Instagram is no longer just a social media platform for personal use, in fact, there are more than 25 million business profiles on Instagram. For businesses, Instagram can be an excellent tool to help humanize your brand, engage with customers, showcase products and services, and most importantly boost sales! As the fastest-growing social media platform, it is more important than ever that small businesses have a presence on Instagram. As a busy pet retailer, it may be overwhelming to try and figure out how to use all of Instagram's features to your advantage but our quick start guide can help you get a jump on it. 

When a customer enters your pet retail store their first impression will be based on what strikes them visually. Displays play an important role in nurturing the customer experience in your pet business. Having interesting and eye catching displays will immediately make your store stand out from your competitors. A great display may make a customer stop and take notice of a product they do not typically buy. Sometimes it can be difficult to figure out how to make a display look like more than just products laid out on a table or sitting on some shelves. Oftentimes the simpler the display design idea the greater the impact it will have. 

During the month of June, millions across the globe will gather to celebrate LGBT Pride. Pride parades range in size from 5 million attendees in Sao Paulo, Brazil to only a 100 in Sligo, Ireland. No matter big or small there will be parades and parties held in every major city across the US and even in some small towns during June. The month of June is an opportunity to show your support for the LGBT members of your community whether they are customers or not. By celebrating pride in your business you can let your customers and the community you serve know that you believe in unconditional love for both pets and people everywhere.

Creating a unique shopping experience and building customer loyalty is the most surefire way to beat out big box stores and online retail giants. You can offer insights and advice to pet parents that they can't get anywhere else and by doing this you offer a more personalized shopping experiencing. Manufacturer frequent buyer discounts paired with your own rewards program is another great way to improve the customer experience and grow customer retention. Research shows that acquiring new customers can cost 5x more than retaining current customers and by increasing retention by just 5 percent through customer loyalty programs you can boost revenue by 75 percent. Wow!

This year's Global Pet Expo marked its 15th year and was the biggest event to date. In fact, with just over 352,300 square feet of exhibiting space,1173 manufacturer booths, 1000 new products, and over 30-plus hours of free educational seminars it has just about everything you need to learn and grow your pet retail business. We did the math, and with a total of 29 hours of showtime and approximately 1173 booths to explore that would give the average person roughly 1 minute and 28 seconds respectively at each booth. That is with no breaks at all. No lunch, no sitting, just one booth to the next. It's almost hard to comprehend!

One of the biggest threats to a pet's health is dental disease. This common issue among pets can have a very serious impact on their well being. According to the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA), 80% of dogs and 70% of cats will develop some form of oral disease by age three. Untreated oral disease can lead to serious conditions such as kidney disease, lung disease, and heart disease. In order to bring awareness to the dental health of our pets, February has been named National Pet Dental Month. Now is your chance to help pet parents improve their pet’s dental health and create good habits for year-round care. 

Not every small business has the resources or marketing budget that bigger companies have. In fact, I find that most pet retailers are not even sure where to start when it comes to building their brand and telling their story. Even if you have a wealth of ideas you might not have the team to help put things into motion. Because of this, marketing can fall by the wayside as you tend to the more important tasks in your store. Maybe the answer to your marketing troubles is thinking smaller. Besides, sometimes it is the simple things in life that have the biggest impact. 

As we all know the pet industry continues to grow with pet parents spending $69.5 billion on their pets in the U.S. just last year. For many people, their pets are like their children and therefore pet parents now more than ever truly care about what they are feeding their animals. Research shows that 55% of American pet owners are concerned about filler ingredients in pet food, such as grains and meat-by-products which often are not found in alternative pet diets. This concern has made a huge impact on the growth of the alternative pet food market. 

Across the country the frenzy of Black Friday has taken over the Thanksgiving holiday weekend. As a small business owner it can often be difficult to compete with big box stores and online retail giants on these days. In response to this, small business owners have joined together to claim a day of their own. Nestled between Black Friday and Cyber Monday there is now Small Business Saturday. The movement has grown into a holiday shopping staple aiming to support small businesses just like you.

Pet Food Experts is pleased to announce that we have acquired Monarch Pet Products. Monarch Pet Products located in Denver, CO has been servicing independent pet retailers in Colorado, Utah, New Mexico, and Wyoming since 2009. This acquisition means we will be gaining over 365 new independent pet retail partners in the Mountain Region and expanding our distribution footprint from 29 states to 32 states.