NEW YORK (AP) – Danielle Schwartz did not request an oil painting of her cat. But she likes the portrait of Stinky hanging in her New York State home, a surprise gift from an unlikely place: an online pet store.
It’s one of the more than 1,000 free paintings Chewy sends to select customers each week – even during the pandemic – exploiting people’s obsession with their furry children and hoping to win customers for life.
In the crucial world of online shopping, that personal touch and a bit of kitsch is how Chewy wants to stand out from the competition, which has only gotten tougher as more people shop online and add pandemic pets. to their families. According to the Petco Foundation, pet ownership will grow by 4% in 2020, the first increase in a few years.
Chewy’s strategy apparently works on Schwartz, whose blue-eyed cat likes to rub against the painting of his cat tree.
“I just want to buy everything from them,” she says. ‘They’re a big company. I was shocked that they did something so personal. ”
The portraits have become a hit on social media, where people share images or beg to have their pets turned into works of art.
Eric Sheridan, a sales specialist from Lee, Florida, asked for a portrait through the Twitter account of Gozer, his Boston terrier with more than 3,000 followers. A tough representative sends a message: ‘My legs have been crossed so we can send you one. ‘It arrived a month and a half later. ‘Christmas came early’, Sheridan tweeted from Gozer’s account.
Not everyone is delighted to get a mysterious portrait – the company acknowledges that some confused customers are returning them. But many who get a portrait for pets document it for social media, which Chewy advertises for free – a trend the company noticed when they first launched.
“Customers went bananas,” says co-founder Ryan Cohen, who came up with the idea in 2013 before leaving the company.
Chewy was founded in 2011 and marries the fast delivery of Amazon with the kindness of a local pet store. It was also aimed at seizing a piece of the fortune that Americans spend on their pets, which according to the American Pet Products Association would amount to $ 99 billion in 2020. Pet store chain PetSmart bought Chewy for more than $ 3 billion in 2017 to expand its online business, but then Chewy traded in a stock exchange two years later. now worth about $ 40 billion, even though it has never made a profit.
Amazon and Chewy dominate the online pet supply industry, with Amazon’s market share at over 50% and Chewy’s at 34%, according to retail consulting firm 1010data. But the pandemic was especially good for Chewy because people avoid physical stores. The share price has more than tripled in 2020. Sales increased by 45% in the August to October quarter. And it added 5 million new customers in the past year, bringing its total customer base to nearly 18 million.
Phillip M. Cooper, a pet consultant, acknowledges customer service. “It set the standard,” he says.
The company’s 2,500 agents are trained to answer questions to pet parents, such as what foods are best for older bags or where they are hiding. Chewy sends new customers handwritten notes and all shoppers receive holiday cards by snail mail. It even sends flowers to people whose pets are dead.
“It helped ease the pain,” said Jordan Redman of Norman, Oklahoma, who received a bouquet of flowers after Bud, her golden retriever, died.
But these are the paintings that customers are panting. There’s no way to buy one from Chewy, and the company does not say exactly how anyone will be selected. But it usually sends them to those who have pet photos on their sticky account or shared one with a customer service agent.
Look at the experience of Danielle Moore, who said that Chewy asked her to send a photo of her Australian cattle dog Kana during a call to return an order. Cana’s parable appeared three months later. Moore loved it so much that she tried to buy another one through Chewy, but the customer service agent refused to move. Instead, the Dallas pharmacist ordered one for $ 36 for Etsy, and the paintings hang together on a wall.
Chewy does not disclose the cost of making and sending the portraits. It has collaborated with hundreds of artists across the country who email photos of their subjects through the company.
Josh Lawson, who paints 20 to 50 portraits a week, did snakes, goats and even what he thought was bison. It can take two hours or longer to make a portrait. Fluffy kittens, for example, need extra attention and a long brush to get the right amount of fluff. “I really want to make them look good,” he says.
There is pressure to do so. Chewy says it rejects artwork that does not look like the pet enough, or sends it back to be reworked. The goal is for people to talk to others tough and will find an excellent place on the walls of the buyer and serve as a billboard for the company.
Annesley Clark, a law student in St. Louis, was amazed at how the free painting looks like her pit bull mix, Willow. “I was beyond myself,” she says. “It’s exactly her.”
She could not wait to show it. The next day, she took it with four others to a social-distance picnic and stopped the artwork. “I said, ‘Look at this.’ It’s perfect. ” Her friends agree.
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Follow Joseph Pisani on Twitter: @ josephpisani