Aton for Pet Food in Italy: which sales apps to choose?

Pet food and order collection

Pet food has been confirmed as a continuously growing sector in recent years, according to the 15th edition of the ASSALCO REPORT – ZOOMARK 2022 for pet food and pet care.

In the 2007-2021 period, the dog and cat food market grew from €1,163 million to €2,533 million, doubling its turnover, with an average annual value sales growth rate of +5.7 percent. In terms of volume, it reached 682,191 tons with an annual growth rate of 3.1%.

Distribution channels

Products are distributed mainly through:

• Grocery: large-scale retail, discount stores and traditional retail
• Specialized channel: which includes traditional petshops and petshop chains, organized structures of at least 7 owned stores such as L’isola dei Tesori (DMO), Maxi Zoo, Italpet

Over the past 15 years, there has been an evolution in the relationship between these two main channels: the Specialized channel has recorded a development rate in average annual value of +8.3%, twice as high as the Grocery channel (+4%). In this context, the action of the agent who has to promote and position in the different distribution platforms pet food and care products becomes increasingly important.

Order collection app: the Camon case

What we created about 10 years ago for Camon, Italian company specialized in offering products and solutions for pet well-being, becomes now, more than ever, topical, with a view to gamification or the art of engagement.

The order collection application, called Twin Tablet, allowed Sales agents and customers to contemporarily leaf through product catalogues, visualizing them on their own devices (tablet, smartphone): the two tools communicated and maintained catalogue visualization synchronized.

The distinctive element of the solution was the possibility of allowing one of the devices to pilot navigation and design a real customized itinerary to make sales activity more interactive and dynamic.

In this way, Sales reps could have a more complete vision of the customer’s preferences and propose – in real time – complementary products or new articles, similar to those already selected, which the company would be interested to foster.

Pet food and order picking: the need for a customized solution

Also nowadays, the creation of a detailedly planned customized itinerary is one of the distinctive elements for an effective sales application in specialty stores.

In fact, multimedia information, like images, videos, 360° product views, supported by traditional forms, produce increasing attractiveness for retailers in terms of store positioning and sales volume growth, as well as greater product benefit perception by consumers.

Another key sales aspect, in an industry that is proving to be very competitive, is the ability to manage promotional mechanics in a targeted way within the sales application, allowing the salesperson to know the promos in place on that product for the customer in question (type of customer, last purchases and store stock), apply them and receive suggestions on possible options, taking into account the objectives on marginality per product, per order, per customer in the canvas considered.

Read also: A journey through promos: how many different ways of selling are there?

Business Intelligence tools that allow measuring area potential, market coverage, volume and effectiveness of sales campaigns are also increasingly indispensable today for an effective presidium of the market and its customers.