The Pet Business is Petty no more
The growing pet retail market in the Middle East has drawn the attention of many aspiring entrepreneurs as well as existing business owners (even from other sectors) in the region. Rising pet ownership, growing acceptance of pet humanisation, changes in family structures, the influence of social media platforms, and growing mass awareness of animal welfare are some of the solid forces driving the growth of the retail market for pet products and services. That did not materialise over a blink. Pets and humans have a long history of co-existence and camaraderie. There have been brands and businesses catering to the needs of pets. What is different in today’s world is that even if a small act is adopted by a majority of people, it results in a mammoth outcome at the macro level. While this has opened up business opportunities in the pet retail market, it has made it more competitive. In this blog, we will discuss a few important business lessons worthy of consideration for pet retail startups while drawing inspiration from a leading pet retail brand Petco.
One-Stop Shopping Destination
Petco is a brand that has positioned itself as a one-stop shopping destination for pet health and wellness solutions – offering not just pet products but also a wide range of services related to pets, and animals in general. Its offerings include food, prescription medicines, health supplements, accessories, veterinary care, grooming, training, adoption, advisory, insurance, and more. Such a brand perception makes a parallel with the concept of pet humanisation. In pet humanisation, pet animals receive treatment like a part of the family i.e. with similar levels of care and maintenance – both apparent and unspoken.
Experienced retailers would know that being a one-stop shopping destination provides many advantages. It creates certainty in the eyes of customers about their shopping decisions. Customers have to put less effort into both decision-making and executing the shopping journey. It does not matter how big or small a business is as long as the right assortment mix (product offerings) is maintained as per the demands of the local market.
Omnichannel Strategy and Implementation
The significance of omnichannel in today’s retail world needs no separate highlight. Petco offers both offline and online shopping options to its customers. This means customers can visit and buy from its stores or place their orders online for home delivery, in-store pickup, curbside pickup, or regular shipping options. However, getting the planning and execution right holds the key to success with omnichannel.
Mapping the customer shopping journey is one of the foremost tasks in omnichannel planning. This journey starts from the point where customers are part of the target audience and extends to the management of returns and refunds and the fulfilment of post-sale conditions. It is also important to prioritise to continue making the shopping journey easier for customers. A good example here is subscription or auto-shipping features.
Along with the aspect of the quality of the flow of the shopping journey, every touchpoint in the customer shopping journey also holds crucial significance. Some of these touchpoints draw ramifications across channels. For example, a social media advertisement should also be embedded with relevant links that provide customers with something tangible to act upon like a redirection to a product page or contact page from where the shopping journey could enter the physical world.
It is important to be careful at the junctures where customers may cross between online and offline channels.
As omnichannel consultants, YRC strongly recommends developing and implementing pet store standard operating procedures (SOPs) to ensure that omnichannel operations as intended.
Another vital requirement in omnichannel is maintaining the flow and consistency in information sharing with customers and fulfilment process stakeholders. For example, if a customer cancels an order during the fulfilment process, the order should not reach their doorsteps for delivery. It should not only be reflected in the customer’s account but also to all concerned process owners in the fulfilment process. Internally, the movement of that order should stop at the earliest possible hub. The IT systems must support such operational changes affecting all concerned departments like logistics, inventory, and billing. Along with IT, there also have to be strict SOPs for executing order cancellations leading to potential refunds.
In pet retail consulting, YRC stress the importance of getting the fundamentals of omnichannel right first in developing or adopting omnichannel capabilities. Both online and offline channels must be in the desired working conditions independently before their integration.
Services as Extension of Value Proposition
As highlighted previously, Petco is a holistic solution brand for pet health and wellness with an extensive range of pet products and services related to pets, and animals in general. Petco’s services cover grooming, training, veterinary care, coaching, advisory, adoption, and subscription-based offerings. Petco has a large team of certified and trained professionals for these services. In many service categories, Petco also offers tailored solution plans for its customers. Petco also operates vaccination clinics and full-service animal hospitals with licensed veterinarians and technicians. The pet insurance services come with a wide coverage with malleable reimbursement and yearly deductible choices. Having such an elaborate range of offerings strengthens Petco’s overall value proposition, makes its business model more robust and reliable, results in its growth and expansion, and makes it an all-under-one-roof shopping hub for pet owners.
Pet retailers should already know that pet needs are not confined to food, medicines, or toys. They also need many services like vaccination, training, grooming, or even insurance. There is a substantial demand for these services in pet retail markets. Adding these services makes customers attribute more value to brands and businesses in the pet retail industry.
Customer Experience (CX)
Customer experience is a tricky area of work especially for big brands and businesses. It is not difficult to grasp that with smaller customer bases, it is relatively easier to create and maintain a high-quality customer experience than with a large and diversified customer base. Petco makes consistent and considerable efforts for enhancing the quality of its CX. Let us delve into the factors that pet retail startups should focus on for creating and maintaining robust customer experience.
Convenience and accessibility are two of the leading necessities in making CX work and thrive. Convenience to customers comes from providing them with an omnichannel shopping experience, giving them control over their shopping journeys, making payments, returns, refunds, and replacements easier, having quick checkout in stores, and a host of other features. The second factor i.e. accessibility is about how easily and quickly can customers reach out to a business. Thus, this accessibility depends on variables like the location of stores, the extensiveness of the network of stores, customer support systems, the layout of stores, quality of customer service, communication, UX features of websites/apps, pickup options, working hours, etc.
A third crucial factor is having meaningful empathy and giving an acceptable solution. For example, it is common to hear apologies from customer support teams without providing any real solutions especially if the issue is something that is off the routine. Sometimes speaking to customer support can even feel like someone is just repeatedly reading out a script. This may work as a patch of empathy to some extent but if you do not give real solutions then CX is bound to go for a toss. Big brands and businesses cannot afford to indulge in such misadventures for too long because the impact would be extensive given their large base of customers.
A few other important areas to focus on are customer review and feedback mechanisms, surveys, professional hiring, pet retail training for employees, pet store layout planning, social media management, community management, and loyalty programs and rewards.
‘Giving Back’
Petco runs several pet and animal welfare programmes. To highlight, one such initiative is Petco Love. It is an independent and non-profit entity that offers various kinds of assistance to animal welfare organisations in carrying out adoption, shelter, and rescue programmes. It also serves as a platform for giving donations and making contributions towards the welfare of pets and animals in general. Over the years, Petco’s pet reunion service has helped thousands of pet owners. Petco Love aligns with Petco’s vision of Sustainability and ESG (Environment, Social, & Governance) stressing its commitment to building a sustainable future.
Going beyond the business model often comes at the cost of additional resources. However, Petco shows how it could be done meaningfully and fulfil its moral responsibilities of ‘giving back’ as an organisation.
Wrapping Up
A host of strong factors like rising pet ownership and the influence of social media are often attributed to the growth and expansion of the pet retail market in the Middle East drawing the attention of aspiring entrepreneurs as well as existing business owners for starting a pet retail business. While this has resulted in the creation of new business opportunities, it has also made the pet retail market more competitive in the Middle East. Observing how successful brands in an industry are doing business is always a good idea to learn new insights and emerge as strong and competitive enterprises. Petco is one such successful brand in the American pet retail industry – a brand worth looking up to for pet retail startup enthusiasts.
Petco is a brand that has positioned itself as a one-stop shopping destination for pet health and wellness solutions giving comfort and convenience to customers when it comes to fulfilling their pet needs.
Petco offers a high-quality omnichannel shopping experience to its customers empowering them with more control over their shopping journeys. With widespread store coverage and robust eCommerce capabilities, Petco is always close to its customers.
As Petco is a holistic solution brand for pet health and wellness, it also offers an extensive range of pet-related services including grooming, training, veterinary care, coaching, advisory, adoption, and insurance. These service offerings make Petco an even more valuable brand to its customers.
Creating and maintaining high-quality customer experience is not an easy feat to achieve especially for big brands and businesses. Concerning customers, a few important areas to focus on here are convenience, accessibility, support systems, feedback mechanisms, professional HRM, store layout planning, social media management, community management, and SOPs for operations.
Petco sets exemplary standards in defining how a brand can emerge as a responsible organisation not just for its customers but also for society, the country, and the planet.
About Your Retail Coach (YRC)
YRC is a retail and eCommerce consulting entity with more than ten years in business and a scaling international footprint with a major emphasis on the Middle East region. We have served over 500 clients in 25+ verticals with a success ratio exceeding 94%.
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