The Big Bad Woof’s outdated POS system was holding them back
The Big Bad Woof launched their business with a rudimentary point of sale (POS) system back in 2005.
For a while, it handled the basics — but the store grew rapidly. The Big Bad Woof partnered with new vendors to expand their selection of pet foods, started selling online, and needed stronger reporting capabilities.
Their old-school system simply couldn’t keep up.
“Remember, this was 20 years ago, so the POS systems were not nearly as advanced as they are now. There were problems with reporting. There were issues with inventory tracking, and online e-commerce was really just starting to become a force in the industry.”
That’s when Pennye heard about eTailPet at a pet retail trade show. She hadn’t been looking for a new POS system, but she knew that The Big Bad Woof’s current solution was missing the mark.
She sat down with Berenice Giannini, eTailPet’s founder, and saw what a purpose-built pet store POS system could do for her business.
She made the switch — and she hasn’t looked back.
How eTailPet transformed The Big Bad Woof’s day-to-day operations
Now, The Big Bad Woof relies on eTailPet to manage every aspect of their business — from keeping their store stocked with the very best pet foods to maintaining their e-commerce website. Let’s look at some of their most-used features.
Inventory and catalog management
The Big Bad Woof has one of the largest selections of specialty pet foods in the area, and they sell online. This makes maintaining their product catalog a challenge.
Before eTailPet, they used a system called Magento that required them to input every single product detail by hand. They even had to hire a full-time employee to manage their catalog.
eTailPet’s centralized product database changed everything.
Now, instead of uploading everything manually, The Big Bad Woof team pulls product information from the central database, makes adjustments as needed, and keeps pricing consistent across all channels — online and in store.
“Now, because there’s a centralized data system, we can pull those catalog images down. We can pull down the descriptions easily and then change the description if needed, easily adjust pricing, etc.”
eTailPet’s real-time inventory tracking and improved reporting also make it easier to keep the store stocked with customers’ go-to pet foods.
“Inventory management has continued to improve over the years. So that’s been a big plus for us. And there’s been updates to the reporting system that have helped a lot in helping us manage our business.”
Marketing and integrations
For The Big Bad Woof, eTailPet is more than a simple POS system — it’s an all-in-one hub that helps them manage their marketing efforts.
One of Pennye’s favorite eTailPet features is the Astro Loyalty integration. Instead of manually applying discounts and tracking customers’ reward points, staff rely on Astro Loyalty to do the hard work.
“One of the things I love about eTailPet is that it seamlessly integrates with Astro Loyalty. So not only are people able to take advantage of offers both online and in store, but it makes it very easy for our staff to set up monthly store sales, print up advertisements for them, put the items in our newsletter, and get them sent out via social media.”
Other eTailPet integrations Pennye uses are MailChimp to stay in touch with customers and ShipStation to handle logistics for online customers.
Instead of juggling logins and coordinating multiple tools, she can trust one system to manage all of The Big Bad Woof’s operations.
Personalized onboarding, easy training, and ongoing support
It’s not just the software that made eTailPet the right fit for The Big Bad Woof. It was the onboarding and training experience.
The system is user-friendly enough for new cashiers to learn in minutes, and the eTailPet team provided in-depth training to ensure Pennye and her team got the most out of its features.
“Initially, getting the training done with the staff was pretty easy. eTailPet did send a support person out to help get everything set up for us and to walk through training with all of the staff initially. So that helped ease the transition demonstrably.”
The support didn’t stop there. Pennye says one of her favorite things about eTailPet is that she can make feature requests and have them prioritized on the roadmap.
“One of the biggest improvements in the last few years has been the ability for store owners to submit feature requests. Being able to get them on the roadmap for development has been really, really important in terms of the evolution of the POS software.”