Please introduce yourself and your educational background?
Tracy Ramsay: AAA School of Advertising
- Diploma in Advertising with Specialization in Sales Promotion
- SPADA Diploma in Sales Promotion (with Honors), obtained in 1994
Various short courses, including Project Management (Verhoef) and 6month courses at:
- Varsity College: Certificate in Business Management (2006)
- Varsity College: Certificate in Marketing Management (2004)
Kirsten Lynch: COM Hons from Wits and a MBA from UCT.
What is your business all about and what inspired it?
Kirsten has a highly strung German Shepard who was seeing a variety of animal behavourists for her “issues”. One of the behavourists suggested a range of training products that we couldn’t find in the traditional pet shops. After a search online we found that there were no online pet shops in South Africa, but they were very popular overseas. Tracy and I were both working at the time and dreamed of starting our own business, so we joined forces to create A Pet’s Life.
What were you doing before launching your business?
Tracy Ramsay: After spending almost a year on a retail advertising account for Berry Bush BBDO that almost had me institutioned, I had been freelancing as an Independent Marketing Consultant for about 6months, when Kirsten and I started chatting about opening a business together. I was feeling unchallenged and lonely working on my own and it seemed like a great way to use my knowledge and skills in online marketing, but still have the flexibility of being my own boss
Kirsten Lynch: I was working as marketing manager for 24.com when I decided I wanted more flexibility (I was pregnant at the time) and different challenges.
How did you know there is a market for your business?
We did a lot of research into both the pet industry market and the online market in South Africa and globally. We looked at reports like Euromonitor, AMPS, reports from industry websites such as webcheck (online industry), AFMA (Animal Feed Manufactuers Association) and PFI. We also accessed information from various local and international pet sites. Then we chatted to various people within the industry and potential customers. From this research we surmised that there was a big enough market and a need for an online pet shop.
Tracy Ramsay & Kirsten Lynch, A Pet’s Life founders
Everything was investigated fully and documented in our business plan. The planning and research alone almost took a year of our time. It was apparent to us that there was definitely a niche in the market and from what our research was showing us, the pet industry was growing all over the world.
What planning did you engage before launching?
We did a lot of planning – from mapping out the website, to deciding on product categories, to working out the various courier costs and routes to find the cheapest but most reliable courier companies (courier companies in South Africa tend to be very expensive), to speaking to the various banks for the best business account. We knew a big portion of our budget would go into a secure web site and so we got 3 quotes on the development and design of our site and then went through the pro’s and cons of which option suited not only our budget, but offered us the most flexibility and opportunity for growth.
Once we had our corporate identity, we also started meeting with the importers and manufacturers themselves, getting a real feel for the industry and how we could ensure the backend of our web site could be designed to work compatibly within an industry that isn’t web-based.
How many people do you employ?
None currently, however we do occasionally make use of the services of a few consultants who assist from time to time and outsource when we need to based on our budget, creative and time expectations (for example our designer and developer)
Are there any major challenges that you had to overcome before launching your business?
Some of our suppliers didn’t understand the online industry and they refused our business as we didn’t have a physical “bricks and mortar” shop. Building credibility with them has taken time and perseverance
We also were dealing with suppliers who are very much focused on the traditional side of doing business, so getting information and images in digital format has proved quite challenging.
Financing is still a major challenge in our business. We don’t want to take a bank loan so we’re learning how to be as cost-efficient as possible, while meeting the needs and expectations of our growing consumer base
Is your business affiliated to any professional trade body?
Not currently however we are part of a small Animal Business Network that is Cape Town based.
Social media is the current buzz word, do you use it to market your business?
We currently have a Facebook page that we use to interact with our customers, to let them know of specials or competitions we are running, as well as any notices from the various organizations that seek our help (dogs / cats that need to be adopted etc). However, the majority of our customer interaction is directly with the customers.
We do not use Twitter or blogs or mobile
What three industry blogs do you read to keep abreast of your sector of the market?
We personally don’t read any industry blogs (I haven’t come across any pet industry blogs), however we are subscribed to various pet industry newsletters (petwise.co.za; Pets International) and various pet industry publications. From an online retailer side, we read online sites like Worldwide Worx, itweb.co.za; bizcommunity and fmcg.co.za, fin24.com
Given an opportunity to contribute content on an industry blog, would you welcome that offer?
Yes, definitely.
How important is your website to the daily operations of the business and are you happy with its current state?
It’s integral – we couldn’t do business without our laptops and if the web site (the backend where we do all our supplier ordering/customer communications/order tracking/admin and financial management), or the frontend (where our customers interact with us and make their online purchase and payment decisions) was to ‘go down’ even for a few hours, it would be like closing our shop.
And I don’t think we’d ever be happy with our web site. There’s always new technology, opportunities and changes that affect best practice that an online retailer should be aware of and work with.
It’s like a never-ending piece of string. We keep realizing we need to make radical changes and updates to our backend, like wanting new reports, changing work flows, additional functionality, and new creative. At the moment, we’re onto phase 6 of our site and there have been a lot of little changes along the way that didn’t even make it into a proper brief. Right now we’re investigating creating an Affiliate program and seeing how we can get involved in a Rewards Program.
Also, the expectations of our customers, who are definitely becoming more comfortable with online shopping, are changing and we need to answer to those needs to ensure our website is user friendly.
Within your industry, who do you idolize and given an opportunity to work with, you wouldn’t think twice?
Kirsten: I was lucky enough to work with a few brains within the online industry at 24.com but I’d love to sit with the CEO of Kalahari.net (I think it is still Gary Hadfield) and pick his brains about online retailing now that we have been in this industry for 2 years.
Tracy: I would love to work for a creative online entrepreneurial team like the YuppieChef folks. A lot of the big Corporates have made huge investments into their online offerings, and there are some fantastically talented online media agencies in SA, but I don’t think I’d like to work for any of them. I love being my own boss, and I love working with our customers who are so besotted and caring about their pets.
What are your current business challenges that you still have to overcome?
Delivering on our promises to customers – for example the ability to get them the product they requested by the delivery lead time suggested. We are very reliant on our suppliers having stock of the product and notifying us when items aren’t available. This is unfortunately not always possible, and we hate disappointing customers if something they requested will only be available again in 3 months time. We are also very reliant on our courier companies and the Post Office to deliver our products safely within their promised time. Unfortunately not everyone is as careful with the products as we are, and no matter how well we wrap them breakages do occasionally happen. Also, courier companies outsource to other companies, and while the company we’re dealing with tries everything possible to get the goods delivered on time, the outsourced company may not feel the same way. We have found a few courier companies that we trust and this minimizes those challenges. Finally the Post Office strike has hit our promise hard – delivery which normally takes a few days is now a few weeks behind.
Another challenge is finances – do we purchase another car for the business, how do we maximize our ad spend, do we invest in more stock, should we import, how can we make our backend more efficient, should we become vat registered.
When you work from home and have a small budget, it’s all about weighing up today’s priorities versus yesterdays. Our To Do list keeps growing and changing but there’s limited capacity (time, resources and money) so it’s all about choosing the right priority for that moment.
15) What are your short and long-term business plans?
Short term:
Continued growth and creating efficiencies with regards stock levels and processes
Further advertising and promotions, including the festive season promotions
Increased profit so that we can employ someone to help with the more admin intensive side of the business
Long-term: importing unique and interesting pet products ourselves in order to reduce costs and increase the availability of unique products in South Africa
Possibly having a physical showroom where people can view the products as we understand how difficult it is to purchase a product online without having seen it / touched it / smelt it
Creating strategic partnerships – for example with a courier company or a bricks and mortar vet shop.
Please share with us your major business highlights since being in operation?
The interactive nature of our customers – we get feedback, emails, photos and phone calls to let us know how our “end customer” is doing. People are incredibly passionate about pets, as are we, and we love receiving these stories. Our whole business is aimed at making our customers happy and we pride ourselves on helping customers track down specific products that they can’t find in normal pet shops. When we do, and our customers tell us how happy they are with our service, it makes all the other challenges worthwhile
Growth: watching our web stats and our revenue growing month after month
In closing, how do potential clients reach your business?
www.apetslife.co.za
