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Pet products direct

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Fisher Consultancy

I have 2 friends who are in the pet industry and they say that even with the slowdown they are doing extremely well. We all know that pets are treated as part of the family now and they need to be fed.

They said they are doing well but they are both really out of the way with their shops. I was wondering what you thought about the idea of having products direct to your door, a little like kleeneze and betterware.

A sales rep would deliver a catalogue, come back in a few days to take your order and then come back a few days later with your product, if it was a regular supply f food eg 1 bag a month then this could be set up as a regular delivery. You wouldnot have to leave your home for your pets!

I was just wondering what you thought to direct selling and if this could possibly work. Stats saythat nearly 1 in 2 households in the UK own a pet.

Any advice great...
 
I would not need to buy stock, just set up a website and a catalogue and i could work with the people i know and use their businesses to do this. They would benefit from it too.
 
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We already do this with our pets - it's called Asda home delivery.
 
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The problem you are going to have is that the supermarkets operate on very small margins on these products - stack em high, sell em cheap.
In order to make your operation work i would expect those doing the selling would need a much higher margin, this will mean that all the major brands cannot be in your range.

I don't think its viable but good luck.
 
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Thanks for your comments. I really didn't think that the supermarkets had a great range, i thought someone specialising in this could make a killing. Also its a 20 min drive to my nearest pet shop so thats 40 mins both ways just for dog food. And also trophy foods just do food, im thinking the whole shabang. Isn't home shopping somet like £5ish for delivery aswell? Supermarkets sell alot of the stuff out of betterware and kleeneze but people still use them...
 
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The people you asked who's businesses are doing really well, despite the credit thingy.

Isn't everyone's business doing well, when asked???

;)
 
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I work with them quite closely, not on the business but on other things, and i can tell they are not lying, when would they, they are close friends.
 
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Is something like this not good to start then? There would be a large selection of products, including food, beds, leads collars etc. I thought there was a gap in the market, as apart from supermarkets there aint much out there for pets, and even the pets dont get a great selection. Also, i might be missing something but i cannot see pet stuff on asda or tesco websites ( i may be wrong)
 
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If i had a pet, which i currently dont btw, i would pay to have the food etc delivered as long as the products were priced the same as my local pet shop, lots of people out there who dont have the time to shop these days.
 
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Hi all

First time posting here after much lurking. This is a fascinating forum, and a fair proportion of my bookmarks are now to various threads!

Regarding this idea, a company called K9 capers in Sussex is trying this out. You could try with them first to see if it works. I have been looking at it, but the commission puts me off. That said, they reckon the order size would compensate for that.

K9capers.com is the address

Regards

Graham
 
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thanks for that skakes. I personally think its a good idea. Does anyone know where i could get brand name dog foods from at wholesale like beta and chappies and bakers etc. If i could find this out then i would not need to involve the people who have shops i know as they would want a cut. I know where to get other things like beds and leads/collars etc.
 
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We spend over 250k pa with our biggest supplier of pet supplies. If I bought a 25kg bag of dog food for £10 net I can have it delivered to anywhere in the UK next day for £18.99 in vat and postage (so £1 profit).

And I had to spend over 100k to get a preferential discount in the first place so in theory It would next to impossible for you to improve on what I can already do. Certainly to pay a full time wage to the van driver you would have to make more than £1 per drop profit!

That said it depend on the area. If there is a good community spirit and its a rural area they may well welcome the convenience and be quite happy. In fact if you turned up unanounced most people would not question the price. so long as you are no more expensive than an average traditional retailer it will come down to 'do I need dog food or not'

Why do you want to do this anyway? Is it a nice job for yourself or do you want to set up a wider operation and employ people?
 
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if you look a bit more closely on the internet you will see there are at least 50 UK online pet stores already doing direct sales, not just one or 2. Probably closer to 100 if you start really looking.
Why would I want to buy from a catalogue when I can browse a huge range from an online store.
And if you investigate more, you can order pet food and a few supplies directly from vet clinics , as well as from pet store, although only about 10% of stores and clinics deliver food currently.
At the end of the day, people want TRUST when they pay for something.
And why should they trust your catalogue... and how good will your catalogue look anyway?
They like the reliability of a huge online store like petplanet.co.uk (or dawg's store from this forum), or a real actual shop they know locally.
Yes pet products is a big market, and quite recession proof to a degree, but your idea wont work in this format.
(I trained as a vet and do pet product sourcing so I have checked out this market.)
And even the whole concept is wrong-
catalogue sales to your door? not for any product! so 20th century...

The only way this could work in my POV is if your friends with pet shops produced their own 'local shop' catalogue and then used it as a way of increasing their delivery sales in their local area. But I cant see how you would fit into that.
Good luck!
 
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murdoch said:
if you look a bit more closely on the internet you will see there are at least 50 UK online pet stores already doing direct sales, not just one or 2. Probably closer to 100 if you start really looking.
Why would I want to buy from a catalogue when I can browse a huge range from an online store.
And if you investigate more, you can order pet food and a few supplies directly from vet clinics , as well as from pet store, although only about 10% of stores and clinics deliver food currently.
At the end of the day, people want TRUST when they pay for something.
And why should they trust your catalogue... and how good will your catalogue look anyway?
They like the reliability of a huge online store like petplanet.co.uk (or dawg's store from this forum), or a real actual shop they know locally.
Yes pet products is a big market, and quite recession proof to a degree, but your idea wont work in this format.
(I trained as a vet and do pet product sourcing so I have checked out this market.)
And even the whole concept is wrong-
catalogue sales to your door? not for any product! so 20th century...

The only way this could work in my POV is if your friends with pet shops produced their own 'local shop' catalogue and then used it as a way of increasing their delivery sales in their local area. But I cant see how you would fit into that.
Good luck!
Click to expand...

All very true, especially the bit about 20th centuary delivery service...

Possibly the best bit in all this is that he wants to pinch his mates business! What a friend to have! - Maybe they live in different areas but still...

I have always maintained its no good looking at what someone else does to make money and trying to do the same. Your best chance of success is to do something you enjoy, are naturally good at and are in a beneficial position to do better than most others.

I design water features because I'm naturally good at design and build tasks, I happened to have a good relationship with a stainless steel fabricator and I enjoy it so I do a good job consistently. This led onto me buying pumps on a large scale from a pet and aquatics company so I then started an online aquatics store as an offshoot. This grew and required a warehouse which I recently turned into a retail outlet as well (internet prices in a traditional shop - very popular in a recession). Then we started installing the water features all over europe so we bought a large motorhome to save on accomodation working overseas, now we rent that out when not being used. I could go on, there are at least another 5 income streams now.

The point is you cannot follow your mates example. Even if you believe you can improve on their method. Find your own business, if its not something you are equipped to do better than anyone else what makes you think it will last vs competition?
 
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Fisher Consultancy said:
I thought there was a gap in the market
Click to expand...

Why do you think there is a gap in the market??????

Google search 'dog collars' - over 2 million results, i went to page 20 (the top 200) and still found pages that are trying to improve their seo!!!

The is certainly NO gap in the pet products market, i looked into this industry 2 years ago with a business contact and that was on ranges that were unique to us as they were designed and manufactured by us and we still decided that our efforts were best placed elsewhere.
 
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OH - NO. Not another idea Fisher. How many is that in the last few months and just about everything from snake oil to eco friendly. Are you sure you are not just winding members up. Either that or you are simply lost in cyberspace.

For a real business opportunity look for something that isn't there and I'll give you one idea if your into door to door. It is called Real Ale.

It has a huge following and Camra have a web site offering delivery of mixed cases but it is bloody expensive with delivery charges. get a van and deliver for free. You could earn £200 a day recurringh every month and you only need about 300 customers there must be over 2,000 Camra members in your area.
 
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as a pet owner ( and someone who operates a pet business ) I do purchase a lot ( I mean a lot ) of items on a regular basis, mainly from online pet stores or specialists, the reason that I buy online is that I can order when I want and have it delivered when I want. Would you be able to compete with that plus the prices that these online guys can?
 
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I appreciate al your comments, thats why i made the post. The comment you made Murdoch about 'not buying from a magazine instead people would go to their shop or supermarket etc, i understand that point, but why do kleeneze do well then doing the same thing? Their products you could get from shops and supermarkets! The idea was to have a website, but the catalogue would be for people who do not use the internet, its unbelievable but there are still people out there that dont. My friends live no where near me so the comment about competing against them is invalid.

There is also a waggy tails set up in my local shopping mall and they seem to be doing well, its a stall in the middle of the centre.

Are local pet shops profitable? Could this work if it was an exra service to a local pet shop? I mean personally i buy 1 bag around the same time every month, if this could be set up as a continual order automatically delivered to my door, that would be more convenient than a 40 round trip just for a bag of dog food.
 
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can I ask, before you even think about this venture, what previous experience you have? do you have any working knowledge of Canine/Feline/small animal nutrition?

Local pet shops can ( IMO) be profitable, but the next Pah is just around the corner!

if you have to make a long trip to buy dog food, why not order online?
 
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Fisher Consultancy said:
The idea was to have a website, but the catalogue would be for people who do not use the internet, its unbelievable but there are still people out there that dont.
Click to expand...

Other times I've seen you post you have spoken sense! Is this a bad week for you?

Look at what you have written above. You seriously want to enter a well catered for market, during a recession, and target buyers (non web users) will only decrease to pratical non existence withing a few short years.

You cannot launch a succesful local supply and delivery business based solely on the hope that your customers won't notice they can buy the same online for less and get it delivered as quickly.

I really think its time to forget this sort of business and modernise your thinking a bit. Time to plan for the future - and not try and make money from the dregs of the past.
 
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Well i read a very interesting article about the pet industry and it is doing very well and i thought or trying to enter the arket providing a service a little bit different, then i saw an article on kleeneze and thought that that concept but with pet products would work really well.
 
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Also looking at places like 'petplanet.co.uk' i can source products andmake enough mark-up on them and still beat or match their prices. Its the door to door service i like, i seems more personal Than just ordering from a website. I mentioned my 40 min round trip to my pet store, when im there they ask about my dogs and provide that personal service, when they were pups they chewed my slippers and the staff at the pet shop remembered that, and i thought that was great.
 
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Fisher Consultancy said:
Also looking at places like 'petplanet.co.uk' i can source products andmake enough mark-up on them and still beat or match their prices. Its the door to door service i like, i seems more personal Than just ordering from a website. I mentioned my 40 min round trip to my pet store, when im there they ask about my dogs and provide that personal service, when they were pups they chewed my slippers and the staff at the pet shop remembered that, and i thought that was great.
Click to expand...

I would always doubt that you will be able to beat or match the cheaper online shops on price alone. Anyone who searches for the same product on Google Base will almost always find someone doing it cheaper. There is no way you can compete on price until you handle more volume than you can ever deliver locally.

This is not a scaleable business, its not a business full stop. It would be you in a van, self employed, providing a service in your local area.

And you know what? If you have a cheery disposition and a love of doggies you will probably do just fine. It will be impossible to make more than a basic living because you will never be able to make high enough markup without people realising they can save a lot of money but you can probably make enough to justify your time.

Most dog ownere would probably welcome the opportunity for 10 mins chit chat about their pooch when you turn up at their door. These people will then consider buying something.

If it's what you really want to do then don't let anyone put you off. Sure its possible to make money but it won't ever be a succesful business model on which to build.
 
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Oh and regards Kleenex - yes they do just fine, they are an established brand but catalogue shopping is on the way out. Apart from anything else the web offers the same, its quicker and greener than printing catalogues! A bit late to start up a catalogue maild order/delivery service.

Regards the pet trade - yest it is growing, deceptively. Most figures come from the wholsalers. The volume of products sold has iincreased dramatically as online sales have pushed prices down. The wholsalers are peddling a lot more but the amount of cash actually spent at retail has only increased marginally in the last few years.

And the boom that started 10 years ago is coming to a close - despite this it is a dependable year round market and people will give up a lot of other luxury's before they stop feeding their pets. But it's by no means an 'ideal' time to jump on board for the sake of it. Telecoms is still growing faster!
 
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Lets despel the Kleeneze myth. The sales are pathetic and they are a pale imitation of Betterwear. Why does the latter do well. I'll tell you and as my ex-wive was a regional manager you can take this as being straight from the horses mouth so to speak and suspect that Movietub will already know it - it is volume and orgaization and that volume comes from orgainization.

My ex had 40 managers working for her. They each had 20 distributors. That is 800 people working to py my ex-wifes wages and make a small profit for the company.

Why does it work volume again those 800 people put out 80,000 brochures and it is a numbers game. The point is that with quarterly updates over 64 MILLION brochures are printed each year and you think that you can earn a living poping a couple of 100 brochures through leterboxes. You can't on the logistics alone.

Paddypaws asked what experience you had in dog nutrition. You failed to reply thinking that you could source on the Net. One dog gets ill and you will be done for and believe it or not the RSPCA have more powers of arrest than the Police in some areas.

All this is going to fall on deaf ears of course because I have sussed out what our mr Fishers secret game plan is. He plans to open a consultancy on what businesses not to go into and he must have over a dozen already.
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Come on now young man . Be honest - you keep coming up with different schemes. Have you stuck at anything for more than a few days. Take my and Movietubs advice.. He says modernise your thinking. I say get real and look for real possibilities and they are out there but remember. Even then you have to work at them and I have to say one that what I have seen so far you concentration level doesn't go that far yet. Rob

Whoops. Almost forgot. Got another great idea - It called SHARPIE. We used to have a man and his small van round the houses sharpening everything from scissors to garden shears. You don't see them these days but what goes around comes around and that is an area an enterprising younster can compete with the supermarkets and any on-line store.
 
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i dont know the OP, and am new to these boards, I do sympathise with you.

I had many hair brained ideas about what I wanted Paddy Paws Pet Services to do, it was hard to streamline what I could actually do, and then find someone who had enough faith in me and my knowledge and professional experience ( worked with dogs since leaving school at 16, have certs in Nutrition, Psychology, foster for 2 rescues and have helped rehab many others )

The pet industry is a very tough market, there are thousands of online/offline retailers. Most local pet stores will deliver within their area, my local one delivers me a sack of Bonios every 2 weeks, I also order other items as and when I need them. I honestly do not think that you could compete with that. I for one would not use a company supplying animal equipment who did not have a good working knowledge of what s/he is selling, and its uses ( Im sad enough to randomly ask pet store staff about foods, find it hilarious when they fall apart at basic questions )

Why dont you make a list of your skills/experiences/financials...then look at the market and see where you could fit a business in.

When I was on my Princes Trust course ( highly recommend to anyone young business person ) There was a lad a few years older than me, wanted to be a bin cleaner ( que, mocking of smelly bins ) he now has a very very good business, he charges £3 per bin cleaned, 2 x per month...minted!
 
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I fear myself and Oldeagleeye have picked enough sizeable holes to count this one as a non starter. But still thats why we all post these ideas, to be reminded why we should not invest in them! It's only a matter of time before you come up with something fantastic so move away from this one - it will only delay getting started on something really worth while.

what are your interests? What are you good at? What has your career/industry background equipped you to do well? Do you have any contacts? Answers to these questions will lead to discussion about something you could do really well (and in a 21st centuary fashion) :)
 
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Any minute now Fisher is going to log on to not only discover his business model has been shredded but the thread has been reduced to love letters between you two...

I'v just thanked you both as its Christmas.
 
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movietub said:
Any minute now Fisher is going to log on to not only discover his business model has been shredded but the thread has been reduced to love letters between you two...

I'v just thanked you both as its Christmas.
Click to expand...


coffee on screen moment!
 
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Oldeagleeye - I think the following comment is pathetic! - 'Come on now young man . Be honest - you keep coming up with different schemes. Have you stuck at anything for more than a few days.' - These are only ideas, instead of thinking things through i post on here as more heads are better than one. To stick at something you have to start it and i have not started any of the things i posted because it was just thoughts going round in my head about ideas.

I take everyones opinions on board and thats the main reason i post on here with the ideas i have, as you are all (mostly) very wise and experienced and if i come up with something and cant see any flaws then i know you will bring them to my attention and thats great. I thought that what forums are for, to voice opinions and ideas.
 
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btw - moviehub, thanks for all your comments on a few different posts i have made. You sound very succesful. Guys, i know i come up with something everyother day, but i have run a succesful business in the past and have the funds to expand into something new to broaden my skills, thats why i post alot, just to get a feel for what people think works and what doesn't. I dont seem to be getting the ones that do work yet but hey, there is still time :)
 
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