How to Add Customer Value When You Can't Compete on Price

They did it again. Just when you thought it couldn't get any lower, That e-commerce giant (also known as Amazon) has lowered the price on your top selling brand of dog food by another $5.

Because of their size and ordering capabilities, online retailers can afford to knock down the retail prices for brands so low that little to no money is made per sale. While these companies are able to sell other products at a higher margin to make up for it, this technique is impossible to imitate offline.

With the option to compete on price out of the equation, brick and mortar retailers must do everything they can to promote other benefits. The question then becomes: how do you add customer value without being able to compete on price?

Incorporate Technology

There's no way around it: technology is taking over our lives. Every day, consumers are splitting their attention between devices and real world conversations. They're using them to do everything from interacting with their pets to researching a dog kennel to replace the old one.

If you can't fight it, join it. You can incorporate technology into your strategy using any of the following techniques:

Incorporate product reviews in your pet store
Make your pet store a little more mobile friendly
Invest in internet marketing
Engage on social media

Provide Valuable Resources

Believe it or not, your pet shop is much more than a place for pet owners to pick up their favorite brand of dog food. It's a hub where customers can learn about all things related to their pet.

Ask yourself: Are you adding value through engaging and educational content?

This technique encourages responsible pet ownership, creates customer loyalty and recognition through shared content, and promotes your store as a one-stop shop for both pet education and supplies.

This guide will walk you through the steps to creating and sharing valuable resources with your customers.

Sharing engaging and educational content is one of the best ways to position your store as a thought leader and central hub for all things "pet." It will ensure customers think of you first whenever they have questions and turn to you for guidance.

Create the Ultimate Customer Experience

While attracting loyal customers is difficult enough, one particular challenge that pet specialty retailers face is getting customers to come back as repeat business. Some stores try loyalty cards while others try social media giveaways and discounts.

However, maybe there’s more to keeping loyal customers in the digital age than a simple promotion here and there.

In fact, creating a memorable positive customer experience is a proven way to turn a first-time consumer into a loyal repeat customer for your store. To do so, begin with these steps:

Determine your why - Your “why” is the essential foundation to creating a pet store experience that will keep your customers coming back.
Make it about the experience, not the product - Remember this: if you’ve made your customer smile, you’re already more than halfway to achieving your goal of keeping them coming back for more.
Create the ultimate experience - Do something that truly sets you apart from your competition

Matthew Hudson, president of Rick Segel & Associates told Pets + Magazine that, "if you exceed a customer’s expectations, they are 96% likely to return to your store."

If you're interested in diving into this topic a little further, you can find our guide to creating a customer experience here.

Invest in Top Notch Employees

Anyone who's ever been in a management position can tell you one thing: hiring great employees is a difficult process. Not only that, but what's sometimes even more difficult is keeping them on staff, engaged, and enthusiastic about their job.

While no doubt there are many good reasons to invest in better employee training, there are still a high number of store employees who lack the proper training required in order to maximize sales.

Employee training is crucial for pet stores because it:

Helps you stand out from the competition
Boosts employee engagement and confidence
Creates customized solutions for customers

Many pet store employees are millennials. This generation has changed the game of hiring and managing employees throughout multiple industries. Unfortunately, many companies are seeing high turnover and low engagement rates with their younger work force.

With this struggle, the question becomes: How do you hire, retain, and engage a millennial employee?

Consider these five tips (and read more here):

Keep work challenging and rewarding
Understand the importance of work-life balance
Cater to their social side
Listen to their ideas
Let them know where they stand

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Because every business is different, there's no clear-cut way to compete against companies who undercut your prices. However, remembering your benefits and using them to your advantage as well is a great way to side-step that particular downfall and become a must-go destination for every pet owner in your community.