Founded by a couple of animal-loving entrepreneurs, A Pet Shop serves as a venue for the most unique and innovative products for pet owners worldwide. The online store features a rich selection of items personally curated by the store owners themselves. Sourced directly from manufacturers, the products are sold by the shop at very affordable prices for the benefit of customers. A Pet Shop store features a number of categories including pet beds, outdoor needs, collars, feeding bowls, and accessories. Pet owners will also find a separate page for dogs and for cats. New products are being added constantly. According to the company owners, they handpick the most creative and one-of-a-kind items in the market. If a customer is not satisfied with their order, the store follows a 30-day free return policy, ensuring its
patrons of a risk-free purchase. The company also prides itself on its well-acclaimed customer service. A Pet Shop has a dedicated ticket and email support service that is ready to respond twenty-fours a day on all days of the year. More information about A Pet Shop and its products is found on https://www.apetstore.net.
Story of business and founder’s story
What motivated you to start the business?
A Pet Shop began with the idea of providing pet owners with the best pet products available. Products that can be found in one easy to find location. To do this, I began researching the types of pet products people buy and why. What type of pet products I, myself, would buy and why. I also considered the types of pet products people would like to purchase for their pets but struggle to locate at reasonable prices. Struggle to locate at all. I know there are loads of things I cannot find or afford, so others must struggle with this as well. From there I opened an online business that supplies these products from all over the world. The items range from regular food dishes to specialized food dishes; feather teasers to electronic teasers; snack dispensers; brushes; carriers; as well as clothing, collars, and more.
There is more than just pets and their owners invested into A Pet Shop, however. I opened this website as a business venture that would allow me to manage my own schedule so that I can spend more time with my family. Spend more time living rather than working to the point of exhaustion. Although I still currently have a job outside A Pet Shop, my hope is to one day be able to make enough money to reach my goal of spending more time with my family and living. I look forward to the day I can spend more time with my fur-children and just relax or play or whatever the day brings with them. I also started this business to be able to do things with my pets that I wasn’t able to do before, such as give them all the things they want. My cat Raven for example likes to be outside, I would love to have an enclosure built just for her so she can enjoy the great outdoors without being in danger of what’s out there.
What are the challenges your business faces?
The major challenge is reaching customers. I advertise in several different locations, and yet it seems most people prefer to like, share, and follow rather than shop. As great as it is to get noticed, being noticed doesn’t sell. Sometimes as well the people who do check out the website don’t stay very long, as with any business, you have to wonder why. This raises concerns since that potential customer left and because of so many factors, you don’t know that caused them to leave. That in itself poses new challenges of thinking maybe your website or store isn’t good enough and that maybe I shouldn’t be doing this at all.
Another challenge is working against larger companies such as PetSmart, PetCo, and Chewy. Although they are the most well known in the world, they don’t have everything. Yes, they have big buildings and subscriptions plans and all that, but in the end, what does that all get customers? But all customers see are names and reviews and status, so off they go to what they know, ignoring what they could have with businesses such as mine.
Some of the challenges that are being faced with this business is finding good quality products and unique products that others may not have. The uniqueness of products is the most difficult to do since some of the big name pet shops tend to carry quite a bit of stuff already. This is a great niche, but being dominated by three huge companies challenges the little guys to do something different that those three do not have. Another big challenge is that a lot of people like to see, feel and sometimes smell things before they buy, so not having that opportunity to do so on a website maybe leaves a lot of money off the table.
Another challenge this company faces is money out. For example, the fees and costs of doing business are not matched but beaten all the time by the big companies, our advertising budget is significantly smaller than those of bigger companies so we must find ways to be inventive to attract customers. Sometimes thinking outside the box is necessary but not always easily obtained.
What opportunities does your business market face?
The opportunities this business market faces, I believe, are that it will grow beyond what we can imagine for now. There is still so much we do not understand about our beloved pets, and when we learn what we don’t know, that’s when the magic happens. For instance, my cat Raven used to not care to much about being petted, but has since changed her mind about it. The market for pets can explode if a great product comes out that will change so much, I also believe that business in this market will need to pivot to keep up with the ever changing market landscape. The biggest opportunity for any business out there is the potential smile on the face of a customer whom you’ve helped.
Some of the best opportunity this presents is the fact that it’s a learning experience. You don’t always have the opportunity to learn hands on business training. It can bring you down a bit if something doesn’t seem to be working, but it also helps present other options you may not of known you had. Some opportunities that this company faces is potentially being a challenge for the bigger companies, once that foothold is there, it’s hard to get rid of. I think the biggest opportunity though is doing something I feel good about and not doing it because I have to.
Do you have advice for others about business?
There are certainly a lot of places to start and find business advice from well-off entrepreneurs. The best advice that I can give that has stuck with me is just go for it. You can sit there and plan all you want and think it would be great to actually start one, but until you do, that’s all it will be is just a thought. You really do have to work past the fear and doubt and go for it. Keeping in mind though that just because you started a business, doesn’t mean that’s the only one that will work for you. It might be just a stepping stone to your next venture.
Some other advice I can give is to be patient, it’s not going to happen overnight. I mean by that, you won’t start a business say the first of the month and on the second day, you’re making tons of money. The saying “patience is a virtue” has so much meaning in being a business owner, sometimes you will doubt yourself, but the best thing you can do is keep on moving.
You would also want to always keep an eye out for other opportunities, you never know what may present itself to you. One day you could be present with another business venture that has nothing to do with what you’ve been working on, but has greater potential. Don’t do it if it doesn’t feel right, I remember an ex-coworker who wanted to open a restaurant since it was her dream. I later found out she decided to not open, thankfully this was all happening right before the pandemic, so if she pushed when it didn’t feel right to her, she might have lost her restaurant.
In today's world, people's eating and exercise patterns have changed, and it is often lifestyle that is the cause of many diet-related illnesses. I believe that each of us is unique – what works for one does not help another. What is more, it can even be harmful. I am interested in food psychology, which studies a person's relationship with their body and food, explains our choices and desires for specific products, the difficulty of maintaining optimal body weight, as well as the influence of various internal and external factors on appetite. I'm also an avid vintage car collector, and currently, I'm working on my 1993 W124 Mercedes. You may have stumbled upon articles I have been featured in, for example, in Cosmopolitan, Elle, Grazia, Women's Health, The Guardian, and others.
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