Website Closers® presents a phenomenally successful business that matches happy, healthy puppies with loving families across the US. This company has a unique background, it started out with a local retail shop, but eCommerce quickly changed the rules for them, and now plays a significant role in their overall success, giving this company the ability to reach a significantly wider customer base.
Their booming eCommerce site has enabled the brand to significantly diversify the services they offer while opening doors to some tremendous future growth opportunities such as the creation of a branded online store for pet supplies.
This family-owned business was launched in August 2014 with a simple goal: to find ways to provide puppies with a much-needed and loving home. Starting with a flagship store in Fairfax County, the brand grew quickly by offering customers an exceptionally wide selection of breeds to choose from. Over the years, that selection has included Chihuahuas, Chow Chows, French Bulldogs and Boston Terriers – as many as 120 puppies are made available at any time, to keep in line with their ever-present demand.
The puppies themselves help considerably in selling as their adorableness knows no bounds. This company has similarly benefitted from its reputation for maintaining high standards when it comes to selecting breeders for the puppies in their shop. Before any breeders are chosen to be contracted with, this business ensures that they are providing the best possible care for their puppies and breeding them both ethically and sustainably.
Gross revenues have skyrocketed, which is no surprise since the puppy industry is a unique and highly profitable one. People who are in the market to buy a puppy don’t approach this sale as they would any other common household product. The emotional bond between a puppy and the customer is much stronger, so this is very much an emotional purchase for them. They can develop an instant attachment to their pet.
That makes this industry a more challenging one to operate in, since customers have much different expectations about the purchase they’re about to make and can be far more demanding and have much higher expectations. This business has understood its core audience from day one and knows exactly how to meet their expectations.
As a result, sales are thriving and remain healthy year-round. The company has an average order value of $9,000, and selects new breeds on a weekly basis, often stocking up to $250,000 worth of available puppies. Dogs are astonishingly lucrative, and this company has seen the consistent success that proves it.
What became an even bigger game changer for the brand, however, is the expansion of their online presence, which gave their team an opportunity to leverage an impressive list of new services for pet owners to match their track record of successfully pairing families with puppies.
The eCommerce site enabled this brand to dramatically enlarge its core mission of providing superior customer service to pet owners, which their website now does in creative ways by enhancing the entire pet buying experience.
First, the company launched a new service called Puppy Finder. If a family is looking for a specific breed, they can use this online program to track down whatever breed they desire.
Next, the business introduced an educational and informative blog that provides useful information about puppies, animal care, nutrition, and so much more. It had the added benefit of boosting their SEO program and driving more organic traffic to the site.
Another online service offers information to customers who are looking for financing options, such as where to secure a loan to finance their purchase. Without question, these are all valuable services that pet owners appreciate.
The eCommerce site gave the company a massive boost in another way: photos. With plenty of photos of the puppies available to adopt, their website developed an irresistible way to quickly catch the viewers’ eye and win over their emotions. In addition to photos of all those loving puppies, the company created a video gallery with videos about their breeders, and a series of photos of the puppies that recently got adopted and now have a wonderful home.
In the exact same way that photos of the exterior and interior of a new home on the market can secure a fast online sale among home buyers, those photos and videos of their puppies has given the company a customer reach that goes well beyond their flagship store.
In the past 7 years, this business has grown significantly, with their website and reputation for excellent customer service increasing their customer base. The company now enjoys a massive 400+ customer contacts a day, and repeat customers now make up 20% of their sales. The brand also benefits from fantastic online reviews, both for the puppy they sell and their devotion to customer care.
Their customer base has expanded as well, courtesy of their social media program. They have 4,340+ followers on Facebook and 1,770+ on Instagram, where posted photos of their puppies help drive organic traffic to the site.
With an email database of 60,000 subscribers, the company has experienced similar success with their email marketing campaigns, while PPC ads on social media sites through Google Search Network and videos about their puppies posted on their YouTube channel drive sales as well.
Thanks to the success of their eCommerce site, this company could scale rapidly, including by adding new services to the website such as pet shipping and pet training services.
The use of enhanced video marketing on YouTube and TikTok would drive additional traffic to the site, and so would an aggressive new email marketing campaign and the creative use of PPC ads on Google.
Considering that the company has its own storefront, the brand could leverage additional growth by opening new retail shops in strategic locations while making their flagship store available to franchisees.
This is a tremendous industry. Retail sales of pet products and services hit $107 billion in 2020, up 9% over 2019, and consumers spent $42 billion on pet food and $31 billion in veterinary care last year.
Puppies are something families will eagerly spend a lot of their disposable income on. It’s also a highly evergreen industry. Nobody ever falls out of love with a puppy.
That makes this a terrific business opportunity. The current owner spends about 5 hours per week running it, mainly by overseeing financials and strategizing for future growth opportunities, while the owner’s employees handle daily operations at their main store and contractors oversee SEO and website maintenance.
This is a booming industry, and this brand’s passion for those customers is something a new buyer inherits, along with their strong recurring revenues and fabulous growth options.
