Breath of fresh air from the UK

E-commerce, mobile shopping and cross-channel retailing are the concepts that everyone is talking about at present. The bricks and mortar trade, which still accounts for the lion’s share of sales in the pet supplies trade, receives nothing like the same attention, even though it remains the backbone of pet retailing. “Many retailers focus too much on online strategies, rather than on their brick-and-mortar business,” stated Ralf Majer-Abele, editor-in-chief of the international trade magazine PET worldwide, which sponsored the award. In the light of this trend, it was encouraging to come across a speciality chain in the United Kingdom in Pets Corner that really seemed to work hard to steadily improve the quality of its stores and was dedicated to offering its customers the best service and only products with which they and their pets had fun. Service-orientated concept As purchasing director, Steven Charman was one of the key architects of the success achieved by Pets Corner with its 70 or so stores in England, said Ralf Majer-Abele: “Thanks to the efforts of Charman and his team, Pets Corner has created a successful service-orientated retail concept, which focuses on the needs of the customers in an unusually strong way.” In a one-to-one conversation with conference host Ralf Majer-Abele on the second day of the event, Steven Charman set out his concept and the services offered by Pets Corner. He described the high value placed by the company on product quality and environmentally responsible operation and outlined its extensive service offering. He stressed how important it was for Pets Corner to train its staff to the highest possible standard, so that they could give the customers the advice they needed on a range of topics. “For every 25 people we employ, we have a member of staff whose principal role is to train.” Reservations regarding e-commerce Charman also clearly stated his position regarding online stores. His company was not currently interested in this idea, as to date he had not seen any online store company in the pet sector that was making money. Pets Corner takes a firm line with suppliers whose products are sold over the Internet: they are dropped. Download: Breath of fresh air from the UK (PDF file)