Factors affecting customers’ decisions to purchase medicines in Ho Chi Minh City: A quantitative study

¹ Faculty of Pharmacy, Pham Ngoc Thach University of Medicine, Hochiminh City 700000, Vietnam.
² Faculty of Pharmacy, Universitas Gadjah Mada, Yogyakarta 55281, Indonesia.

^* Corresponding author: thaoltq@pnt.edu.vn

Abstract

Understanding customer behavior and the factors influencing decisions to purchase medicines is crucial for businesses. This study aimed to examine the factors influencing customers’ decisions to purchase medicines in Ho Chi Minh City (HCM). This quantitative study used a self-administered questionnaire. A convenience quota sample of 599 participants was recruited online and offline, and data were collected from July to October 2022. The questionnaire included 8 items on personal characteristics, 6 on customers’ medicine use characteristics, 13 on factors determining where to buy medicine, and 17 on factors influencing customers’ decision to buy medicine. A two-step cluster analysis method was used to identify three distinct customer clusters based on common characteristics. Statistical significance was set at p<0.05, with a 95% confidence interval. Of the 632 distributed questionnaires, 599 were returned and analyzed, resulting in a response rate of 94.78%. When making decisions about purchasing medicines, customers expressed the highest level of concern regarding the therapeutic effects of medicines (mean = 4.40 ± 0.77) and the least interest in advertisements (mean = 3.29 ± 1.19). Offering a wide range of products from different brands provides customers with more choices, which attracts them to drugstores. It is recommended that companies minimize their efforts to advertise medicines in Vietnam.