According to the most conservative estimates, animal lovers annually spend about 2-3 thousand rubles on their pets. And many more. Attached to their pets, their owners try to do whatever it takes to make their little friends’ lives as comfortable as possible, and pet product manufacturers are always coming up with new ways to make that happen.
And since there is both demand and supply for these products, it’s time to start thinking about how to start a pet store and make it profitable.
Market Research To Start A Pet Shop
According to statistics, 35 percent of families have cats, 20 percent dogs, 3 percent fish, and 1 percent turtles or hamsters. This list does not include exotic animals – rabbits, iguanas, chinchillas, guinea pigs: less than 1% of the population has such unusual pets.
At the same time, it is important for pet owners that pets are healthy, fed, and happy. That’s why many pet owners trust only the best brands available in the market like Royal Canin. And although the market for animal products is huge and the demand for these products is high, there is also a lot of competition here. Therefore, before you decide to start this business, you need to find out how many of these shops there are in the city, whether this number is enough to meet the needs of customers, whether there are densely populated areas where there are no shops with goods for animals in general.
Which pet store are you planning to open?
Depending on the means you have and the result you expect, you can choose one of the following options:
- A large store with a rich assortment, offering customers animals, birds, fish and everything needed for pet care. Such a store should have several departments, and the number of sellers and consultants can be more than a dozen.
- Fairly large self-service pet store. It requires a spacious hall, several sellers and 1-2 cashiers.
A medium-sized store, the main assortment here will be groceries, accessories, medicines, it is possible to sell various types of medium-sized animals (hamsters, parrots, etc.). - A small shop that sells pet care products and food for them.
- Pet supplies department in a large mall or hypermarket. Of course, here you will have to limit yourself to the sale of goods for animals, selling pets, most likely, will not work: this can cause inconvenience to other traders, and the animals themselves will feel uncomfortable in such a place.
- A specialty store that sells products for a specific species of animal.
- The online shop is a modern and convenient form of commerce. Such a store can be a standalone store or a good addition to a “proper” retail store. In any case, you will have to take care of the delivery service.
Be smart. Using information from the Internet and discussions in topic forums in your city will help you: Here you will not only find out where there are not enough pet shops in your city, but also about the products from which manufacturers animal lovers recommend and from which on the contrary, is strongly discouraged. All of this will come in handy when it comes time to decide on the type of pet store you are going to open.
