Pet store merchandising

According to British The Village, the annual cost of keeping pets is as follows: a cat costs an average of 26,000 dollars for its entire life, and a dog, depending on its size, costs $24-46.5 thousand. For the US, keeping a dog can reach up to 33,000, with 44% of this amount spent on foodstuff, and 30% on veterinary services, grooming and accessories. Keeping a cat in America is up to $11,000 (23% for food and 30% for veterinarian and accessories).

Pet owners go to pet stores regularly, so you have to do your best so that they visit exactly your store. Merchandising plays an important role in building customer loyalty. Read on to find out what to look for when organizing shelf space in a pet store.

Pet Store Display Features

Pet stores have an extensive product matrix: many categories, brands and a variety of sizes. It is necessary to carefully keep records of the pet store and choose what products to put on the shelf and how to place them better.

Pet store merchandising automation helps to profitably organize the entire shelf space spending the least time and effort. The pet store software keeps track of displays in every store, determines its efficiency and helps in operational tasks.

Clear zoning

The trading floor area is best to be zoned according to the types of animals. The “room system” - a clear division into dogs, cats, rodents, bird zones, and a pharmacy - is used here. You should also group the product into the following categories inside these blocks:

• by brands — optimal placement of different brands including your own;
• by age — kittens, teenagers and adult cats;
• by bodyweight – small, medium and large dogs.

It is better to place large items on the bottom shelves, and small items on the upper ones. The pet store software helps to visualize such a display, which simulates the trading floor and the layout of goods on fixtures.

Proper navigation

Proper navigation is aimed first of all at impulse purchases. Mostly, a person comes to the pet store for animal feeding stuff, so it is better to be placed at the end of the floor. Accessories and grooming should be at the checkout area. On the way to a particular product, nice bright packages of toys and accessories should be placed to attract attention and inspire additional purchases.

There are goods that do not belong to any category, for example, beds, and care products – they should also be placed separately, although in a conspicuous place.

Related: Retail Store Planogram - Importance in Visual Merchandising

Knowing your customers is the key to success

Mostly, women go shopping for pets, so for the female audience, you should make your merchandising bright and visually attractive.

It is also important to adjust the range depending on the specifics of the city/ region, and the features of the animal's ratio. A high standard of living is characterized by spending more money on pets, so you can diversify the product range with different non-essential accessories. In smaller towns, you’d better focus on feed and veterinary products.

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Pet store trading floor depending on the conception

Pet shop

These are small local stores. The optimum mix is assembled here with animal feeding stuff forming its basis - 55-65%, approximately 20% of the total sales are accessories for animals, such as collars, leashes, dishes, carriers, toys, jewelry, litter. 10-15% are for medicines and veterinary medicine. It is the availability of medicines that can become your competitive advantage. You’d better indicate the presence of those goods in your store before the customer drops in.

Specialty store

We would recommend opening such a store in highly competitive locations and honing it for specific animals. For example, it can be fish shops. Various types of fish, aquariums, food, aquarium accessories and equipment can be sold there. This format of pet store merchandising is strikingly different from ordinary pet markets. Emphasis should be placed on the clear aquariums, lighting and a variety of products for a particular species.

Pet market

This is a big city format that can be supplemented with some services – a grooming salon, pet tailor shop and other thematic services. These are large stores with a very wide range of products, so you need to carefully consider navigation and place POS materials to help the customers navigate the trading floor. It is important that the layout with all the advertising banners is visible. Here, the pet store software may be helpful, providing the display visualization.

Features of pet store planograms construction

The store's conception and fixtures can be different, so pet stores often develop unique planograms, when a special shelf space organization is made for each location.

When it comes to retail chains, companies are increasingly centralizing merchandising management through its automation. This cannot be done without special software. LEAFIO Planogram Optimization is a cloud-based system that can provide merchandising management. Pet store automation provides for simulation of floors and planograms, display efficiency analysis, control of shelf space organizing implementation and the dependence of margin on the placement of goods.

Pet shop automation: a turnkey solution

How to build planograms for pet markets using LEAFIO Planogram Optimization

Using LEAFIO Planogram Optimization, you can optimize the entire merchandising area:

• the trading floor control unit will allow you to analyze hot-cold zones and make the necessary adjustments; fixtures constructor with ready-made templates makes it possible to simulate the appearance of shelves, racks, etc.;
• automated planogram construction provides display visualization in different options: by colours, by manufacturers, or by sizes ;
• auto-filling of zones in planograms makes it possible to organize the shelf space with a priority of the characteristics specified by the user, in the order and sorting that they like, and then the system itself will fill the shelves with goods according to the rules of the set display;
• the analytics block provides various reports in the context of the planogram and floor layout, helping in making decisions: ABC analysis, sales per sq. m and many others;
• display control is provided using a mobile application, where you can set clear tasks for managers and receive realogram photos with commentaries directly to the central office. 

An example of a pet store planogram 

If fixtures are standard, then using the pet store software makes you work with conceptions – think over the display for a specific shelving rack and replicate it in all locations. This speeds up the process because you can use the same planogram for several stores.

Pet store automation helps not only to put products on the shelves in order, but also to work with the range from now on, it is easier to add and remove goods and change the display depending on performance indicators.

Do you need pet store automation and a handy merchandising tool? Contact us.