Case Profiles / Pureplay
Case Profile: Pup-Pee Solutions – Young Dogs and New Tricks
- 23rd February
- Natasha Sholl 100
Tobi Skovron, Founder of The Pet Loo, talks to us from LA about the challenges, solutions and lessons learnt when it comes to the Aussie company’s global expansion. What’s the key to success in e-commerce? Keeping it simple and playing to your strengths.
After talking us through the successful re-launch of The Pet Loo site earlier in the year, Founder Tobi Skovron now takes us through the key technologies and trends that have shaped the company’s e-commerce strategy.
When it comes to results, simplicity is key. “For us, e-commerce is the call to action. In simple terms, we’re out there canvasing the stores with our marketing material, social pages, newspapers, radio, TV, affiliates, blogs and more with our message to drive as much traffic as we can to our site,” Skovron tells us. “Beyond that we rely on the funnel of our site to deliver the result.”
Social media for the company is viewed purely as a communication tool. “We are right there with Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. We have a good presence but have found that it’s not about driving our message,” Skovron says. “We have run specials and competitions, which have been highly successful but we look to social media as a way to talk to our audience rather than BUY BUY BUY.” At the end of the day, social media is seen as a value-add, rather than as a key to success.
This business model flows on to The Pet Loo’s search strategies. The company finds that its blog, retailer listings and having other online stores list its products, all pushes ‘the mother site’ higher. Again, keeping it simple and sticking to the basics has yielded the best results. “We played with Google Adwords only to be outbid by bigger companies who were selling our products anyway – so that has been a fail for us!” says Skovron.
Skovron understands the importance of knowing your company’s strengths and weaknesses, especially when it comes to fulfilment and logistics. “Everything we do post data entry is automated. In Australia we have our own warehouse that carries out the fulfilment process but in the US, Canada, Asia and South America we have outsourced this component of our business for the simple reason that we are NOT a logistics company – we are a manufacturer and brand builder. Logistics has its own area of expertise so we outsource knowing it’s in professional hands.”
When The Pet Loo relaunched the site earlier in the year, Skovron called in Brad Lindenberg to advise and project manage. Having someone with that level of experience and knowledge sped up the process and cut out the research required. “He’s a guy that’s been there and done it all before so he helped us shortcut, broker deals with the right web partners and make all these massive changes quickly – which is my type of pace!” says Skovron. “So in essence, working with Brad simplified the work-load and made the implementation happen pretty fast so we didn’t experience any ‘down time’ in the transition”
Brad Lindenberg, Director of Lind Ventures will be a speaker at the Online Retailer Roadshow in March.
Relying on the right technologies and solutions has played a major role in the success of the company. “We use a cloud system call Netsuite which is an all in one solution for accounting, e-commerce, ERP and CRM. As a company we are transparent and the visibility is incredible.”
“The system allows us to scale aggressively without having to bring on more manpower to cope. We’ve dubbed it Pup-Systems, everything and anything relating to the company is located here,” Skovron adds. “My staff in the field can login via their iPads and iPhones to raise an order, note or task. Our consumers shopping on our site ultimately get ported into the system when they raise an order or enquiry – everything is housed centrally here in Pup-Systems!”
While US expansion has its benefits, Skovron is mindful of the balance needed to run a successful online store while being an equal supply partner to all dealers – both online and offline. “In the US, there is no sales tax associated with online sales. This hurts our brick and mortar retailers. It’s a challenge for us as a supplier to keep the playing field even for everyone. I would hate to see that transpire in Australia, despite the fact that as a company we are moving and shaking with the technology available to us today!”
So what’s the one thing Skovron knows now that he wished he had known when he was setting up his e-commerce business? “I just wished we had done it all earlier…”
