PET STORE
ECommerce

There are thousands of pet retailers across the United States that have successfully been in business for decades. But the retail landscape has changed more in the past five years than it has in the previous 25 years.

Consumer behavior has changed: the where, how, when, and with whom in particular have undergone drastic shifts. Powerhouse retailers like Sears, JCPenny, and Toys R’ Us fell victim to the retail apocalypse, struggling to adapt to the shifting expectations and needs of their customers. Today’s newer competitors are better equipped to meet those expectations, and pet retailers need to shift as well. That means adding an eCommerce platform to the overall business model and pet store marketing strategy.

Ready to start making money in your sleep? At Pet Engine Marketing, we are able to provide pet store eCommerce marketing as part of our Full-Service Pet Store Marketing Partnership. You can always book a free call to get an audit, some quick recommendations, and a meeting with one of our pet store marketing experts absolutely, 100% free. Just contact us to set that up!

Pet Store eCommerce MARKETING

Making it work for Pet Retailers

How do you compete with the big-box providers like Am*zon and Ch*wy? To be frank, you probably can’t. Not all the way. That’s why we constantly push revenue-driving activities like pet store events that stick within the goals and values of your pet store’s brand identity. Nonetheless, eCommerce can be profitable and, ideally, not stressful! It’s a secondary, not primary, revenue stream for your brick-and-mortar business.

In our experience, there are two primary factors that influence eCommerce sales:

1. Convenience

2. Price

If you’ve ever bought something from Am*zon, you understand how powerful convenience is. A few clicks, a few days, and it’s at your doorstep.

Convenience

One in five consumers ranks convenience of the purchase process as the most significant factor when considering a purchase from a new retailer.

Businesses that have embraced eCommerce can push the idea of convenience as much as price or quality. During the pandemic, convenience became an even more important part of the purchasing process for loyal pet store customers. How can your pet store respond? Here are a few ways to build and promote convenience for your local pet parents:

• Curbside pickup

• Online ordering

• Ship-to-home eCommerce

• Auto-ordering for regular products

• Local delivery or same-day delivery

• Mobile grooming vans

Clearly, these aren’t systems or products that you can just turn on or off! They take time, energy, and investment to organize and operate successfully. But an auto-order system for a product like a dog or cat food that combines a recurring discount of 10%-20% is money that you earn in your sleep with little to no effort on your end. That’s a good, passive revenue stream!

Promoting these convenience options on your pet store social media or email marketing platforms is a great way to build them up over time. One of the main principles here is that you’re not necessarily seeking to provide these for new customers - that’s expensive, and they probably have a provider already. You can provide these additional convenience opportunities to loyal customers that appreciate and shop from local businesses like yours.

Price

As most pet retailers know, this is a line that has to be toed carefully. It can be exceedingly tough to balance your expenses, budgets, and product markup while trying to compete and beat eCommerce platforms and big-box retailers.

Discounts and loss-leaders always help brands and businesses attract new consumers. But lowering prices isn’t a long-term solution for retailers and these strategies demand that you proceed with caution. Too many sales and you destroy your profit margins, your customers expect it continuously, and it can even devalue the quality of your pet store’s products.

Instead, consider emphasizing the value customers receive from their products or the purchasing experience (in-store or out-of-store) so they feel justified in their purchasing decision, even when items aren’t on discount. A little-known sales trick that works like a charm: maintain your price for your top-selling and highest-margin items, but heavily discount the accessories that improve the experience of those products. This will increase the perceived value-to-price equation without devaluing your best products, or tarnishing the bottom line.

There are still some opportunities for local businesses to provide a personal touch that big businesses simply won’t or can’t. Same-day local delivery is a tough one for some, but less so for a small pet store. Free shipping can be baked into your retail costs and your margins won’t suffer too much, depending on the product.

But selling solely on price is not the goal here. Selling on value and the benefits provided by the pet store experience, for example, fitting a dog harness, providing expert advice, referring a local dog trainer, or having the best groomers in the area are all ways that you’ll continue to keep people coming to the store.

Measuring THE EFFECTIVENESS OF YOUR Pet Store’s eCommerce arm

So, what critical data is worth measuring to see just how much of your business comes from eCommerce? This data will help you make decisions on whether to put more money or effort into eCommerce marketing.

• Conversion rate: Quite simply, this comes down to how many visits to your site result in a purchase?

• Conversion rate per channel: Where do all of those conversions and purchases come from? Pet store SEO organic traffic, paid traffic, social media, email, pet store events? If you don’t know, you can’t adequately invest more in the future!

• Customer lifetime value: Knowing how much revenue a customer generates over his or her lifetime can help you invest in better marketing channels sooner. It can also help you improve their experience with your business, find others like them, and increase customer lifetime value.

• Customer retention rate: Having customers come back for more is a great indicator of positive eCommerce marketing efforts and processes. Once you understand your retention rates, you have to do some more digging to find out what’s driving people to stay, and what’s driving other people to leave.

• Cart abandonment rate: One of the most important performance metrics for pet store eCommerce marketing is the cart abandonment rate. If you can lower your abandonment rate, it easily generates more revenue, similar to increase the closing percentage for sales associates.

• Customer acquisition cost: How much does it cost to get a new customer? How much are you spending across your different marketing channels, and how are you tracking that “acquisition?” Generally, an acquisition would require signing up for a loyalty program or creating an account online.

At Pet Engine Marketing, your account manager has their finger on the pulse of these metrics, campaigns, strategies, and knows how to help you maximize your eCommerce revenue while not sacrificing the values or efforts of your brick and mortar business.