The Impact of E-Commerce and Digital Marketing on Pharmaceutical Sales and Traditional Pharmacies in Jordan
A detailed dissertation-style article based on the study outline and results you provided (MSc Digital Transformation, University of Hull; due September 2025).
1) Why this topic matters in Jordan
Jordan’s pharmaceutical and pharmacy landscape has historically been built around brick-and-mortar community pharmacies as the primary access point for medicines and health products. Over the last few years, however, consumer expectations have shifted—people increasingly want convenience, price comparison, home delivery, and fast access to product information. This shift is happening globally and is especially visible after COVID-19 accelerated “digital-by-default” habits in healthcare and retail.
But Jordan is not simply following the global pattern. The country’s pharmaceutical market is shaped by a highly safety-driven regulatory environment, and that creates a unique tension: demand for digital services is rising, while licensed pharmacy operations remain constrained by rules that were designed for a pre-digital world. At the same time, gaps and “grey zones” allow some non-pharmacy e-commerce sellers to expand rapidly in categories adjacent to medicines (supplements, beauty, personal care), intensifying competitive pressure on traditional pharmacies.
This study examines that collision—growing digital demand vs. uneven regulation—and shows how it is affecting sales, marketing effectiveness, trust, and the future operating model of pharmacies in Jordan.
2) Regulatory and ethical context: safety vs. market fairness
A major pillar of this dissertation is that pharmacy digitization is not only a commercial shift—it’s also a patient safety and ethics challenge.
Counterfeit / falsified medicines risk
Online channels can increase the risk of substandard or falsified medicines entering the supply chain if governance is weak. The World Health Organization distinguishes falsified products as those deliberately misrepresenting identity/composition/source, and highlights the serious public health harm they can cause.
Jordan responded to safety concerns through stricter enforcement powers and penalties in its modern pharmaceutical legal framework. For example, legal updates discussed publicly in Jordan note strengthened sanctions (including significantly increased fines linked to the value of counterfeit products).
However, a consistent finding in global research is that online medicine sales often outpace regulators’ capacity, especially when sales cross borders or use social platforms.
Advertising controls and digital promotion governance
Jordan has also tightened the governance of drug promotion. In August 2024, Jordan’s Food and Drug Administration (JFDA) announced tighter controls on drug promotion, emphasizing patient safety and preventing misuse.
This reflects a core ethical trade-off explored in the dissertation: safeguarding patients from misleading claims while avoiding an environment where licensed, compliant pharmacies become disadvantaged versus less-controlled sellers.
Data privacy and consent
Health-related e-commerce naturally involves sensitive data (purchase history, symptoms implied by products, delivery addresses). Stronger privacy rules typically treat health data as “special category” information requiring strict conditions for processing (the dissertation uses GDPR as a benchmark conceptually).
In Jordan, the study argues that the absence of highly detailed, pharmacy-specific digital privacy governance increases ethical risk: misuse, leakage, or unclear consent practices—especially as platforms scale.
3) Research aim and objectives
The dissertation’s core aim is to evaluate how e-commerce and digital marketing affect performance and competitiveness across two groups:
- Pharmaceutical companies / e-commerce operators
- Traditional brick-and-mortar pharmacies in Jordan
It operationalizes this aim through five objectives:
- Assess how regulatory frameworks affect traditional pharmacy competitiveness
- Identify strategic adaptations for traditional pharmacies
- Explore legal/ethical/operational risks in online sales and promotion
- Evaluate how digital marketing shapes consumer trust and behavior
- Provide actionable recommendations for policy and industry to support safe transformation
4) Methodology (Mixed Methods)
This study used a mixed-methods design, combining:
- Quantitative surveys (Likert-scale and closed questions) administered to customers and pharmacy-related participants, analyzed statistically (SPSS).
- Qualitative semi-structured interviews with traditional pharmacy owners/managers, e-commerce platform representatives, and stakeholders tied to regulation/market governance.
Mixed methods strengthen credibility by triangulating numbers (what’s happening) with narratives (why it’s happening).
5) Quantitative findings: what the data shows
The quantitative sample consisted of 200 respondents, balanced between:
- Pharmacists: 50.5%
- E-commerce owners: 49.5%
5.1 Adoption is already mainstream—but uneven
- 55% reported adopting an e-commerce platform
- 45% had not adopted e-commerce
This indicates e-commerce is no longer niche in Jordan’s pharmacy-adjacent market. Yet nearly half remain offline, signaling structural barriers rather than lack of awareness.
5.2 Strong consensus: digital benefits the “company side” more than the “pharmacy side”
A striking 90% agreed that pharmaceutical companies benefit more from digital marketing and e-commerce than traditional pharmacies.
This is important because it reflects a market belief that digital tools are currently producing asymmetric gains—one side is positioned to scale digitally, the other side is constrained.
5.3 Strong consensus: demand will keep rising
Another 90% predicted that online pharmaceutical-related purchasing demand will rise over the next five years.
This aligns with global patterns (convenience, privacy, speed), and signals that resisting digital adaptation is likely to become financially painful.
5.4 Age of business matters (resistance increases with legacy)
A significant negative correlation was found between years of operation and e-commerce adoption (≈ -0.303). Interpreted practically: newer businesses are more likely to adopt digital models, while long-established pharmacies face operational inertia, risk aversion, and capability gaps.
5.5 Model significance: digital factors shape perceptions of market evolution
Regression results showed the model explains about 19.2% of the variance in how respondents perceive market evolution, and the overall model is statistically significant (p < .001). That is not “everything,” but it confirms that digital adoption and beliefs about digital demand meaningfully shape how stakeholders experience market change.
6) Qualitative findings: what stakeholders feel and experience
The interviews add depth and reveal “why the numbers look like that.”
Theme A: Digital marketing produces a winner/loser split
- Many traditional pharmacies described digital marketing impact as limited, negligible, or low ROI, citing weak targeting, lack of strategy, limited budgets, and low digital skills.
- E-commerce operators described digital marketing as the main engine of sales, especially through SEO, Google Ads, and social media campaigns.
This is not a contradiction—it suggests that digital marketing works, but only when paired with the right capabilities, budgets, conversion systems, and permissible operating model.
Theme B: Regulation is experienced as a structural barrier (especially for licensed pharmacies)
A repeated message: traditional pharmacies feel constrained by rules that limit selling and promoting medicines online under the pharmacy’s official identity, while e-commerce operators feel they can grow via product categories that face fewer restrictions.
This echoes a common global governance problem: when regulation is strict for compliant actors but less enforceable elsewhere, the market can drift toward informal or grey models. Research on e-pharmacy governance in lower- and middle-income contexts highlights this “regulation lag” challenge.
Theme C: Trust is fragile—and that’s a strategic opportunity
Traditional pharmacists repeatedly reported consumer skepticism: “Are products genuine?”
This matches WHO warnings that falsified medicines are a recognized global risk and that weak governance can erode trust.
E-commerce operators, in contrast, said trust is built through:
- reviews and testimonials,
- transparent delivery practices,
- predictable service quality.
A key insight: trust is not automatically “owned” by online platforms—licensed pharmacies can win trust digitally if the system allows them to signal authenticity, governance, and clinical oversight clearly.
Theme D: Loyalty is shifting in non-core categories first
Traditional pharmacies described losing share particularly in:
- supplements,
- beauty/personal care,
- non-essential health products.
That’s consistent with the idea that consumers move online first for categories with fewer legal constraints and more price competition, before shifting other behaviors later.
Theme E: Hybrid models are emerging as “legal innovation”
Some pharmacies reported experimenting with:
- WhatsApp ordering,
- product availability checks,
- in-store pickup,
- limited delivery workflows.
This is a practical adaptation: keep clinical activities anchored in-store while using digital tools to improve convenience within permitted boundaries.
7) Integrated interpretation: what is really happening
When you connect the quantitative and qualitative results, the story becomes clear:
- Demand is moving online and stakeholders expect it to continue.
- Digital marketing is highly effective for operators built for it (e-commerce-native), but traditional pharmacies often lack the capabilities and legal freedom to compete on equal terms.
- The market is developing a structural imbalance: compliant, licensed pharmacies face higher restrictions and compliance costs, while adjacent e-commerce sellers scale faster in less-regulated categories.
- This imbalance creates ethical risk: consumer exposure to misinformation, unclear data handling, and potential counterfeit pathways—exactly the concerns the dissertation emphasizes and that public-health institutions warn about.
8) Practical recommendations: a safe path to transformation
Based on the study’s findings, a sustainable direction requires action from three stakeholder groups.
8.1 Recommendations for policymakers and regulators
- Modernize pharmacy digitization rules: Create a clear, enforceable model that allows licensed pharmacies to participate digitally under strict conditions (verification, pharmacist supervision, traceability, delivery standards).
- Level the playing field: Align enforcement so compliant actors are not competitively punished while grey actors scale.
- Strengthen digital advertising governance with clarity and speed: If pre-approval is required, create efficient workflows and clear category guidance so legal pharmacies can communicate responsibly without excessive friction.
- Implement explicit health-data privacy standards for e-pharmacy: Build clear consent, storage, sharing, and breach-handling requirements aligned with international best practice principles (GDPR-like safeguards are a useful reference point).
- Public reporting + consumer education: Make it easy for citizens to report suspicious activity and verify official channels (JFDA already publishes public contact channels, which supports safer market governance).
8.2 Recommendations for traditional pharmacies
- Adopt hybrid service design: Use digital tools for convenience (availability, booking, pickup workflows) while keeping regulated dispensing compliant.
- Compete on trust, not price: Build “proof of authenticity” narratives—licensed pharmacist presence, sourcing transparency, patient counseling, quality assurance.
- Invest in conversion systems, not just ads: Many pharmacies experience “low ROI” because they run ads without strong landing pages, CRM follow-up, clear offers, or retention loops.
- Focus on differentiators e-commerce can’t easily replicate: medication review, consultation quality, continuity of care, and community health roles—aligned with global pharmacy good practice and patient safety principles.
8.3 Recommendations for e-commerce operators / pharmaceutical companies
- Over-invest in safety signaling: transparent sourcing, delivery controls, quality verification, complaint handling.
- Responsible marketing: avoid exaggerated claims, ensure disclaimers and evidence alignment, and operate within national promotion rule
- Privacy-by-design: treat health-related purchasing behavior as sensitive and limit collection, retention, and sharing.
9) Conclusion: the future is hybrid—if governance catches up
This dissertation concludes that e-commerce and digital marketing are already reshaping pharmaceutical purchasing behavior in Jordan and will continue to do so. The key risk is not “digital transformation itself,” but uneven transformation—where consumer demand accelerates faster than regulation, enforcement, and ethics frameworks.
The most realistic future model suggested by the data is hybrid:
- Traditional pharmacies evolve into stronger “health service hubs” (consultation, trust, prescriptions, continuity).
- E-commerce expands in categories where convenience and assortment matter.
- Regulators enable safe participation by licensed pharmacies, reducing grey-market drift and improving consumer protection.
Global evidence supports the urgency of governance modernization: when technology moves faster than regulation, patient safety and market fairness can degrade. BMJ Global Health
At the same time, public-health bodies stress the real harms of falsified medicines and the need for robust controls—especially as online channels expand