Vivian Luo, Director of Marketing, APAC, at Commerce, on Inside Blooms The Chemist's move to operate as one digital network, without losing the charm and independence of each store.
Just last week I’m pretty sure I broke my own online shopping record - 12 different items in seven days - all conveniently delivered within 24 hours of purchasing. And as it turns out, I’m not the only one setting records.
Online ordering, home delivery and Click and Collect options have now become standard expectations for shoppers and the spending statistics back it up. Last year, Australian consumers spent a record-breaking $82.6 billion online, representing around 24% of all retail spend, according to Australia Post’s annual eCommerce insights report1.
But for networks built on local ownership, going online can feel like a bit of a trade off. Centralising can cost stores some of the independence that makes them mainstays of their communities. On the flipside, a reluctance to automate and modernise can leave large businesses with a messy patchwork of systems.
Blooms The Chemist is one of Australia’s largest pharmacy networks and had reached its own inflection point, with customers increasingly wanting easier access to its products beyond traditional brick-and-mortar stores. But with more than 130 independently owned pharmacies, each with its own operations, inventory, and customers, the network needed a single online experience that did not force every store into the same operational model.
So Blooms set its sights on one platform that let every pharmacy keep running its own way, without losing the consistency that ties the network together or compromising on healthcare regulations. A standard online storefront couldn’t do that, so Blooms partnered with ecommerce platform BigCommerce and agency 33BONDI to build something bespoke.
One platform, 130 independent businesses
Each Blooms store runs its own way but now with the advantage of pulling from shared infrastructure, resulting in less admin and real-time inventory visibility across the network.
The platform also gave Blooms the ability to respond more quickly to changing customer and business needs, such as rolling out updates across the network, rather than store by store. This approach supports network-wide consistency while preserving the flexibility of each individual pharmacy to serve its own community.
Click and Collect, done properly
With the network connected, Blooms turned its attention to simplifying the customer’s online shopping experience. Behind the scenes, each store’s POS system now feeds directly into the online platform, so stock levels update the moment something is sold in-store.
In practice, that means a customer picking up a prescription refill on their lunch break can check stock at their nearest Blooms, order it online and collect it in-store. This is now all possible without the platform overselling stock that’s already gone, or underselling stock that’s actually there - a small but important distinction for a network built on community relationships.
Building for a highly regulated industry
Blooms’ requirements went far beyond standard ecommerce functionality, with pharmacy-specific legal and safety obligations.
To ensure nothing fell through the cracks between the website and the shop counter, the system had to integrate eScripts and secure healthcare data systems, develop custom cart logic for regulated products and internal tools to connect orders with patient and pharmacy systems.
“We used the open checkout to extend core features, like preventing someone from purchasing certain items without a prescription,” shared Jim Watts, Co-Founder of 33BONDI.
33BONDI designed these custom capabilities with Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resource standards in mind, reflecting broader interoperability initiatives across Australia, including the CSIRO’s Sparked program for connected healthcare and patient data exchange.
To support these healthcare services, BigCommerce was integrated with the Google Cloud Healthcare API, allowing patient and clinical data to be managed within dedicated healthcare systems, while commerce transactions remained within BigCommerce. This approach enabled Blooms to meet strict regulatory requirements while continuing to evolve its digital experience.
A business in full bloom
With a digital foundation in place, Blooms is well positioned to evolve the online experience as customer expectations and healthcare needs change, rather than starting over each time.
“We’re not locked into a system that limits what we can do. We can continue to adapt and improve as the business and industry evolve,” explained Martin Olds, Chief Information Officer, Blooms The Chemist.
For franchise networks wrestling with the same challenge - centralising digitally while retaining the best aspects of local ownership - Blooms’ approach shows what is possible. For a network of more than 130 independently run pharmacies, that ability to stay adaptable is the real triumph.
Vivian Luo, Director of Marketing, APAC, Commerce
Sources
1. eCommerce Report 2026, Australia Post, April 2026
