Nine Twenty caught up with Karim Nassar Director of Simple Online Pharmacy. Simple Online Pharmacy is a Registered UK Online Pharmacy. We have been online since 2012, and always aim to make your online pharmacy experience as simple as possible. Our online doctor service offers treatments for a range of conditions, such as hair loss, weight loss and more. You do not require a prescription, as our free online consultation allows us to assess suitability, before our doctor generates a prescription free of charge. This is then passed to the pharmacy team, who prepare and post your medication.
Hi Karim! Can you tell us a little about your background, and how you came up with the idea of Simple Online Pharmacy?
I’m a qualified pharmacist, who’s always enjoyed building basic websites. My first was for our university basketball team in the internet’s early days in 2001. It should probably be noted, that my skills haven’t advanced too much since then!
The idea for Simple Online Pharmacy came from a local pharmacy site I’d built. I noticed locally, there was demand to engage with health services online, to make life easier for both the patient and pharmacy. Basic form filling, instead of being completed in the pharmacy, could easily be done in the comfort of your own home 24/7.
I partnered with my business partner, Addy, and we extended this idea to offering more health services across the UK via Simple Online Pharmacy. In addition, we offer basic over the counter medicines for purchase. As a result, we’re aiming to provide an exact replica of all the benefits of a community pharmacy, online.
What does your role in the business entail?
While I stay involved in a little of everything, my mains roles are oversight of product development and digital marketing. SEO became my passion during the early days of the business, and this is really how we got traction to compete with the largest online pharmacies, and become one of the leading online pharmacies.
What's your favourite thing about your job?
While I’ve taken a step away recently, my favourite thing is still just to bunker down for a few days and analyse the data from our digital marketing activity.
I spent 6 years in Australia where we also launched an online health service, but I often worked in isolation from the majority of the team here in the UK. It’s definitely been nice to now be back in a more sociable role in our offices and warehouse!
You are currently recruiting, what areas are you looking to build?
Our recruitment drive is across all the main areas of the business. Our technology team is looking to keep pace with the ever-changing world of telehealth, and division of teams to focus on different areas is a definite priority.
With new services and products, getting the word out is of course critical. Therefore, our digital marketing team has also seen rapid growth recently and will continue to seek out talented individuals in this area.
As we own pharmacies which also fulfil the orders that come in via our site, trained pharmacy staff are also critical in making sure our operation runs smoothly behind the scenes.
What can potential employees expect in these roles?
I think incoming employees can expect the challenge and excitement of a scaling business, coupled with the knowledge that what they’re doing has a real impact on people’s lives.
Making digital healthcare easily accessible for people across the globe is our mission, and we hope that incoming employees will be passionate about this. We want the people we work with to be invested in what we’re looking to achieve, and a company share scheme is being launched so everyone can feel part of our growth as a company.
Can you tell us a little about what long term career, successful applicants can work towards?
There are numerous senior roles available within the business, and with our growth plans, coupled with an ever-expanding digital health market, we expect there will be numerous opportunities within the business for a successful applicant.
Our permanent technology team is made up of just 2 developers, with 3 long term contractors. All have been great in helping us get this far.
What’s your favourite thing about the industry?
How quickly it’s moving. The pandemic has obviously vastly accelerated many online industries, and telehealth has been no different. It’s great to see widespread adoption of digital healthcare. Hopefully being part of making digital health services become not just a convenient option, but also an option which can replicate and even enhance some of the benefits of face-to-face services.
If you are interested in Simple Online Pharmacy we would love to hear from you. Apply now via the links below, or get in touch with Nine Twenty Technology for a confidential chat.
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