Karstadt Enters Online Pharmacy Market

KarstadtQuelle, Germany's largest department store operator this week unveiled an Internet pharmacy where customers can order around 200,000 medicines with and without prescriptionas. The company said customers would save up to 30 percent on prescription-free medicines by buying online. Karstadt's greatest rival in Germany is the country's largest mail-order company Otto Versand, which also runs an online pharmacy. "Customers can buy medicines more easily via the Internet," said Otto spokesman Thomas Voigt. "The pharmaceutical sector has been booming for years." Industry experts are expecting Internet pharmacies to take off and are forecasting they will account for 8 to 10 percent of total market turnover within the next three years. Today, Internet pharmacies don't account for even one percent of the German pharmaceutical market.