E-commerce stokes up competition

Ten years ago, talk of competition between online shops and bricks and mortar retailers in the pet product trade merely elicited a weary smile from many people. Now this response has given way to bottled-up anger among many pet supplies retailers – and it’s not just the competition but also the attitude of the combatants that is getting more aggressive. This was evident also at the International Pet Conference in Prague. Organised by Dähne Verlag and Management Forum der Verlagsgruppe Handelsblatt and titled “Pimp my business”, the conference attracted over 150 delegates from more than 20 countries. Critical voices Alfred Glander, Fressnapf’s director in charge of international purchasing, private labels, category management and e-commerce, spoke of a price war waged by online shops against high street pet stores. “As speciality retailers we need to create a bridge between online and bricks and mortar stores, therefore. And only cross-channel marketing, consisting of mobile shopping, high street stores and online shops, can be this bridge.” The critical attitude of many speciality retailers to online shops selling pet food and accessories was also outlined by Steven Charman, purchasing director of the up-and-coming British pet store chain Pets Corner, who received the PET Personality of the Year 2012 award at the International Pet Conference (see separate report on page 16-17). In a couch discussion with Ralf Majer-Abele, editor in chief of the trade magazines pet and PET worldwide at Dähne Verlag, he made it crystal clear that he does not sell any brands in his stores that would be sold cheaply on the Internet. “Naturally we sell brands too, but the Internet is making it increasingly difficult for speciality retailers like us to sell them at a sensible price.” Opportunities and limits of social media Apart from the critical voices, however, words of praise were also heard at the International Pet Conference for the opportunities that the virtual world can offer the pet supplies sector. According to Klaus-Dieter Koch, managing partner at the company Brand Trust, the megatrend of social media above all offers companies in the pet sector new opportunities to advertise their brands. “Companies shouldn’t use social media to plug their brands, but rather to listen to their customers,” he said. Koch believes that the fear among brand managers that they could lose power due to social media is unfounded: “Most people tend to share positive experiences on the…