Health. Pharmacies remain popular with the French, in the face of online sales.

The French still have the "reflex" of going to the pharmacy, despite Amazon's continued growth in Europe for the sale of non-prescription health products. The American delivery giant's vitality in this segment was confirmed in the first quarter of 2025 in France, marked by growth of 43% year-on-year, after +44% for the whole of 2024, according to figures from the health data analysis firm Iqvia.

"Three-quarters of the products sold by Amazon are new benchmarks on the European market, mainly in dermo-cosmetics, where margins are higher," Iqvia points out. This growth reflects more broadly the rise of e-commerce of over-the-counter health products in Europe, which "shows dynamic growth in all countries, but the market share remains limited compared to traditional channels," i.e., pharmacies, "particularly in France," this specialist cautions.

Disparities remain significant from one country to another. In Spain, the growth in online sales of over-the-counter products such as cough syrups, vitamins and dietary supplements, and hygiene and beauty products reached 25%. This is followed by Poland (18%), Italy (16%), and Germany (11%).

Marginal place in France

In France, the growth in online orders is more measured (+6%) but exceeds that of traditional pharmacies (+3.5%). In terms of market share, "online pharmacies represent roughly 2% of the total in France and 3% if you include Amazon, so it remains relatively small," says Paul Reynolds, an expert at Iqvia France.

Thanks to a strong territorial presence, France's approximately 22,000 pharmacies remain the primary point of sale. "Year after year, the reflex to seek advice from a pharmacy is confirmed. Even more so since Covid, where there has been a strengthening of the close bond between the French and their pharmacist," notes the specialist. This attachment to pharmacies reinforces the pharmaceutical monopoly - in France, only a pharmacy run by a pharmacist can sell medications - which the National Order of the profession wants to preserve in the face of the rise of e-commerce.

"We understand that today there is a search for ease of access," the organization's president, Carine Wolf-Thal, recently declared. But "because there is no harmless medication," "pharmacists are there precisely to prevent misuse and overconsumption."

Germany, European leader

Online sales are seen by the profession as "complementary," "especially in regions where there is no pharmacy nearby," but "above all, the pharmacist must have an online sales site registered with the Regional Health Agency (ARS). And under no circumstances can this be a prescription for medication," emphasizes Ms. Wolf-Thal.

Just as in Italy and Spain, distance selling activity remains limited to only those medicines that are not subject to mandatory prescription, i.e. those that are freely available at the pharmacy (also called OTC, short for "over the counter").

Only 838 French pharmacies are listed as having an online sales activity for prescription-only medications. Not included are those that choose to sell only parapharmacy products online and therefore do not require any special authorization.

English-speaking countries are adopting a more liberal approach: in Germany and the United Kingdom, for example, an online pharmacy can offer prescription medications for sale. This is also the case in other European countries such as the Netherlands, the Nordic countries, and Switzerland. Germany is the European country with the largest online sales market share (20%), ahead of Italy and Poland (8%), Belgium (6%), and Spain (5%), according to Iqvia.