Local Pharmacies Inundated With Online Demand As Kiwis Prepare To Combat Coronavirus

Storbie, the website platform used by hundreds of New Zealand’s community pharmacies, has reported enormous surges in online activity related to Coronavirus preparedness at community pharmacies over the last month.

In the last twenty-eight days Storbie has seen huge spikes in online searches at community pharmacies, with nearly 14,000 searches for 'face mask', 300 times the volume of searches reported in the same period 2019.

New Zealanders have been stocking up on face masks and hand sanitiser with thousands of searches for these items and sales of these products soaring both online and in store.

From zero searches reported for the same period in 2019, searches for hand sanitiser shot up dramatically to more than 8,000 in just the last 28 days.

We expect to see more Kiwis searching for availability of these items over the coming weeks if further cases of Covid-19 are reported here.

Some pharmacies have reported customers buying boxes of face masks and are sending them back to family and friends in Asia, where there is an acute shortage.

The high demand has led to a shortage of respirators, face masks and hand sanitiser nationwide, with big brands sold-out online and in many stores.

Storbie is endorsed by the Pharmacy Guild of New Zealand as an e-commerce provider and is recognised as a leading online solution for New Zealand pharmacies.

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