How do Reptile shops stay in business?

Does a reptile shop really sell that much product? I know or should I say I have heard from some owners over the years they don't make their money on the animals but on supplies.

I doubt that very many small ones do.
Having been involved in a pet shop with a fairly heavy reptile focus, I can say that there are a couple of factors that help:
- Having a large, or changing, potential customer base (we were in a small town, but drew a lot of business from the local university)
- Keeping things interesting. Foot traffic is important to a shop that relies on customer presence (vs phone or internet orders)...we used to rotate some of our personal animals through as displays, just to encourage people to come in "just to see". Shifting the focus on some of the available animals helps, too.
- Know the products, and have necessary items available. A couple of things to consider - while online purchases from large distributors can be cheaper, there are shipping costs & time to consider. Being able to provide a needed product at the moment of need (or desire) will often get the sale. At the same time, we didn't bother carrying items we knew we couldn't compete with...when a WalMart SuperCenter opened in town, their prices were cheaper than what we were paying for some products.
- affordable quality
- location, location, location. Easy access is HUGE (that actually includes hours of operation)

There really is so much more involved, and there are still no guarantees. The reality is that the target consumer is often new to the hobby, and by being helpful and sharing knowledge you set them up for success....hopefully, that turns into some repeat sales before they decide that they don't need you anymore, lol. To a degree, economic conditions come into play...when people are concerned about money, extravagant purchases are often put on hold. And with the competition currently seen in the animal market, people are better off breeding as much of their own stock as possible, IMO.

Well for the shop that I manage (Pets Gone Wild).. We are primarily a reptile store.. its probably about 45 % of our business. As we hold a very large variety of reptiles, but we stray away from certain species that arent that great of pets for beginners or intermed. level hobbyists. We all have a wide knowledge of what we bring in, and do as much research as possible, before we bring something in that we are unsure of. And when I say reptile.. I accidently also included Arachnids in there also. Just to be clear!
We are a kid friendly place, being very interactive and one on one. We are a relatively small shop... 1700 sq ft. but we do have a decent location. We do education programs w/ the schools.. birthday parties... church events.. and local events. We also Keep our education animals at the shop, so that people can interact w/ a larger version of what they may dream to one day own. We also do alot with Dept. of Ag. In the sense that, they have had us come and do many seminars on proper reptile housing and care, and we have also done rescues on behave of Dept of Ag..
Other than reptiles, we also offer exotics in the aquatic form, like Fresh, Saltwater, and Brackish water fish and supplies.. and Small animals (gerbils/hamsters/rabbits/guineas/ferrets and birds) and we also do High end dog and cat food/supplies.. *no wheat, corn, gluten, or any other form of filler or allergin* But we do not carry dogs or cats, simply because, we do not want to add to the amount of animals in local shelters.
But for us, mainly.. and honestly... we are known for our customer service, and reptile health... all captive bred, no imports.
I dont know if this was at all any help to the answer of your question.. but we have been open about 3.5 yrs now.. in a very small town, and doing pretty well.. especially for the economy to be how it is.

In addition to people coming in the store the truly successful places also do internet traffic and shipping. That way they are not limited by geographic proximity to their customers. Since you need a place to house the stock anyways might as well have it open to customers. One place that I know of would not even make it probably is operated soley as brick and mortar as most of their business is internet sales.

The key is not limiting yourself to those in local proximity only. Wit hthe advancements in shipping and the internet expanding your sphere of influence on a national level is key.

Digby Rigby balboa28279@mypacks.net

Something else to consider is the fact that some people will go to the local specialty store just because it is a LOCAL, SPECIALTY, STORE. I have a store that I will got to if I can because the people there will be there for me if I need them. If I have trouble I know I can count on them to help me. If I don't buy the animal from them they understand that I will be in there to buy food items. I may buy a light bulb from a "Big Box Store" but when I need feeder rodents/insects I go to the place that understands what I am about, not where I have to wonder if the hired help is going to think I am some kind of MONSTER for giving that poor mouse to my snake. After all snakes and lizards have to eat too, if they didn't we would all be up to our as*** in rodents and bugs.

I look at it much like I look at being a contributing member to this site. I may be able to get the same information some place else and save some money on the front end, but when it comes right down to it I may be doing myself a bigger favor if I spend a little more now to save A LOT in the future (slight BOI plug just in case you missed it, click my coins and join).

Everything above is good advice, I would add that providing feeders for reptiles is a LARGE percentage of repeat business for the one small time reptile shop that a a friend of mine owns. She has a constant stream of people coming in for a variety of bugs and worm, plus for feeder mice/rats.

The food and supply side of her shop is what keeps her afloat. The animals she does offer are also more geared toward beginning/intermediate keeping but she is very willing to help track down and provide more exotic species for the customers.

And, for any animal related business, cleanliness is mandatory. No pet shop will do well for long if they allow it to get stinky and dirty.

I agree with many of the previous posts. There was a local pet shop that I visited frequently since the age of 7 or 8(I'm 27 now) up until about last year. I even worked there for a few months or so at one point. Most sales were made to people brand new to the hobby that had an interest in herps but limited knowledge. We would typically spend about 20-30 minutes with a customer educating them on a corn snake or a bearded dragon, and end up selling them the animal plus a huge kit, regardless of the price. When I worked there I often encouraged the owner to branch out and create a website, with the idea of selling online. She was stuck in her ways of doing things. Needless to say, the shop closed down a few mon ths back after being in business for like 30 years.

I would like to say that I would enjoy opening up my own shop some day, but there are many challenges to face.