Fun and frivolity drive strategy for this online pet supplies retailer
Tim Homer saw a gap in the highly competitive online pet supplies market and leapt to fill it. “There are large pet supplies retailers that concentrate on volume business and everyday pet products such as food and litter. Then there are boutiques that concentrate on high-end products for specific pet groups such as small dogs,” say Homer, CEO. “There’s a void between these two.”
So Homer set forth to build an e-retailer to fill the void and on July 5 launched Chimpfeet.com. The web store, Homer says, carries many items one can’t find elsewhere, sells merchandise not just for pets but pet lovers, and offers gift wrapping, gift reminder services, multiple ship-to addresses and more. “The online market for pet supplies is very competitive, but for the most part the competition is in food and medications, not in our targeted area of gifts and such,” he contends.
Homer identified the niche after researching in mid-2005 several gift-related markets. “The idea was to take a product category that is very successful, growing, and has a large customer base, and use it as the basis for a gift product retailer,” Homer explains. “That is where my general background in business lies. And pet products fit the idea perfectly.”
After buying select market research reports at MarketResearch.com and employing a research firm to complete secondary research, Homer wrote a 40-page business plan. From there he took on the legal aspects of forming a company, opened bank accounts and appointed a CPA.
Based on the business plan, Homer and colleagues drafted an e-commerce site plan, laying out the functionality needed for a gift retailer site, he says. “We then employed a buyer to help with product and spent the first few months of operations traveling to trade shows and meeting with suppliers, as well as looking for permanent business premises. Ultimately we moved into our office and warehouse about a month before we opened to set up the warehouse, accept inventory and set up the office.”
All in all the endeavor amounted to two months of research and four months of set-up at a total cost—self-funded—of about $200,000, including inventory.
In addition to tending to the serious issues of starting a new business, Homer wanted to have some fun. From the start he believed pet lovers by and large to be fun-loving and very dedicated. As such, he designed the site and the business based on this premise. “One of our primary goals is to allow people to have fun on the site,” he explains. “Having a pet is a fun experience and we sell a range of fun products. We have, for example, a ‘fart extinguisher’ for the smelly pet in your life, as well as edible greeting cards so dogs don’t feel left out.”
Chimpfeet.com, which features product descriptions in line with its style of merchandise, launched with a basic site but has several enhancements in the pipeline for this year; the enhancements will cover functionality and design. Also, the pure-play plans to branch out into the catalog channel. It will publish a limited catalog for Christmas and then a complete catalog next year.
The web store features 3,500 SKUs. Homer predicts hitting $250,000 in sales between now and December 31. “Our goal,” Homer says, “is to become the largest pet products retailer in the country that doesn’t carry food. And we’ll do so by taking business away from the larger retailers by offering better and more personalized service, and taking business away from the boutiques by offering a better priced offering and a wider range of pet categories.”
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