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Are sales in a slump at your pet store?
To boost profits, many small business owners jump to tweaking their product selection. But rather than changing what products you sell, the answer might be more simple: change how you present the products you have.
Merchandising is the way you organize, present, and sell products, and its goal is to improve customer experience and maximize revenue. With the right strategy, you can persuade customers to buy more of the pet food, treats, and toys on your shelves.
In this blog, we’ll discuss seven simple pet store merchandising tips you can start using today to boost sales — and keep customers coming back to your store again and again.
7 Pet Store Merchandising Tips
Sometimes even small changes to how you present your products can have a significant impact on how customers perceive them and how much they buy. Try these seven strategies to get started.
1. Group Products Logically
As customers navigate your pet store, you want to make it as easy as possible for them to find what they’re looking for. To facilitate this, organize products into logical categories. You might first create departments by pet: dogs, cats, and so on.
Then, organize these sections by product type. This may include food, treats, toys, grooming items, collars, and leashes. In some zones, you might even organize further by pet life stage. Under the dog food category, you could create smaller areas to separate kibble for puppies, adult dogs, and seniors.
Signage is helpful for directing customers to the items they’re looking for. If you use shelves, hanging signs above different areas of the pet store helps shoppers quickly spot the items they need.
2. Design a Pet Store Flow
Intentionally designing a path for shoppers to follow as they move through the store helps you expose them to more of your products. Many small retailers create a “loop” or “racetrack” design guiding customers around the entire sales floor.
Some customers come to your store only intending to buy a bag of pet food. To encourage them to buy other items, strategically place pet food in a back corner, forcing shoppers to pass by other items on their way. During this trip, they may remember that their dog could also use a new collar or toys. In this way, strategic design can lead to larger purchases.
Related Read: Creating the Perfect Pet Store Layout: 7 Strategies
3. Set Up Endcaps
An endcap is the space on the side of a shelving unit. Though it has limited capacity, it’s prime real estate because it’s highly visible to customers.
Endcaps are great for:
- New arrivals
- Top sellers
- Seasonal items
- Clearance items
You might use an endcap to create awareness of a new item, maximize sales for a top seller, or get rid of items on clearance. Rotate endcaps often to maintain customer interest.
4. Use Cross-Selling
Cross-selling refers to placing items next to each other that are commonly purchased together to encourage a customer to buy more than one product. At a pet store, you might place dog food next to bowls, leashes next to collars and harnesses, or pet shampoo next to brushes.
One form of cross-selling is bundling, meaning a customer can buy multiple items together, usually at a discounted price compared to buying each one separately. You might offer a bundle for a new dog owner: a bowl, a bag of food, a collar and leash, and some chew toys.
Or, you could offer a travel kit with small versions of the essentials: food, treats, bowls, medicine, and a travel harness. When customers find these items packaged together, they’re likely to purchase the bundle out of convenience, and feel good about getting a better value.
These strategies are helpful for increasing the value of each purchase, boosting your bottom line.
Related Read: New Pet Checklist: 50 Essentials To Stock in Your Pet Shop
5. Add Impulse Buys
Impulse buys are small, inexpensive items that customers tend to purchase on a whim. These items are usually placed at the register as a last-minute decision before checkout.
Pet stores tend to use this space for items like:
- Individually wrapped treats
- Dental sticks
- Small grooming items
- Collars or bandanas
- Portable water bottles
These small items usually have higher profit margins than other products at your store, which means selling more of them helps you raise your store’s overall margin. Remember to rotate these items, and add new ones occasionally, so this section catches customers’ eyes.
6. Showcase Top Sellers
While your store sells a variety of pet products, a few of them probably stand out as top sellers. Try putting these items front and center so you can maximize their sales.
One strategy is to create a display of a top-selling product near the entrance of your pet store. If you’re keeping these items on regular shelves, keep them at eye level so they’re easy for customers to spot. Adding a tag that says “most popular” or “staff pick” to these products is another way to make them stand out.
Related Read: 7 Pet Industry Trends To Watch in 2026
7. Adjust Merchandising Strategy Based on Data
A key aspect of good pet store merchandising is to adjust your strategy over time depending on results. Use sales data to see what products and sections of your store are the most and least popular. If certain products are sitting on the shelves, you can try creating a dedicated display, placing them on endcaps, or cross-selling them with a related item.
Test small changes to your pet store and look at sales results to track their effect. You might add hanging signs throughout your store that make it easier to navigate or introduce new bundles.
Look for patterns in sales after these adjustments are made to see how they affect totals. Over time these changes will lead to an optimized merchandising strategy that fits your business and your customers.
Improve Pet Store Merchandising With eTailPet
With strategic pet store merchandising, you can take the same inventory and present it in a way that increases sales. Experiment with a variety of merchandising methods and pay attention to what’s effective and what isn’t.
You may find that cross-selling and impulse buys are highly effective, but items on endcaps tend to move slowly. Look at sales data and adjust your strategies accordingly so you can make informed decisions that fit your business.
To access sales data, you need a point of sale (POS) system that records it and presents it in a way you can understand.
eTailPet is an all-in-one POS solution designed specifically for pet stores. Detailed sales reports offer insights to support your merchandising strategy — and with integrated payment processing, inventory management, e-commerce, and access to the top pet store suppliers, you have everything you need to run your business.
To see what eTailPet can do for your pet store, schedule a demo today!
by Taylor Harnois
