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Start a pet shop: first part.

Open a pet shop or a pet store.

June 7, 2010 | Doing business

The ideas for doing business are so many, from the traditional to the most innovative. You can offer products and services for individuals, but also for animals. In this first episode of the report dedicated to the implementation of an activity, we talk about just a sector that deals to offer products and services for animals : pet shop or pet store . Although the term seems very new and innovative, similar activities, were active already in the early ’60.

OPEN A STORE FOR PETS: THE MODERN PET SHOP

Traditionally, the pet shop was dealing with the marketing of products (accessories and animal feed), then with the passage of time and increased competition, companies have sought to innovate and diversify by focusing on additional services not yet explored or brought by competitors such as pet sitting, ie the assistance to pets during the absence of the owners, or grooming, or the sale of dietary products for specific animals.

In a few words to survive in an increasingly saturated market and fierce, they tried to specialize. So the secret, in fact, or the secrets, to start a business in products and services for animals are those of diversification and specialization. With this brief introduction on how to start a business so do not want to discourage you, but help you to send on track to get groped you to understand what are the services most requested by the potential target of market and which are the services to let go.

OPEN A STORE FOR ANIMALS: THE MARKET

Meanwhile, we see how the market is presented, ie how many pets are present in households, by geographical distribution. Last year an article in the newspaper Il Messaggero revealed that pets owned by families in Italy, were about 45 million, of which 150 thousand abandoned each year. In the first place in ranking of pets are fish (16 million), followed by birds (12 million), cats (7 and a half million) than dogs (7 million) and marginally from reptiles and other species. The regions with the highest rate of complaints of mistreatment of animals, according to the article, were the North West, followed by Central and then from the Islands.

This may indicate a greater distribution of pets in certain geographic areas to which may match a low coverage of services adapted to the care and management of animals. As for cats, just think that the region holding the largest number of cats is Lombardy, followed by Lazio, Piedmont, Emilia Romagna, Valle d’Aosta, Molise and Basilicata. Another fact to consider in assessing the viability of local customs is, that the mode of nourishment and care that families owning, as its own 4-legged friends.

In areas where animal food is traditionally made with leftovers of food consumed by humans, set up a shop selling food fit only for animals, it is not really a right choice. Indeed, we must emphasize that this is currently one of the services unless required by the market of 4-legged pets. If you decide to keep the service in the territory, you must understand if the reference families have other types of animals such as fish, birds, reptiles, so you can specialize in the sale of food products and ad hoc.

OPEN A STORE FOR ANIMALS: THE CHANGES IN RECENT YEARS

The sale of animal feed has suffered a blow with the advent of large-scale distribution where are often found the foods for animal. The sale of these foods has also occupied some segments of e-commerce, transforming it into one of the fiercest competitors in the industry.

In search engine, just type the simple keyword “pet shop”, without even adding the word “online” to find over 47 million results all over the web, of which only 240 000 in the Italian web.

The novelty of a pet shop last generation must therefore necessarily be represented by the diversification and the specialization, trying to match the sale of products and accessories, services. For example, you can sell products for the diet of pet, such as organic foods, but also pesticides that are particularly sought after by the owners of dogs and cats. If you sell you can combine a series of services such as pet sitting, already mentioned, or pet taxi for transporting pets (especially of the elderly person) to the studies at the vet or the grooming.

Another idea is very appreciated by the market, is the delivery of food at home, as already done by some pet shop online and to be promoted through the visit to the home of an employee who can best represent and describe the characteristics of the food sold. Continued on the next episode …

Another source which we took some data goddess:

http://www.aidaa.net/eventi_11.htm

Rosalba Mancuso

Sources of images:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/andreapacelli/799418107/in/set-72157600882056381/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/gattomimmo/4225783185/