How Petco is getting it done – Takeaways for small pet retail businesses

A Chinese proverb says that to know about the road ahead, you should ask those coming back. In the context of this blog, the answers or lessons should be derived from those who are already there. Startups and small businesses should always keep a watch on leading market brands and learn from them in ways that apply to their businesses. This applies to pet retail enterprises as well.

This blog seeks to derive important takeaways from leading American pet retail brand Petco with the objective of aiding small businesses to sharpen their strategies and operations.

Brand Positioning

From external observations, it becomes clear that Petco’s market position is that of a brand that provides comprehensive pet health and wellness solutions encompassing food, medication, health supplements, accessories, veterinary care, grooming, training, adoption, advisory, insurance, and more. Such a positioning and brand perception align with the growing concept of pet humanisation where pet owners treat their pets as an extended part of their families and provide them with the same degree of care and concern as for any family member.

The important lesson here for retailers is that there are many advantages when customers perceive your store as a one-stop shopping destination for all their routine needs. The size and scale of the business are not important here because offerings are always attuned to local market demand and every business owner eventually learns what sells and what does not. The idea is to understand and sustain the right assortment mix.

Omnichannel – Getting it right

Petco offers a seamless and integrated offline and online shopping experience with in-store shopping, online ordering with in-store pickup, curbside pickup, home delivery, and shipping fulfilment options. The concept of omnichannel does not need more elaboration, so let us jump to its more intricate details.

Flawless planning and execution are critical for succeeding with omnichannel. As a retailer, you must have the shopping journey for customers from the point where they were potential customers to managing returns and refunds and fulfilling your post-sale promises and requirements. Every digital and physical touchpoint must be underscored in the customer shopping journey. You must be careful at the junctures where there is an option of shifting between online and offline channels. YRC highly recommends the use of pet store standard operating procedures (SOPs) for ensuring that omnichannel operations go as per the established standards from start to end.

Consistency in information and action is another big factor in omnichannel. For example, let us say that a customer placed an online order with a pickup fulfilment option but later changes it to home delivery. This should not create any internal mismanagement. The IT systems in place must support omnichannel functionalities offered to customers and how they are managed in the backend. Again, SOPs are crucial to go with the flow of operational requirements.

Customer support is another vital element in omnichannel especially to address any unexpected deviation. Customer support is not only a medium to resolve customer queries and issues but it is also a crucial source of informational inputs for improving business systems.

In pet retail consulting, YRC maintains in developing or adopting omnichannel capabilities, the first aim should be at getting the fundamentals of omnichannel right instead of going for something massive with executional uncertainties. To make things easy, first focus on getting your offline and online channels to work fine independently.

The Role of Services

Petco is more than a seller of pet products; it is also a provider of a wide range of meaningful pet-related services like grooming, training, veterinary care, coaching and advisory, adoption, and subscription-based offerings. Petco employs certified and trained professionals for these services. It also offers personalised plans in many service categories. Within veterinary services, there are vaccination centres and animal hospitals manned by certified veterinarians and specialists. Petco also offers pet insurance services at attractive rates and featuring accident coverage, illness coverage, and wellness coverage with different reimbursement and annual deductible options. Now, a question one might ask is why Petco has such an elaborate offering of services. Well, the short answer is that it significantly strengthens their overall value proposition and makes their business model more robust and reliable.

The needs of pet owners are not confined to meals, medications, or playing accessories for their pets. There is also demand for preventive and curative medical services for pets. Pet owners also need to train their pets. At some point, the customers are no longer just pet owners but they become pet parents – where they must consider training their pets, taking consulting solutions on managing pets, and even taking insurance coverage. These services fulfil a huge demand gap serving as important values to pet owners. Getting both product and service requirements covered under one brand umbrella makes things much easier for customers instead of going to different places for different requirements.

Customer Experience (CX)

One thing which becomes abundantly clear when you buy from Petco is its heightened focus on customer experience. The elements which pet retailers should emphasise to deliver a robust customer experience in pet retailing are highlighted next.

One of the foremost requirements in CX is convenience and accessibility. By adopting the omni route, pet retail enterprises can provide malleable shopping experiences. Accessibility to a store is highly influenced by store locations and business hours. Along with CX, there should be equal emphasis on user experience (UX) in finding, loading, navigating, and interacting with a business’s eCommerce website and app.

Customer experience is not a one-way street. There should be strong mechanisms to welcome customer feedback and reviews both in stores and on websites/apps. Periodical surveys can also bring relevant insights but this tool should not appear coercive. Also, you cannot be talking about mega CX vision on one hand, and failing to respond to customer queries and resolve their issues on the other. You must have a prompt, responsive, and effective customer support system in place.

Last, but not least, it has become very important to remain active on social media and be responsive there too in planned ways.

Other important elements are professional hiring, pet retail training for staff, store layout planning and visual merchandising, building a sense of community, and loyalty programs and rewards.

Stretching of the Business Model for Sustainability and Environment

Petco carries out several socially responsible initiatives concerning pets and animal welfare in general that lend the brand a positive image. For example, Petco Love (an independent non-profit entity) provides aid and support to animal welfare organisations in carrying out adoption, shelter, and rescue missions. It also provides a platform for making donations and contributions for pet and animal welfare. Over the years, Petco has achieved staggering results in terms of investments in animal welfare, vaccine distribution, and pet adoptions and reunions. Petco Love is in alignment with Petco’s broader, long-term vision of staying true to the goals and standards of Sustainability and ESG (Environment, Social, & Governance) emphasising its commitment to building a more sustainable future.

Going beyond the textbook definition of business means additional resources have to be spent. Not many businesses choose to step out of their budgets and rightly so. However, caring and ‘returning back’ to the society, community, and nature and environment are unspoken and moral duties of individuals and organisations. When you become good and effective at it, goodwill may emerge as a by-product.

Wrapping Up

Petco’s market position is that of a brand that provides comprehensive pet health and wellness solutions. There are many advantages when customers perceive a store as a one-stop shopping destination for all their routine needs.

Petco is an omnichannel enterprise. Flawless planning and execution, consistency in information and action, and robust customer support systems are necessary for winning at omnichannel. This American pet retail brand is also a provider of an extensive array of services concerning pets and animals in general. These services fulfil a huge demand gap serving as important values to pet owners.

Petco is also a customer-centric brand. Developing robust strategies for elevating customer experience is critical for retaining customers and winning their loyalty. This is for all enterprises including pet retailers.

Petco carries out several socially responsible initiatives concerning pets and animal welfare in general that lend the brand a positive image. Caring and ‘returning back’ to society, community, nature and environment are unspoken and moral duties of individuals and organisations. There should not be a ‘commercial motive’ behind such acts.

About Your Retail Coach (YRC)

With more than ten years in business and a scaling global footprint, YRC is a retail and eCommerce consulting firm that has served over five hundred clients in more than twenty-five sectors with a triumph ratio of more than 94%.

To speak to a professional pet business consultant, feel free to drop us a message and we will shortly reach out to you.

To learn more about our pet business consulting services or general online business solutions, visit us: https://www.yourretailcoach.in/contact/

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