Case study

Pharmacy Direct

How Australia's first online pharmacy secured patient data and prevented healthcare fraud with advanced bot protection whilst saving their $900k platform investment.

Pharmacy Direct
30% Increase in Conversions & Average Order Value
10x Improvement in Page Load Times
20k+ Threats Blocked Per Day

Technical review

What changed in production

Each study is structured around the operating problem, the Peakhour control path, and the measurable outcome.

Challenge

The Challenge

  • $900,000 investment in new healthcare eCommerce platform was failing with pages taking up to 22 seconds to load
  • Site targeted by malicious bots attempting to access patient data and commit healthcare fraud
  • Poor performance negatively impacting search rankings, user engagement, and sales conversions
  • Security vulnerabilities putting patient information at risk
  • Team considered abandoning their platform redevelopment entirely

Solution

Peakhour's Solution

  • Stage 1: Advanced bot management blocked 15,000 malicious bot requests per day targeting healthcare data
  • Stage 2: Custom secure caching plugin for OpenCart 3 with built-in security controls for patient data protection
  • Stage 3: Comprehensive security audit and application hardening reducing page generation time from 12s to 1.5s
  • Implemented healthcare-specific security measures whilst maintaining compliance requirements
  • Provided ongoing professional services support and monitoring

Results

The Results

  • 30-40% increase in revenue year-on-year with improved conversion rates
  • 10x improvement in page load times creating exceptional user experience
  • Over 20,000 threats blocked daily protecting patient data and preventing healthcare fraud
  • Eliminated frequent website crashes and improved system reliability
  • Significant improvement in Net Promoter Scores and customer satisfaction

Customer quote

"We are delighted with what Peakhour has done for us, and are rolling their services out across all our online brands. We've also recommended them to Intellipharm for use with their other system clients. They have been a lifesaver for us."
Caitlin Probert

Caitlin Probert

Online Manager, PharmacyDirect.com.au

Peakhour controls used

Solution stack

The controls below are the relevant parts of the Peakhour request path for this customer outcome.

SECURITY MODULE

Bot Management

Advanced bot detection and mitigation protecting against credential stuffing, account takeovers, and automated threats targeting healthcare data.

Explore control

SECURITY MODULE

Web Application Firewall

Enterprise-grade WAF with OWASP rulesets and healthcare-specific protections for patient data security.

Explore control

PERFORMANCE MODULE

Advanced Caching

Intelligent full-page caching with security controls, custom OpenCart 3 integration, and healthcare compliance features.

Explore control

SECURITY MODULE

Application Security

Comprehensive security platform with source code auditing, vulnerability assessment, and healthcare-specific hardening.

Explore control

SERVICE MODULE

Professional Services

Expert consulting, security audits, custom integrations, and ongoing platform optimisation for healthcare organisations.

Explore control

Review your own edge security and performance path

Bring the current CDN, WAF, bot, API, cache, and logging setup. Peakhour will map where the platform can simplify the path.

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