THE WALL STREET JOURNAL.

Dremari

Amazon Expands Same$-$Day Pharmacy Delivery to New York, Los Angeles

Mar $26,2024.$ Sebastian Herrera

Amazon.com is adding New York and Los Angeles

to the cities where it offers same$-$day pharmacy

delivery, in the company's latest effort to expand its

reach in health and medicine.

The tech giant says same$-$day delivery of

prescriptions for common conditions such as diabetes

and high blood pressure is available in two of the

most populous U$.$S$.$ metros, with plans to offer the

service in more than a dozen cities by the end of the

year. Amazon also offers same$-$day pharmacy

delivery in Indianapolis, Miami, Phoenix, Seattle and

Austin, Texas.

The expansion is the next step in Amazon's ambitions

to make prescription delivery as quick and

convenient as its retail orders. Customers have been

slow to move to online services from traditional

prescription pickup at in$-$store pharmacies, and the

company faces competition and other barriers as it

seeks to build out its healthcare goals. Amazon has

added to its same$-$day delivery options and sees quick

delivery of prescriptions as a way to increase patient

interest, according to executives.

While uptake for online pharmacies has lagged

behind other retail areas, more options are becoming

available, industry analysts note. Almost $90\%$ of U$.$S$.$

adults purchased prescriptions at in$-$store pharmacies,

though roughly $30\%$ said they tried online

pharmacies, according to a $2023$ survey of $20,000$

consumers by healthcare market research firm M$3$ MI$.$

People aged $18$ years old to $34$ showed the greatest

interest in online pharmacy purchases.

Amazon executives and industry analysts say a mix

of reasons exist for sluggish adoption. Awareness of

services, available medications and delivery speed

have made it challenging to get customers to try such

services. Some people are also slow to switch away

from longtime pharmacies they have used. John Love,

vice president of Amazon Pharmacy, said the

company wants to make it simpler to order common

prescriptions online than it is to pick up in stores.

Amazon has sold prescription medicines online since

The company has worked to speed up overall

deliveries and opened warehouses closer to

customers while also trying out medical deliveries via

drone in one Texas city. Some of the resources being

used for drone delivery and other quick shipments are

being deployed for same$-$day prescription delivery,

Love said.

"I don't think patients often know they can get

Amazon Pharmacy $-$ it's an awareness gap," he said.

"You have little kids and they get sick and you want

meds right away, so speed has been a barrier. That's

why we're investing in speed."

Amazon faces several challenges as it builds out its

healthcare business. Companies such as CVS have

also worked to offer quick pharmacy delivery. CVS

says it offers same$-$day delivery from more than

$9,000$ of its pharmacies nationwide. Walmart, a fierce

Amazon rival, is already one of the biggest retail

pharmacy entities in the U$.$S$.$

Amazon has had several healthcare iterations but at

times struggled to gain traction. The company earlier

this year laid off hundreds of employees across

Amazon Pharmacy and One Medical, the primary

care service it acquired in $2023.$ Love said the

restructuring is part of "investing in the long term"

and said the company's$-$healthcare business is still in

its early days.

Amazon has made strides in other ways. This year, its

pharmacy business started to handle some of the

home delivery of weight$-$loss medication Zepbound

and other Eli Lilly drugs. In late $2023,$ it started to

offer its millions of Amazon Prime subscribers a

low$-$cost annual membership to One Medical, though

some analysts have said Amazon needs a lot more

providers to make an impact.

Customers who are digitally savvy and have tried out

other online services such as Amazon Clinic, a

marketplace of virtual care providers for common

conditions, can be the earliest adopters of pharmacy

delivery, Amazon says. The company says that from

those who test out the service, many like it enough to

return.

Question $1$ : On March $26,2024,$ Wall Street Journal news revealed Amazon's decision to expand its same$-$day pharmacy delivery Prior to this decision, Amazon consults your opinions about the information that should be considered regarding whether or not to engage in this delivery. Using the three$-$way classification model as introduced in our course, provide Amazon with two pieces of information that contributes to the success of this decision: $($a$)$ an information that is financial, internal, and ex ante; and $($b$)$ an information that is non$-$financial, external, and ex post. Explain your suggested information. Explain your suggested information.