"We always want to make a difference"

The two key steps instrumental in Zooplus's success were surely internationalisation and backing the premium segment. We decided early on to concentrate on internationalisation. In doing so we not only delivered to other countries, but we also created the logistics and IT infrastructure to be able to scale up this internationalisation. This has paid off so far. Our 28 markets, in which we operate independent webshops, speak for themselves. A large part of our success is also due to our premium brands, however. We have grown big with these;  they have enabled us to retain customers and achieve the great customer satisfaction and loyalty that we now enjoy.

Zooplus has been in existence for 20 years, so we have survived a few global crises: the bursting of the dot.com bubble and the 2008 recession, to name just a couple. We will survive the next also, therefore. Not because we are immune to crises, but because we have learned to adapt and evolve, and that is a handy skill not just in crisis situations. In addition, I believe that the 28 European countries in which we operate , a pan-European logistics network and the high level of customer loyalty constitute a more than firm foundation.

The real question is what distinguishes us from the competition and how we can consolidate our strengths further. We are undergoing a process of transformation in which we are shifting the customers' focus fully towards the love of pets directly linked with the service offering. Here the Zooplus brand plays a central role in how we want to communicate in future and what the brand portfolio includes. In our vision customers can go to our platform in future and can get help and support across the board for their requests, their questions and their problems.
A simple example: "My cat has digestive problems". When the customer inputs that, products will be recommended, a direct link provided to our vets and a remote analysis of the problem or an appointment arranged directly with the vet. Brand, premium brands, content, service world and an integrated platform are the supporting pillars of our forward strategy.

Zooplus has always excelled in being able to react fast to changes in the market and adapt to customer behaviour. We are still a comparatively young company with very agile and entrepreneurial people who always want to make a difference, and that gives a substantial basis. Added to that is our range, which is clearly geared to premium, so anyone seeking brands and special food thus comes directly to Zooplus. Another real strength is the unbelievable loyalty of our customers to Zooplus. This is manifested not only in a retention rate that is way above the sector average, showing how loyal our customers are, but also in the way our customers share their experiences, content and emotions with us and with one another. That is really incredible and makes us proud.

As we announced back at the start of the year, we want to emphasise the Zooplus brand with its added value and the brands that we stock, and take a new marketing concept and market image to our customers. We are already implementing this strategy and have made important advances in this direction. The long-term retention of customers in our ecosystem and on the Zooplus platform is being intensified, so we can surely learn a lot more from this new focus also.

Our logistics network forms the backbone for our short delivery times, for localisation and ultimately for the internationalisation of our business as a whole. We already operate now from a network of logistics centres distributed across Europe. This makes us extremely flexible and thereby helps to optimise the cost structure. We can now deliver to nearly every country from virtually any logistics centre if we want to. This provides security for our customers regarding delivery speed and quality, a high scalability for our suppliers and a basis for further growth. In future we certainly aim to consolidate this further.

Our basic strategy was and is the focus on premium brands. That is our claim and our promise to customers. However, retailers without private labels are now no longer imaginable, and this applies to Zooplus also. In just a few years we have built up a significant proportion of sales with a variety of private labels in all price segments and quality classes. We will certainly expand these, but there are strategic limits for us. Rather than being a private label retailer, we want to position ourselves via brands and premium and be a strong partner for our suppliers, but in parallel we will use the private labels to retain customers in the long term, e.g. if it's about moving customers to switch channels and taking them out of their classic customer journey. Our private labels will assume a new role there and as a consequence we will surely contemplate other ways of getting closer to the customer also, such as our app.

Our customer and the environment are changing. I would say that this development tends to be generally positive for Zooplus, but that is ultimately down to the customers. Our existing infrastructure in logistics, IT, staff and above all our country portfolio gives us the opportunity to test and implement things quickly. To me personally that seems very optimistic. But it naturally costs money to build brand, services and the customer centring that we would like to have now. In addition we will always take a more local, individual approach to the countries in which we are represented. Ranges, service offering and even the tonality of the approach differ here more than before. We are ready for this.

The topic of AI naturally inspires flights of fancy, but it starts from scratch. If you've been buying dog food from Zooplus for 20 years, you don't want to see cat food on the first page. If you always buy premium, you don't want to get offers of cheap products either. In a nutshell, it is personalisation in the interests of the customer.
Naturally we are already using AI even now, both to control our network and in the presentation to our customers. It will be possible in future to automate a lot and design it much more efficiently. Learning intelligence leads to more dynamic processes and more individual customer appeal, helping companies to act in a much more customer-centric manner. But I think this has natural boundaries. We always end up speaking about pets with individual requirements, for which feelings always play a big part, and AI cannot generate these, that has to come from human beings. We will cover that in future with colleagues whose love is primarily for pets.

In a different place than today, that's for certain. Closer to the customer at any rate,  more emotional, more integrated and the number one for all pet owners!