Chefaa VS Yodawy

Not only because the world is facing a global pandemic did I choose to compare two pharmacy delivery apps, but also because the last couple of years witnessed a leap in the pharmacies market.

Chefaa and Yodawy are both pharmacy delivery apps serving Egypt. Mainly, both apps allow their users to order either by searching for a specific product, or browsing displayed lists of products, or uploading a prescription and have the order delivered to their doorstep.

So, speaking of similarities, the below table shows my rating of the main and most basic features in both apps:

	Chefaa (out of 5)	Yodawy (out of 5)
Products Display	4	3
Products Search	2	2
Products Categorizing	5	3
Pricing Variations	2	3
Order Tracking	4	2

In Chefaa, products are well displayed with a familiar e-commerce UI design. Each product has a photo, and you can also click on the product to display it in a new screen where you can zoom-in the product photo and read the product details. While in Yodawy, listing products looks a bit outdated, and not all products have photos, especially in the "Medications" section. Generally, I believe products are more beautifully displayed in Chefaa than Yodawy. However, it is worth mentioning that both apps don't have any product sorting or filtering features.

As for Products Search, both aren't doing the best job, to be honest. In Chefaa, to a very big extent, your search needs to be an exact match or missing a last letter. You can't rely on their search engine, but you can upload your prescription and they try to figure it out. In Yodawy, search results sometimes don't make any sense. I searched for "drops" and got nothing but baby shampoos. I expected any kind of eye or nasal drops (very basic) to be included but surprisingly there was none. Adding to that, in Yodawy, you can't search inside a category, you can only search in their Home/Search tab. However, you can also add your prescription and they do the job.

Products are well categorized in both apps, but Yodawy, for some reason doesn't put all categories in the same place. A couple of "Offers" banners are dividing the categories which look confusing to me. Besides, categories' icons would be better if simplified.

Both apps have prices on products (basic, yea), but I got shocked when I knew these are not for sure the prices I am going to pay for when I place an order. Yodawy is clearly stating this in their "Cart", but Chefaa doesn't. When I placed an order, one of their customer support team called to inform me that prices are -a lot- different than what was on the app, so I canceled the order. 

After I canceled my two orders in both apps, "My Orders" section got updated with the new status "Canceled" in Chefaa, but it hasn't been updated till now in Yodawy. It is still "Delivery in Progress".

 

Now, let's speak about the features differentiating between the two apps:

	Chefaa	Yodawy
Blog	✔
Medicine Reminders	✔
Offers		✔
Loyalty Programs		✔
Calling a doctor		✔

Well, Chefaa has its own blog where it shares medical-related content basically in Arabic (even in the English version of the app). Chefaa also allows you to create reminders of the medicine you should take on daily, weekly, or whatever basis. To me (queen of forgetting things), this is a big plus.

On the other hand, Yodawy has very attractive offers from reputable brands, and it also encourages buying through the app with its tailored loyalty programs. Not only that, but Yodawy is also partnering up with Esteshara to enable its users to call a doctor ask for a consultation. 

Last, I would add the below suggestions for improvement for each app individually;

Chefaa:

• Add product details to all listed products. I understand this is a lot of work, but it definitely a big value-added.
• Change the design of FAQs as both font and colors are boring. I would also suggest adding them to the "Support" tab instead of their current location inside the app. 
• Revise all English language messages in the app. Using upper case first letter in each and every word is a very bad idea.
• Enable filtering blog articles by tags or categories. I assume this is not going to be a difficult job since articles are already tagged/labeled.

Yodawy:

• Rename the "Search" tab to "Home".
• Enable users to search inside categories, not only in the main "Search" tab.
• Change the cart design, it is very basic and actually rebelling the customer to add more products to the cart.
• Simplify loyalty programs by using graphical elements or explanatory diagrams.

Have you tried any of these apps? Both are available on the App Store & Google Play, download them and share your experience in the comments. 

If you would like to see more interactive and visual content, follow my Instagram blog @7awadeetuser.

Stay safe! Talk to you next 7adouta ;)

                                                                                        Mid June, 2020