A great way to do this, is to find out more from your customers: what animal are they shopping for? Do they need specific food? Are they looking for recommendations for a particular type of breed?
These are just some questions you may want to find the answers to and the skill here is on how to ask these questions and how to use the data that can be gathered in the process.
Find out more
Octane.ai has produced a great tool for adding quizzes to your Shopify store. After the questions are answered, it can then make product recommendations that can be added straight to cart.
With one of our pet brand clients, we used the quiz in a way that guided them through the journey they should take on the website. This works incredibly well for pet brands that don’t have a wide product range and are niche in an area like Fresh Patch.
The quiz will help guide a customer through a purchase and all of this data can be used. In our Fresh Patch example, you can choose things like grass size. This means that the customer would likely have a large breed dog. You can also choose between a one-time purchase or a subscription. The next step would offer an upsell. In our example, the recommended upsell is the Fresh Patch tray, treats or a spray to help the dog know where to go. Check it out in action here.
What’s great about this is that not only does the customer get guided through the purchase experience, but all of the data can then be used elsewhere. In particular, Octane.ai integrates with Klaviyo so you can sync all your questions and answers. This means, if someone selects on XL Fresh Patch, why not use this data to upsell the XL Fresh Patch trays, wooden sleeves or subscriptions in future targeting.
Creating personalised product recommendations
By using the information about our customers from a shoppable quiz, like Octane.ai as well as the Shopify order behaviour, we can now personalise the customer experience by pulling this information into Klaviyo and personalising our email campaigns and flows.
For example, say we have a customer who purchased an XL Fresh Patch through the shoppable quiz. We now know that this is the product we should be promoting. What you can do in Klaviyo now is use this information as a tag or to filter out (e.g to create segments).
You can change the product recommendation in their emails based on their purchase history and you would do this by creating a Data Feed to include or exclude particular products. Lauren explains this process on screen in the video below.
By using personalised emails, particularly in the post-purchase flow, we found that we could upsell these additional products as well as move customers into the subscription model and this ultimately leads to increasing the average order value.
The importance of user-generated content
Social proof is a great tool in persuading potential customers to buy from you. This can be achieved by adding reviews to your website. REVIEWS.io is a licensed Google Review Partner. Company and product reviews can be carried over to Ads, Rich Snippets and Google Shopping, and contribute towards Google Seller Ratings. Reviews can be left by verified customers through automated email and SMS invitations. The platform has strict moderation policies that comply with Google regulations, meaning reviews are only removed if found to be non-compliant. This encourages full transparency, and the ability to openly respond ensures brands can effectively manage negative feedback.
Reviews is one of our favourite things to use in a Post Purchase Flow. You can see our thoughts in the video below:
Our favourite features from Reviews.io in the Post Purchase Flow is using their dynamic link and calculated timing to ask customers for a review after they have had a chance to use their product. This can help prompt a second purchase, help your customers convert as well as help your Google ranking.
Take a look at our blog where we explore which review platform is right for your and look at Reviews.io vs Trust Pilot in more detail.
Being more than your competition
Pet brand customers are spoilt for choice. So, how do you put yourself ahead of the competition? A loyalty program may be the key to bring your customers back time and again. There are some clever strategies that you can use to maximise your efforts. In the video below we show you strategies you could do with LoyaltyLion.
There is a lot of competition for Pet Brands and customer retention can often be a challenging area. Once a customer decides to buy from a Pet Brand, it’s important you give them a reason to stay. Rewarding your customers for their loyalty is a great point of difference in the pet industry. If someone has a dog, they will never buy just one bag of dog food. Their dog needs to eat every day so if you know they have a repeat purchase to make, rewarding them with points, free gifts or free shipping is a great way to maintain loyalty.
Take a look at how Edgard Cooper is using LoyaltyLion to offer discounts and charitable actions.
Communication is key
Customers often need support and especially so when it comes to Pet Brands. Seamless communication can stop you from leaving money on the table. In this next video, we explain how our favourite apps integrate to help you increase your revenue.
Shopping for pet products isn’t usually a spontaneous choice. Your shopper probably knows what they are looking for so if they haven’t purchased whilst visiting your store, it’s likely they have concerns or questions. Not being able to answer these questions quickly and easily could be the deciding factor on if they decide to purchase from you.
Gorgias Chat is a widget that sits on your site and allows website visitors to send a message to your customer service team. Giving your customers the opportunity to ask a question through a Live Chat rather than an Email allows you to reply quickly and efficiently. Waiting for a reply from an email can often lead to your potential customer going elsewhere so whether you use a Customer Service Rep or Automated Responses, by being readily available, you will already be building trust with your customer.
Let's talk results
Take a look at the results in the next video that we managed to achieve for one of our Pet Brands.
By using the steps above, you’ll combat one of the main issues many Pet Brands have: “how can I make my content personalised?” Through strategies and integrations at the click of a button, you can create a simple and effective process that guides your customer through their own journey. From acquiring to finding out more about purchasing and customer retention, this guide will create a streamline customer experience that is both valued by the customer and your brand.
Want to learn more about the tech stack involved? Enter your email address below, and get a free download of the Blend Shopify App Lookbook. This lookbook includes a whole section just for pet brands and gives you the apps and strategy you need to grow your store revenue.
