Direct Chemist Outlet (DCO) is an Australian pharmacy group. Its first store opened in Werribee, Victoria, in 2006, and it now has more than 105 pharmacies nationwide. Its website, directchemistoutlet.com.au, sells more than 20,000 health, beauty and medicine products online, for delivery or Click & Collect from a local store.
In 2026 DCO chose Core dna to rebuild the website and the way online orders run behind it. The project is in build. This story covers what DCO needs and how it will run on Core dna: one website for consumers, VIP members and business customers, orders routed to the right store, and an order portal for the stores and the head office online team.
The challenge
DCO sells online for a network of franchised pharmacies. Each pharmacy holds its own stock in the group's POS system, and online orders are fulfilled by the stores. Running that took several tools: one system for orders, task boards and spreadsheets to track them, email between stores and head office, and a separate app for shipping.
Paying stores for the online orders they fulfilled meant exporting transactions by hand each month. Business customers had to call support for things they could have done online. Pharmacist-only medicines needed a pharmacist to review each order before it could be sent.
DCO wanted one platform for the website, the business accounts and the store operations behind them.
What Direct Chemist Outlet needed
- Consumer, VIP and business accounts on one website.
- Quotes, quick checkout, and downloadable orders, invoices and statements for business customers.
- Stock and prices for every store from the POS system, with a fast update path for urgent changes.
- Delivery orders assigned to a store automatically, with reassignment when a store can't fill an order.
- An order portal for stores and a separate view for the head office online team.
- A pharmacist review step for pharmacist-only medicines.
- Reports that attribute each order to the store that fulfilled it, so finance can pay stores.
How B2B, B2C and store fulfilment will run on Core dna
Business accounts. Business customers register on the same website as consumers. Their account adds quote requests with an expiry date, a quick checkout, and downloads of orders, invoices and statements. Pricing by customer group is set up in the platform's discount engine, and special prices for business customers are planned for a later phase.
Stock and prices from the POS system. Each pharmacy's stock on hand comes from DCO's POS system, which stays the master for stock and prices. The website shows which stores have a product in stock, and urgent stock or price changes can be pushed to the site straight away.
Orders routed to the right store. Delivery orders are routed by state first, then to the next store with the full order in stock. If no store has the full order, it goes to the closest store by distance. When a store can't fill an order, the online team is notified and reassigns it. Click & Collect orders are checked against the chosen store's stock at checkout.
An order portal for stores. Each store works through three queues: Click & Collect, delivery and backorders. From an order, staff can book and track the shipment, print labels, request a refund for head office to approve, record a return, open a support ticket, or log a backorder from a supplier. The store dashboard shows sales, completed orders, bestsellers, margin and replenishment.
A head office view. The online team sees overdue orders, stock across every store, refunds, tickets and tasks, and can flag an order as urgent so it moves to the top of a store's list. Orders from DCO's marketplace channel can be assigned to any store.
Pharmacist-only medicines. Customers answer a questionnaire for each pharmacist-only product at checkout, and a pharmacist reviews the answers before approving, adjusting or rejecting the order. Quantity limits apply per order.
Paying stores. Every order is attributed to the store that fulfilled it, and a reimbursement report gives finance the orders, products, sales, taxes, discounts, shipping and refunds for each store.
For the platform behind this, see B2B commerce on Core dna and the franchise platform.
Want to see how it works?
Book a call with Core dna. We'll walk you through how business accounts, store routing and a store order portal run on one platform, and how that would work for your network.
What B2B and B2C eCommerce looks like in a pharmacy network
In a pharmacy network, the stores hold the stock, fill the orders and handle regulated products, so online selling has to work with the stores as well as head office. For DCO, that means:
- One website for consumers, VIP members and business customers.
- Stock and prices read from each store's POS records.
- Orders routed by state, stock and distance, with a person stepping in when the rules can't decide.
- One portal where stores fulfil orders and head office oversees them.
- A pharmacist in the loop for pharmacist-only medicines.
For trade accounts with commercial credit in a franchise network, see the Clark Rubber story. For three buyer types and orders posting into SAP, see the V-ZUG story.
What's next
The first phase launches the new website, business accounts and the store order portal. Planned for a later phase: special prices for business customers, online prescriptions, product subscriptions, and more delivery options.
