By Wendy Bedwell-Wilson

Invaluable Asset

A big part of competing with other retailers is to make yourself valuable in the community. Here are some recommendations from specialty retailers: •Partner with local rescues and host adoption days. •Offer specialized services, like anesthesia-free teeth cleaning or cat boarding. •Welcome children’s tours and educational events. •Become the area expert on your specialty, and don’t be too humble to tout your expertise. •Create a sense of community for your patrons. •Give talks and seminars at area schools.

Does it pay to specialize? For many independent retailers, it most definitely does.

Specialty shops typically focus their products and services on one particular pet to compete in a market saturated with big-box retailers. They choose a select inventory and hope that their merchandise will cater to a crowd large enough to support them.

“For many one- and two-man retailers, specializing is the only way to go,” says Bob Vetere, president of the American Pet Products Manufacturers Assn. in Greenwich, Conn. “You have to find that one hook that’s going to cause people to get into their car and consciously go to you. That’s where you have to offer that special service, that special level of care, that insight that a 17-year-old Petco or Petsmart kid isn’t going to be able to give you.”

Urban metropolitan areas are a mecca for niche stores. Suburban areas, too, welcome specialty retailers. To thrive in the retail thicket of specialty shops, successful stores select their customer base, buy exclusively for them and offer them over-the-top customer service. “Even if you go out into Middle America suburbia, there’s still going to be people there who are looking for that special type of treat, that special type of care,” Vetere says.

“Baby boomers are everywhere, and as they turn to pets, they’re putting them at a much higher level of importance in the household, and they’re going to demand this extra level of service and hand-holding,” he says. “This bodes well for these shops for quite a few years to come.”

Here are comments from six retailers who specialize in fish, birds, cats, reptiles, boutique, and dogs, and how they compete in their respective markets.

 Absolutely Fish

Clifton, N.J.
Patrick Donston, owner

Courtesy Absolutely Fish

Patrick Donston has operated his fish-only shop for more than 15 years. He has two Petcos within 10 minutes of his shop, which features 14,000 gallons plus of hundreds of marine and freshwater fish from around the world.

Is he worried about his neighbors?

“I want them to exist,” he says. “Petco is putting tanks in the houses; Wal-Mart is putting tanks in the houses. They’re just hooking them in, and that’s all they want to do. They’re helping draw people into what I’m trying to sell them.”

It’s crucial, however, to let customers know his shop exists, Donston says. After fishkeepers are hooked on the hobby, they’ll seek out unique fish, high-end equipment and skilled sales people—more than the big boxes can offer.

“The trick is to get them into your place,” he says, adding that advertising in online and print directories is the best way to be known and found.

“Your ad should be very clear that you are specialty in what you do,” he says. “It’s hard to be specialized in everything, but specialize in one thing and be very good at it.”

Featherheads

Sterling, Va.
Susan van den Broek, owner

Courtesy Featherheads

After operating her bird-only store for nearly seven years, Susan van den Broek has also come to enjoy her relationship with her local Petco.

“Petco’s people have always referred customers to us,” she says. “So they’ve been one of our best sources of recommendation. We’ve been lucky in that respect.”

Because Featherheads is a specialty shop, it carries all the things that the big-box stores can’t. From a full range of livestock and toys to quality cages and play stands, van den Broek has the largest selection of birds and products in the area.

She developed a reputation, and it’s paying off one customer at a time. Specializing has allowed her and her employees to spend quality time with

each person who walks through the door. They have the bird expertise, and they share it with their customers.

“We have some good customers,” she says. “We like interacting with them on a more personal basis. You can get a better understanding of what their expectations are. We draw out what it is they’re thinking and find out the best bird for them.”

The Cat Connection

Dallas
Jay Horwitz, owner

Courtesy Cat Connection

When former advertising executives Jay and Anne Horwitz purchased The Cat Connection from its previous owner, they immediately added cat boarding, grooming and adoption services for their customers.

But they did something more: They began to sell super-premium dog food, too.

“Instantly, we were a big hit with our customers,” he says.

Ninety-five percent of their products are dedicated to cats, but by selling super-premium cat and dog food, they catered to the multiple-pet household looking for specialty products.

“We specialize in super-premium foods, and toys that you’re not going to find in the big-box stores,” he says. “There’s going to be some crossover, but I can get pretty close on price. They know if they’re going to come to my store, they’re going to pay a little bit extra.”

His challenge in specializing is finding cat products to fill his shelves.

“When you go to the [trade shows], you have to really search out the cat products,” he says. “That’s our biggest challenge, finding cat-only items.”

Southwestern Pet Centre

London, Ontario
Paul Unrau, owner

Courtesy Southwestern Pet Centre

When Superpet and Petco came to town, Paul Unrau and his son, Andrew, knew they had to set themselves apart to stay afloat. A breeding pair of basilisks steered them in the right direction.

“That was Andrew’s first venture into breeding,” he says. “From there, he ventured off into shows.”

They saw the opportunity and ran with it.

“We recognized that we could do something that the big boys really weren’t too interested in,” Unrau says. “Superpet has a fair reptile section, but they’re not experts at it.”

Known to children as the Home of the Dragon Man, the full-service retail shop now houses the largest display of reptiles in the city.

“You get to be recognized as a specialist,” he says. “We get a lot of kids who come in here and say that this is their favorite store in the whole city. It makes you feel good.”

Having a passion for what you do will make you successful, he says.

“You can decide to specialize in something, but if you don’t like the animals, you’re not going to be as successful as you could be,” Unrau says.

Fin-N-Feathers

Eureka, Calif.
Heather Bello, manager

Courtesy Fin-N-Feathers

As a full-service pet-specialty shop for more than 30 years, Fin-N-Feather overflowed with products, so much so that store manager Heather Bello was looking for storage. When a renovated building behind the store opened up, Bello jumped at the opportunity.

Instead of using it for her back stock, however, she opened The Pet Boutique.

“People were asking for the boutique products,” she says. “They would see the magazines and want them, and we didn’t have any place to put them. So we had to open another store.”

Her biggest challenge in specializing has been luring people in.

“Customers don’t have to go into the boutique,” she says. “They choose to go in there. It takes a completely different marketing approach. You have to make people want it.”

Managing inventory is still a chore, especially when competing with big-box retailers. Though she wants to carry a wide selection, she has to be choosy.

“It’s a fine line between having too much inventory and having enough of a selection that customers don’t go elsewhere before making a decision,” she says. “It’s a tricky juggling act, especially in the boutique.”

Muttropolis

Solana Beach, Calif.
Janet McCulley, co-owner

Courtesy Muttropolis

Pet-specialty stores abound in pet-dense Southern California, so when Janet McCulley and her business partners set out to open a chain of dog boutiques, they knew they had to stand out from the crowd.

Their strategy was to create an easily recognizable brand, hire a team of pet enthusiasts who develop a sense of community through customer service, and offer a product line that focuses on unique goods and merchandise it in a clean yet eye-catching way.

“We took a closer look at what the pet parent is looking for in their shopping experience and in products and service,” McCulley says. “We determined that they are looking for a more personalized experience. They find the big-box retailer somewhat impersonal and homogenized.”

The dog-specialty shop sells super-premium food and an array of top-quality products. The buyers constantly search out new unique items for their discerning customers.

“It’s easy to go to the shows and see all the products and say ‘I want it all,’” she says. “But you have to ask yourself: Is it really going to resonate with your core customer?”

By capturing a niche market, Muttropolis, like the other specialty retailers, can compete against the big-box giants.

“The big-box stores have incredible resources behind them,” McCulley says. “But the more you can specialize and differentiate yourself the better, because ultimately consumers have a choice, and you have to be able to articulate your product, your service, your branding and your differentiation.”

Posted: April 4, 2007