60 Days to Transform Its Digital Channel: The Challenge Faced by Grupo DIFARE

Pharmacy’s and Cruz Azul Reinvent Their Digital Channel in 60 Days, Strengthening Ecuador’s Pharmaceutical Sector

Grupo DIFARE, one of the most important players in Ecuador’s pharmaceutical sector, decided to accelerate its digital transformation to strengthen the omnichannel experience of its Pharmacy’s and Cruz Azul brands. In less than 60 days, the company achieved a major transformation with the support of ITGlobers, an AI-Commerce partner in the region.

With more than 40 years of experience in pharmaceutical distribution and retail, DIFARE manages a nationwide pharmacy network and operates a highly complex ecosystem that combines logistics, health regulations, sensitive inventories, and customer experience.

To respond to the evolving expectations of the digital consumer, the group decided to completely modernize its technology platform.

The Challenge: Modernizing the Platform Without Disrupting Operations

For years, DIFARE operated its digital channel on HCL Commerce (IBM Commerce). While it was a solid platform, over time it began to show limitations in addressing the company’s evolving business needs.

Among the main challenges were:

• Long timelines to implement new features
• Limited flexibility to innovate in the digital experience
• Difficulty integrating new technological solutions
• An architecture that separated the eCommerce platform from the mobile application

“Every evolution required long timelines, high costs, and complex technical efforts. Time was the main variable to overcome. There was no margin for delay.” — John Calderón

The challenge became even greater because the transformation had to be executed within an extremely limited timeframe.

DIFARE needed to launch the new platform before January 1st, 2026. Missing this deadline would have meant maintaining the previous provider for six additional months and assuming duplicated costs.

Additionally, the project involved several critical factors:

• Migrating two eCommerce platforms in parallel
• Integrating core business systems
• Ensuring operational continuity
• Launching the entire new digital ecosystem

All within just 60 days.

The Solution: VTEX + ITGlobers for a Modern and Scalable Architecture

To address this challenge, DIFARE selected VTEX as its new digital commerce platform and ITGlobers as its implementation partner.

The decision was driven by several key factors:

• A modern, modular architecture
• Native omnichannel capabilities
• An ecosystem ready for complex integrations
• Strong presence across Latin America

ITGlobers contributed the expertise required to execute the project within an exceptionally short timeline.

“ITGlobers is a provider with extensive experience in VTEX projects and has highly qualified specialists for implementations with demanding constraints such as time.” — John Calderón

A Project with High Technical Complexity

DIFARE’s digital operation is not a traditional eCommerce environment.

The pharmaceutical industry requires managing multiple operational and regulatory variables, including:

• Real-time inventory availability by pharmacy
• Regulatory validations for certain medications
• Sensitive logistics and delivery operations
• Advanced catalog and pricing management
• Specific commercial rules

“Digital operations in the pharmaceutical industry are highly complex and require a robust, secure, and well-integrated platform.” — John Calderón

During the migration, multiple critical systems were integrated, including:

• ERP
• Inventory systems
• Logistics platforms
• Payment methods
• Geolocation services
• Catalog and pricing systems
• Loyalty platforms

One of the most critical moments of the project was ensuring real-time inventory queries from each pharmacy fulfilling digital orders.

60 Days to Migrate the eCommerce Platform

The implementation required an extremely disciplined execution.

Migrating two eCommerce platforms in parallel meant coordinating technical teams, operations, catalog management, pricing strategies, and multiple critical integrations.

Despite the complexity, the project was successfully completed.

The new eCommerce platform was launched before the deadline, enabling DIFARE to:

• Avoid additional costs from the previous provider
• Relaunch its digital channel with improved performance
• Enhance the customer experience

Mobile-First: Launching the App in Just 7 Days

As part of the group’s omnichannel strategy, the project went beyond web eCommerce.

In parallel with the digital launch, DIFARE also implemented its mobile strategy, connecting a mobile application directly to its eCommerce ecosystem.

The Pharmacy’s app was launched first, and the Cruz Azul app will soon follow, using the connected app model developed by ITGlobers.

This approach enabled the company to activate the mobile channel just 7 days after the eCommerce launch, accelerating the group’s digital strategy.

“The mobile channel is the fastest-growing one and offers great convenience for customers wherever they are.” — John Calderón

This process also involved DIFARE’s brand team, led by Alexandra Villavicencio, Brand Manager, who supported the evolution of the digital experience of Pharmacy’s and Cruz Azul to ensure that the technological transformation also translated into a consistent and engaging experience for consumers.

Looking Ahead

DIFARE continues to drive the evolution of its digital channels in the Ecuadorian market alongside ITGlobers and VTEX, strategic partners with the experience and capabilities required to create a real impact on the consumer experience.