Pet Merchandise - what sells?

RE: Pet Merchandise - what sells?

Dove — Fri, 24 Jul 2015 00:52:29 GMT

Thanks all, some great ideas. We are offering a £15 voucher against sales in work if they sign up to our pet health scheme and are already chipped. We don't have that much on offer to buy at that price. We sell Hills foods but the reps in our area have been quite lacking in the last few years.

RE: Pet Merchandise - what sells?

Sal the 1st — Tue, 21 Jul 2015 19:15:31 GMT

I used to work for a corporate and the waiting room was always well stocked - Hills who we were bound to at the time used to have a very pushy rep and if we didnt stock everything they wanted us to stock they used to moan about it to HO. Yes we did have stock walk, yes we did get a fair amount of spoilage ie when you had dogs who peed up bags of food, hay and anything else within range and yes we did have stock that went out of date. We couldnt get through to HO or this particular rep that there was no way we were ever going to sell half of the stuff because PAH was just down the road and selling exactly the same at a much lower price. Must admit the pushiness of this rep totally put me off Hills and I am relieved to be working in a practice that doesn't use the waiting room to pitch for sales anymore.

One of the most successful single items I ever had was something similar to this

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B009UVG7O8/ref=s9_hps_bw_g199_i5?pf_rd_m=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE&pf_rd_s=merchandised-search-5&pf_rd_r=0S9JFST43GX1TNBBXCWF&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=471716707&pf_rd_i=471380031 and when I say I sold hundreds of them it isnt an exaggeration.

milk replacer for kittens and puppies is good to have on hand along with feeding bottles if you dont get the kit with everything. Kongs did go reasonably well but then again they were also among our top ten of pilfered items too

I hate to see cluttered waiting rooms - to me it smacks of desperation

RE: Pet Merchandise - what sells?

JaneRVN — Tue, 21 Jul 2015 18:37:38 GMT

There is research coming out that a waiting room that doesn't look clean and clinical confuses the client. They want somewhere that reflects the cleanliness you have elsewhere, somewhere that looks focussed on being a hospital, not a shop.

keeping to a minimum helps. Leads and collars for emergenciy purchases only. Toys supported by behavioural evidence e.g. Kongs. Maybe also ask your vets and nurses what they are comfortable selling.

RE: Pet Merchandise - what sells?

enigmaticat-uk — Tue, 21 Jul 2015 16:35:57 GMT

We use vital pet products - I quite like them as they do have a large selection of things to choose from. But very little profit to be made on things like felix/whiskas so probably food-wise best to concentrate on the veterinary foods like hills/royal canin. We are in a fairly affluent area so we also tend also stock things like applaws & sheba food too.

Display-wise we use slat-boards on the walls whichlook smart & work well as you can use it to mount shelves or hooks to hang things, and can easily change the layout and heights. Again, being in an affluent area I don't think we get much theft but that is always going to depend on your area. Try to make best use of the space you have but don't be tempted to overcrowd the display area as that can be really of-putting and be messy.

RE: Pet Merchandise - what sells?

Mark Hedberg — Tue, 21 Jul 2015 16:12:43 GMT

Why not ask the clients what they'd be interested in buying? Personally i'm not against the sale of pet products, i just tend to believe that it's not worth investing a lot of time and effort in low-margin stuff like collars and leads that a lot of people get off the internet or pets at home. (other pet stores are of course available.) I think if you're looking for more useful things, nurse consults are a much better bet.