails

Now to launch we should cover aspects of - Customer, Platform, Logistics and Competition/Substitute 

Customer 
- Trigger to buy - Instant or Chronic Needs - this helps understand the frequency of buy and avg ticket size
- Where do they buy from today and what factors influence this choice : Hospital pharmacy, Nearby Pharmacy or Online - is it time,price or brands?
-Customers searching for meds - which meds, customer cohort by geo, atv, frequency of buying , new or old
- KPIs : MAUs, DAUs, Repeats, Cart Abandon, Customer Ratings

Platform 
- How to ensure discovery on platform 
- Which all medicines, which all brands and what all price points are core to our customer ?
- How to assist in making a selection [ like we do at a Pharmacy shop] Will we need a prescription? Will I need an on chat/call pharmacist?
- Will I need to make a detailed PDP?
- Additional expense in developing category awareness and trials
- KPI : Vendor Ratings, Margins, Dump, Expiry ,Return , Impressions, CTR, Views, Sales , Discounting

Ops and Logistics 
-Changes to supply chain and delivery fleet 
-Different or same Warehouse and Fleet? Time to delivery, Time to pack, handling -cold or not
-Who will read the prescription and pack - staff or a pharmacist. Or do we need 2 individuals?
-ORDER PER HOUR metrics will change how?
-Supply chain costs will change how - Do I need smaller vehicles to be efficient basis time to delivery?

Competitor or Substitute and Ecosystem 
- Regulations I have to follow in storage, prescription handling and delivery?
-What model does the competitor have - Assortment, Pricing, Returns, Delivery
-Can I do tie-ups with Hospitals and Pharmacy?
-Are certain medicines regulated and how?
-Markets where we should start - where will this model work for us and customer willingness to try 

We should develop a strategy basis the above questions.