Running a pet store comes with more challenges than a typical retail environment. When a store’s stock is living, breathing creatures who deserve the best possible care, a pet store owner can use all of the assistance they can find to run their operation. Modern technological solutions make it easier to run an efficient and healthy pet store. Here are a few emerging technologies every Transforming Pet Store owner in the industry should look into.
What Technological Solutions Belong in a Modern Pet Store?
The best business solutions address multiple problems at once. From organization to scheduling to marketing, here are the ways the latest advancements can boost a pet store business.
Advanced Point of Sale System
Regular POS software for a retail store doesn’t meet all the needs of a pet store. Pet products are specialized and widely varied, and entering every food type and toy into a pet store’s point of sale system manually can be an enormous hassle.
The best POS system for a pet store addresses these challenges with a pre-loaded catalog of thousands of pet products. The system can also track sales trends so you can see which brands are most popular in a store’s local area. Online shopping is a huge consideration for modern pet owners. The right POS software comes with pre-built eCommerce capabilities that ease a brick-and-mortar store’s integration with an online store.
Scheduling Apps
Scheduling is more important in a store with live pets than it is any other retail environment. Nested scheduling apps on phones can digitally track feeding and care schedules within a pet store. Any pet store using an outdated paper system should switch over so that owners and employees can see care schedules anywhere from their phones.
Online Shopping
The right system can allow customers to order pet supplies online, keeping the store profitable outside of business hours. More pet owners are automatically renewing their orders online, and current projections state that online shopping for pet supplies will rise another 4.3% over the course of this year. Setting up an online store makes it convenient for a pet store’s loyal customers to order more supplies.
Webcam Monitoring
Any store that houses live animals should invest in a webcam monitoring system. Dog daycares use these systems extensively so that clients can see how their dogs are being treated during the day. Monitoring animals on a webcam gives insight into any behavioral issues in a pet store’s pets before these issues escalate. Pet store owners can also be sure that the animals receive care on the proper schedule with no mix-ups, even when they’re not in the store themselves.
Veterinary Telemedicine
Telemedicine has transformed the veterinary industry almost as much as it has affected the human medical landscape. Many pet stores aren’t equipped to offer extensive veterinary services to clients or call up a veterinarian multiple times a week, but a telemedicine station can help.
Employees can use a telemedicine app or station to ask common questions, rather than trying to look up answers themselves with possibly inaccurate information. Animal nutritionists and behaviorists use these apps as well to provide more guidance to owners, clients and employees.
Digital Marketing
Every pet store should be using multiple digital marketing avenues to boost business. Pets are naturally perfect for social media with their cute features and entertaining behaviors. Showcasing a pet of the week or pet care fact on a company’s social media page is an easy way to organically boost engagement and brand recognition.
Pet store owners should consider building an email list and monthly newsletter as well as using social media. While a newsletter doesn’t have as far a natural reach as a social media page, with today’s rapidly shifting social media landscape, it pays to have a steady and reliable platform to digitally market to customers.
Pictures of pets and trends in food and toy purchases make it easy to fill a newsletter with entertaining and valuable content. Owners should also consider putting the spotlight on exciting and novel pet products, such as cat harnesses. Instructions on how to harness train a cat and the benefits of harness training can provide valuable expert advice to a store’s customers.
The pet industry has entered a new era as many pet owners are buying only the best for their furry families. Transforming Pet Store should invest in diverse technological solutions to take advantage of this critical shift.