Campaign to empower pet stores

According to a 2020 survey undertaken by the China International Pet Show (Cips) on pet stores in China, 45.5 per cent shut down their business, 31.8 per cent shortened business hours, and 20.5 per cent shifted to online sales.

Some signs of recovery appeared in 2021. According to petdata.cn, pet owners placed more service orders with pet stores. Grooming and skin care still tops all the services, with a 31.7 per cent increase from 2020. The demand for photography services, amusement centres and training have increased respectively by 96.6 per cent, 25.5 per cent and 116.7 per cent compared with the previous year.

The survival and success of pet stores plays a key role in the post-pandemic recovery period. In April, Cips launched the “Empowering 10 000 China Pet Retailers” campaign. Training seminars have been held in 6 cities so far and plans are in place to hold 200 seminars and events before the end of the year.

The campaign is also a strategic move by Cips to enhance its domestic buyers’ network in China.

Cips 2022 will be held both online and offline from 17 to 20 November in Guangzhou, China.

The campaign’s key activity is the fine grooming and skin care seminar, which includes lectures and practice to improve the skills of pet store groomers. The systematic training is designed especially for pet stores to meet customers’ needs and increase their return on service. Besides content on grooming and skin care, the seminar also includes store management skills, marketing techniques and niche classes, for example on bakery, photography, healthcare, etc. The first group of 25 teachers have finished their training and have started classes in various cities. The organiser expects a team of 100 teachers to join the campaign in the next couple of months.  

This will be the biggest campaign to empower pet stores so far and in the years to come. “The seminars differ in size, from a dozen groomers to hundreds of participants. It is not a once for all event, but a continuous systematic training process,” said Lu Peng, GM of Cips. She believes a healthy and sustainable retailing system is what China desperately needs now.

Pet store services render them different from online e-commerce sales, which focus more on products. Pet owners need…