Building Pet Care Profit

Apr 17, 2019

Think profit in the pet care category is out of reach for you as an independent retailer? With twice as many U.S. households with pets than there are with children, $31.5 billion in sales last year across pet food and litter alone, and a 6.3 percent increase in sales versus a year ago, it’s time to think again.

“When I’m visiting IGA stores, I see some amazing examples of marketing and merchandising in produce, meat, prepared foods, seafood—basically if it’s a fresh department, you’re going to find IGA retailers who are either already ahead of the game, or are well on their way to getting there. And if you really look at the data, we’re seeing that a lot of our growth is coming out of those departments,” IGA CEO John Ross says. “But center store is where its hard to differentiate, so we need new strategies to help our retailers grow sales there."

And that is precisely why IGA is introducing a new category webinar series, beginning next Tuesday (just in time for May pet month!) with the Building Pet Care Profit webinar with Ross and Purina Team Lead Pat Patterson.

According to Patterson, IGA is a natural fit for pet care. “I think many times independent grocery retailers believe they are boxed out of pet care because they feel they can’t compete with big box stores and online sales,” he says. “But pet is growing in grocery across most demographics in nearly every part of the country in both brick and mortar and online. And it’s a category that is driven around emotion and affection, which makes it tailor made for IGA’s locally owned, community-focused stores. Now we just need to find the right mix of assortment, marketing, and merchandising to help IGA retailers become the local pet care destination.”

The Building Pet Care Profit webinar offers a unique opportunity for Patterson to drill down deep into the category to offer real tactics and solutions to help IGA retailers capture their share of this growing category. Over the course of the hour-long webinar, you will:

  • Get up to date and in the know on shopper behaviors that are making pet care one of the fastest growing categories in the business
  • Find out how the right assortment can secure increased sales in the total pet care category and throughout the store
  • Learn tactics for marketing and merchandising your store as a premium pet care destination
  • Hear about upcoming IGA resources designed to make you the pet authority in your community
  • Get questions answered in a live Q&A with Patterson and Ross

Get ready for pet month with IGA’s annual pet photo contest 

With May pet month just around the corner, IGA and Nestlé Purina are gearing up for the annual Picture Paw-Fect Pet Photo Competition. Now in its ninth year, the photo competition has a loyal following of IGA shoppers eager to submit photos of their four-legged family members on IGA.com. With six categories with a grand prize of Purina pet food for a year for each, this highly anticipated annual event draws thousands of entries each year.

Stay tuned to your email and IGA.com beginning May 1 for resources to promote the annual pet photo contest to your shoppers on your website and in social media, and be sure to register for the Building Pet Care Profit webinar for more information on this and other IGA pet care initiatives.

What: Building Pet Care Profit category webinar

When: April 23 at 1:00 p.m. CDT

Where: Anywhere! 

Don't Miss Your Chance to Win

Register for the webinar today and you'll be entered into a drawing for a free phone consultation on your store's total pet category allocation and assortment with Purina's Pat Patterson! 

Register Here!

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