Starting a Pet Shop: 6 Things You'll Need

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Are you making your dream of starting a pet shop come true?

The rapidly growing pet industry is full of opportunities, but turning your dream into a thriving business requires careful planning and the right tools. From managing inventory to effective marketing, several key elements can make or break your business.

In this blog, you’ll discover the six essential things you need to ensure your pet shop not only survives, but thrives. Let’s find out what it takes to become the go-to pet store in your community.

1. Comprehensive Point of Sale System

A point of sale (POS) system is critical for your pet shop — your business can’t handle transactions without it. But a run-of-the-mill POS system isn’t enough. You need a user-friendly system that gives you all the essential information you need to run a successful pet store.

You can't run a flourishing business with a POS system that simply transfers payments. An effective POS system provides robust, comprehensive payment data and analytics, helping you make data-driven decisions for your pet store.

If you’re starting a pet shop, you need this reporting capability from the start, so you can see your store’s lifetime growth. Key functionalities you need include:

Popular product purchases
Peak time of day at your store
Popular time of year at your store
Product trends
Return customer vs. new customer purchases
Services vs. product purchases
Loyalty program and gift card users

All of these analytics are necessary to make effective decisions and create goals for your pet shop. In order to find the POS that works best for you, look for a pet-specific POS system. A pet-specific POS offers smart ordering that automatically tracks and manages your inventory, ensuring that top-selling items are always in stock. It also includes built-in loyalty reward programs to keep your customers coming back.

Find a system that also integrates software for booking grooming appointments and offers detailed customer tracking and history, allowing for personalized marketing efforts. Full support for gift cards creates a better customer experience.

2. Pet Inventory Management System

Pet shops typically sell a wide variety of products because there are so many popular pets of all shapes and sizes.

Unless you're running a pet store specifically for one type of animal, you need products for dogs, cats, birds, hamsters, mice, lizards, snakes, and more.

This is why inventory management is crucial for pet stores. Starting a pet shop right means properly managing your inventory from the beginning.

But how do you find the best way to manage your inventory? There are a couple of things to look out for.

First, you want to automate your process as much as possible — which means you need the right software. Avoid managing inventory with pen and paper; it's time-consuming and often inaccurate.

You also want to find an inventory management system that’s pet-specific. A pet-specific software has preloaded catalogs from distributors and manufacturers. Catalogs make it easier for you to add products to your inventory — it just takes the click of a button.

If you manage your inventory efficiently, you keep your customers happy and your store organized. If you implement pet-specific software from the beginning, inventory management will be smooth sailing.

3. Customer Relationship Management

A customer relationship management (CRM) system is a great way to turn regular customers into loyal ones. A CRM makes it much easier to connect with your customers because it stores all their important data and information in one place.

With a CRM, you can easily see your customers' names, emails, and phone numbers. But a CRM does much more. You can track what products they buy, what services they use, and if they’re new or returning customers.

You can even track what type of animal their pet is and what their names are — and you know how much pet owners love to talk about their furry friends. A CRM is the perfect tool to use to connect with your customers.

Implement this tool from the start to gather more data from your customers. If you use the tool to connect with everyone who comes into your store, your one-time visitors will become loyal customers in no time.

4. Customer Loyalty Program

Customers love loyalty programs because they gamify the shopping experience. By simply shopping more at the places they love, they can gain points, get deals, or win gift cards. Plus, business owners usually end up generating more revenue with their loyalty programs — it’s a win-win scenario.

The challenge is that loyalty programs can be difficult to manage. They're hard to set up and audit on your own. But here’s the good news: Automated options are now available due to their popularity.

Make sure that your POS system integrates with a pet-specific loyalty program like Astro Loyalty, so you don’t have to take on the operational stress of managing a loyalty program all by yourself.

Starting your pet shop with a loyalty program will bring in loyal customers from the beginning. Don’t miss out on potential revenue. Find a loyalty program like Astro Loyalty that works with your pet shop and attracts more customers.

5. Automated Marketing Tools

Marketing is important when it comes to running any business. Your pet store can bring in so many more customers with proper marketing.

There are two types of marketing to consider: customer marketing and lead marketing. Marketing to customers brings past customers back, ensuring they spend money at your pet store, rather than a competitor.

Lead marketing brings in new customers to your store. You won’t already have their information on hand, so the best way to market your pet store to these potential customers is through online ads like Google, Facebook, and Instagram. You can also use local print ads to draw in your community.

Marketing to customers is much easier with a CRM, because you already have their information. If you use software that has texting and emailing capabilities, you can communicate with your current customers in minutes. You can inform them about everything from events to sales.

Starting a pet shop can be difficult, but if you’re marketing to leads and customers from the beginning, it’s so much easier.

6. Service Management

If you’re starting a pet shop, you might also want to offer services like grooming, pet sitting, walking, and a pet bakery. These different types of services are great ways to give your pet store an edge against your competition. They’re also great ways to diversify your business and give you different branches to generate revenue.

The best way to manage services is to find a pet-specific POS system. The right system organizes appointments and prices services based on the type of service and animal.

If you use the right software, the operations behind the services you offer don’t have to be difficult to manage. Your store can grow so much more, and you can attract more customers to your pet shop.

Starting a Pet Shop With eTailPet

If you’re starting a pet shop, don’t forget to implement these six essential software and strategies from the beginning:

Comprehensive POS
Inventory management system
Customer relationship management
Customer loyalty program
Automated marketing tools
Service management

These tools and strategies will help your new pet store grow from opening day. But how can you manage all of them? The answer is simple: eTailPet.

eTailPet is an all-in-one POS system that can help you implement each and every one of these tips. Plus, eTailPet is a pet-specific software that was made with pet shop owners like you in mind.

With eTailPet, you can manage your services without a problem. Don’t worry about keeping your schedule organized, eTailPet does it for you. Plus, you can market to your customers by sending automated texts and emails about upcoming events, sales, or when their pets are ready to be dropped off or picked up.

With CRM functionality, you can connect with all your customers and their furry friends. eTailPet also makes running a pet store loyalty program easy with its Astro Loyalty integration.

eTailPet is so much more than a basic POS system. It gives you robust and comprehensive reporting capabilities, so you can make proper business decisions. Adding inventory to your store is seamless with its preloaded catalogs full of popular brands that your customers are sure to love.

Don’t miss out on eTailPet — it’s the best all-in-one, pet-specific POS system for your new pet shop. Schedule a demo today to see how eTailPet can make starting your pet shop easy and help you thrive for years to come.