Is autoship the new revolution in pet retail?

Several pet retailers have added autoship services to their e-commerce businesses in recent years. At the same time, others have experienced a significant growth in existing schemes.

Contributing to success

When Chewy announced a 14.5% year-on-year growth in sales during Q3 2022, taking revenues to $2.5 billion (€2.3B), the US online pet retailer credited a huge proportion of this success to the continued popularity of its autoship service.

Nearly three-quarters (73.3%) of total Chewy sales in the 3 months to October 2022 were channeled through its automated reordering program. This free-to-join membership service offers customers discounts on those items they want to have shipped on a regular basis.

Already a longstanding service at Chewy, repeat orders were established shortly after the company’s launch in 2011. It is now a part of the business that continues to grow steadily – with sales up 18.8% year-on-year – reflecting a wider industry uptick in automated ordering services.

Petco CEO Ron Coughlin pointed to the strength of Petco’s subscription services as a source of growth during Q2 2022, with recurring customer revenue up by 54%.

Enhancing customer relation

Pet Supplies Plus also launched its own autoship program in 2021. It spans food and other replenishable items, such as cat litter and puppy training pads.

When Canadian specialty retailer Pet Valu introduced its autoship service in September 2022, it added another benefit. Leveraging its 640+ store network, Pet Valu offers pet parents the option to pick up orders in-store or opt for home delivery.

The company says that it is happy with the initial uptake and that the new service has deepened its relationship with pet parents. “Our customers rely on us to have their desired products in stock when and where they need them,” says Chief Marketing and Digital Officer Tanbir Grover. “Autoship helps meet these needs by enabling inventory assurance for our customers while also providing convenience for those pet lovers who have less time to make a manual purchase online or in-store.”

The free service, which offers cancellation up to 24 hours before a scheduled order, spans a wide range of products, including food, health and wellness, litter and bedding, waste management, water and fish care, as well as house training and grooming products.

Understanding the popularity of autoship

For Diane Pelkey, VP of Communications & PR at Chewy, the availability of an automated reordering service ticks a number of boxes for customers. “It provides pet parents with convenient and flexible automatic reordering and delivery that makes meeting their recurring pet needs even easier,” she says.

Pelkey points out that reordering services aren’t limited to pet food either. They also cover frequent and essential purchases, such as prescription medication.

And, of course, there’s the ability to tweak delivery schedules to reflect pet and pet parent needs.

The benefits are reciprocal too, with plenty of evidence that autoship models encourage customers to spend more money with a single retailer – even without minimum requirements on either spending or delivery.

Research by Consumer Intelligence Research Partners estimated that a typical autoship pet customer spends an additional $350 (€325) per year, ordering 15.5 times annually, versus 10.4 times for those not signed up for this service.

Recurrent purchases are typical for younger, more affluent shoppers, for whom convenience is a considerable draw.

Extra benefits

Of course, with so many retailers looking to tap into the popularity of autoship models in recent years, there’s also increasing competition to distinguish services from one another using added extras. Often this boils down to additional savings, including a range of discounts, free delivery for future orders, or points in the retailer’s rewards scheme.

At Chewy, meanwhile, autoship customers also benefit from free and unlimited virtual access to their Connect with a Vet telehealth service. A licensed vet is available to answer pet parent questions.

All in all, it’s an ongoing process to refine the autoship service to be the best it can be. Pelkey sums up: “We are always working to make the shopping experience even better and more seamless for our customers. This includes personalization and convenience for pet parents.”