A website that offers daily deals for pet products has launched nationwide.
For the Pet gives pet owners discounted rates for toys, treats, small bags of food, water fountains and the like for a period of two weeks. While shipping is free, the items take 2 – 3 weeks to arrive after the deal expires.
The website is primarily geared towards dog products with plans to stock items for cats and birds from May. Founder Daniel Carrington says that more people are going online as bricks-and-mortar pet stores register dwindling customer numbers.
“Consumers used to go to a pet store and receive one-on-one customer service,” he says.
“Our business model is to offer cheap products. There is no one that caters 100% to pets in Australia on a weekly basis. The new generation, or Generation Y, spend anywhere between $80 and $120 on deals online so that they can buy it cheap and get it delivered. Our price depends on what we can generate from the customers.”
After suppliers come to an agreement about the discounts on the products, the store purchases them in bulk. Once a deal is sold on the website, the suppliers are paid immediately, which reduces their costs, enabling consumers who took advantage of the discount. According to Carrington, different suppliers offer different prices with discounts ranging from 10% to 40%.
Carrington says his staff’s knowledge and experience in the pet industry makes them well-placed to predict and test products that will sell. The website has an email sign-up service and boasts some 55,000 subscribers. Subscribers are also emailed a daily deal.
“We have received very good responses from our users,” he says.
“There is a 25% to 30% open rate. For instance, if 25,000 to 30,000 people read the email that was sent to 100,000 people, only 5% to 8% of that number will actually buy items from the website.”
The website is currently bootstrapped and is aiming to make an impact in regional areas. It is working with marketing strategies which include Facebook, various pet-related organisations, referrals from people who have used their service and dog clubs, as 70% of their turnover rate comes from dog-related items.
Carrington hopes to hit 100,000 subscribers by the end of the year and begin advertising in newspapers in major cities once the website puts down stronger roots in the online marketplace.
“We are focused on the price point and weight of the product,” he says.
“As a new company, we are gifting people time to know us and order from us. Over the long term, we will shorten the time limit on deals to perhaps seven days. But first we want customers to talk about it (us) and purchase (from us) it.”
This story originally appeared on StartupSmart.
