Healthcare-adjacent commerce is one of the few categories on the platform where getting the product experience "smooth" is secondary to getting the compliance boundaries right — a prescription medication simply cannot move through the same generic checkout flow as a phone charger, regardless of how good that flow is.
Zuma Pharmacy is built with regulatory gates as first-class parts of the order flow rather than an afterthought bolted onto a standard e-commerce checkout: prescription-only items require a valid prescription — either uploaded or generated through an integrated telehealth consultation via a licensed provider — before the order can proceed to payment at all, and licensed pharmacy partners fulfil the order rather than a generic seller pool.
Building for a regulated category means the product requirements document has to start from the compliance constraints, not end with them. It's tempting to design the ideal checkout experience first and figure out where to insert compliance checks afterward; the more durable approach is the reverse — treat the regulatory gate as a hard constraint on the architecture from day one, and design the smooth experience within it.