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ways to increase pet store herp sales?

S

sidneydawson

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Hello everyone,

I'm looking for ideas people have used to increase the sales of a reptile section of a pet store. The owner offered me a part-time job because I am a good customer with a good knowledge of reptiles. He is eager to get his herp sales up and has been affected by the huge chain stores. This is a fairly small store with good location and traffic, but it by no means has the resources to stock the real specialty herps experienced people are looking for. It seems as though all he has luck selling is corns, beardeds, balls, typical starter animals. All I can offer him are the dealers I have had good experiences with, and good knowledge to pass onto his customers. Does anyone have any suggestions or things that have worked for your stores? Thank you in advance,

Sidney Dawson
 
With 3 pet stores that specialized in herps

( Pet Village of Overland Park Kan, Pet Stop of Shawnee Kan., Noah's Pets in Grandview Mo. ) we always had the reptile department in a darkened room with internal cage lighting. We has signage of the room and marked CLEARLY on the cages with those bright paint pens. We used in the cages what we sold for dry goods. We had many micro-habitats for some of the herps with using plants ( most were silks or synthetic plants ) rocks, wood, etc. Our herp room was the most visited area in all of the stores. We clustered all herp related dry goods for sale together in one area. Besides myself , we made sure that at least one employee had good knowledge of herps. I bred a lot of the snakes and some lizards also some of the frog species. We encouraged other reptile breeders to sell to us in which was kind of hard in those days because of the stigma of the Pet Store image. We bred our own mice and had to buy crickets and rats, rabbits from other wholesalers. We made sure that we never ran out of feeder animals for the herps. We also belonged to several herp societies and made it to a few of the reptile shows either to buy or sell ( which hardly ANY of the other pet stores did in the whole Kansas City area, more than 80 pet stores, their loss ! ). We carried over 60 books on reptiles from the cheaps to the best books. There were some herps that we determined to be a problem reptile that we eventually tried to stop selling. These were import ball pythons and iguanas. We used wood cages mostly but sold large aquari and other manufactured cages. This was before the plastic cages went on the market. ( visions ). We kept our livestock cages CLEAN at all times. Anything else ?

Mike Chambers ( former owner of Noah's Pet World )
 
Well written care sheets are probably a good thing to have for prospective clients. They don't need to be huge but maybe one page of facts on husbandry of each of the species you carry in the store. Whenever you see someone looking at an animal with interest, give him one. If they learn more about the animal in question they might be more prone to buy it. Sometimes this might go the other way, as they might decide a baby boa is not for them in the long term. But that's the way it should be, you would be educating the public even if you sell an animal or not.

Best of lucks!
 
My biggest beef is with the price of the herps. I realize a pet store has more overhead costs than a private breeder, and they have to make money, but some of the stuff is outrageous. They sell some of the herps such as wild caught BP, Iguanas, and common Boas, too cheap, so that you buy one and then buy all the equipment that needs to go with it, but the rest of the snakes are way too expensive, the markup is way to high. To me the thinking is backwards. They sell those animals dirt cheap to get them into the hobby and to buy all the associated equipment, then the WC BP won't feed and dies, the Iguana grows to big and gets bone disease, and the Boas end up homelss because they get to big. Stop selling those kinds of aniamls as loss leaders and just lower the price on the "exotic" herps. The people will then get them instead and still get all the equipment and will be more likely to purchase more in the future, because their CB Milksnake, BP, etc., will actually live. Where I live for most snakes it is cheaper to buy online than at a pet store, and that includes shipping cost.
 
when i worked in a pet store we gave away free CB iggys with purchase of cage. we also had books on all the speices of reptiles we sold. Reptiles were a high theft item as well. Sell heathy animals. WCs are a bad idea for buying and reselling, they have ticks and other nastys that will spread to other animals in the store. Sell popular herps, leopard geckos , iggys, newts, toads, corn snakes, ball pythons, spur thighs and redfoots. Keep a full grown counterpart of a tortoise or tame iggy. keep the cages clean! dont let dead crickets float in the water bowls. you will make more money on the supplys then the actual animal. and make sure you sell them the stuff they need to keep the specific herp heathy. thats just some of the things I did in the reptile department. the most important thing is keep everything very very clean.
 
Thanks for your input guys. We have a couple things lined up so far. I've been working on care sheets and getting the cages clean as can be. Some other ideas I plan on floating:

1.) An animal of the month. This will be something like corns or cal kings that come in a lot of color morphs to stock at the same time for variety. I'm hoping to create the "collector" mentality, yet still stock animals that sell well. I'm thinking that at the very least people will come into the store once a month to see "what's next."

2.) Heavily promoting frozen feeders. No stores around here sell frozen rodents. And, most people with one or two herps don't see the sense of having 100 mice in their freezer. I think small bags of 5-10 would do well.

3.) A loaner program. The idea is to offer school classrooms to keep and care for a herp for a month at a time. We supply everything...herp, food, setup. At the end of the month, hopefully a few kids will be looking into the hobby. The owner does "Reptile Shows" at local schools, so I don't think this will be much of a stretch.

Let me know what you think. Thanks again,
Sidney Dawson
 
Vince said:
when i worked in a pet store we gave away free CB iggys with purchase of cage. we also had books on all the speices of reptiles we sold. Reptiles were a high theft item as well. Sell heathy animals. WCs are a bad idea for buying and reselling, they have ticks and other nastys that will spread to other animals in the store. Sell popular herps, leopard geckos , iggys, newts, toads, corn snakes, ball pythons, spur thighs and redfoots. Keep a full grown counterpart of a tortoise or tame iggy. keep the cages clean! dont let dead crickets float in the water bowls. you will make more money on the supplys then the actual animal. and make sure you sell them the stuff they need to keep the specific herp heathy. thats just some of the things I did in the reptile department. the most important thing is keep everything very very clean.
Click to expand...

A free Iggy with purchase of a cage. If that isn't a sure fire way to get people to purchase one of the most inappropriate pet reptiles I don't know what is. Also, don't keep a tame adult iggy in stock, keep a mean one as that is how the majority of that small percentage who reach adulthood end up. Sulcata tortoises, another on my worst pets list. Not to mention illegal to sell babies. You offer some good advice , I guess we just disagree with what types of animals make decent pets. I don't carry igs or turtles or tortoises because I spend more time talking people out of buying them because they are not appropriate for most people who come to a pet shop to buy their animals.

Steve Schindler
 
I agree with you 100% about the iggys, but at least we sold heathy ones, i was just pointing out things that were done at the petshop I worked at.

Since when are baby sulcattas illegal? I think tortoises make the best pet herps, They will live a very long time if taken care of the right way. why do you talk people out of buying a pet tortoise?
 
Sidney, I think you are taking some very good steps in the right direction...I especially like the educational angle.
From a business standpoint, I guess I am asking which direction you are going...high turnaround or higher profit sales ?
there is a good slogan out there:
"Fast/ great price/ high quality. Pick any two."

When a customer comes in, it helps to have a set business plan in motion...and make sure all of your staff adhere to the same mantra...confusion or too many differences of opinion are major league turn-offs to a consumer.

Keep us posted !

greg
 
Contrary to popular opinion, ALL chelonians (tortoises included) are illegal to sell under 4 inches. Most people think it just refers to water turtles but the info I get from several highly respected people say otherwise. The only ones not covered under the FDA law are sea turtles which are covered under their own laws.

As far as talking people out of a tortoise, I guess it just that in the case with sulcatas, a very small minority of people have the capacity to care for a 36" 150 lb animal with such specific care needs and space requirements. The biggest tank I sell that I have ready access to is a 180 gallon and at 6' by 2' that doesn't give a sulcata much room for very long. Consider that most people are not willing to spend that kind of money on a cage that will not last the animal even a small pecentage of its natural life they usually lose interest pretty quickly. I tell people that custom built cages, or in reality remodled spare bedrooms will be needed to properly carre for an adult sulcata. Almost any animal can be a nice pet if the people want to spend the time and money on them. I would say that about 90% of the inquiries I get about turtles and tortoises come from people looking for pets for their 5 year olds. They think that a tortoise would be the ideal pet because they require almost no care. "feed em and water em and watch em grow that's the attitude most people have. I also think that in most pet shops, specialty herp store excluded perhaps, the majority of your customers are going to be families with young kids looking for a first time pet. IMHO tortoises do not fit that category. I will buy tortoises for people who express an interest and demonstrate the knowledge and apparent ability to care for them properly. There are smaller tortoises on the market but the problem is finding CBB specimens at a price that will keep the customers interest. Also, most people want the babies so when I tell them that I can not sell them under 4" they lose interest again.

I guess my attitude toward the inappropriatness of certain animals is directly related with the numbers of them I see abandoned and abused. The larger the animal the higher incidence of both, and IMHO the more inappropriate the animal is for a pet. It also seems that the larger an animal gets the more people want them for the "image" thing. teenagers and young adults (a term I use loosely in this case) wanting them because they are cool, or should I say they think the animals will make them look cool. I have a lot of respect for those who are committed to raising a healthy long term pet, but that task is tougher with the larger animals and I think a higher proportion of people give up long before the animal is ready to.

I am not knocking those store that do sell these animals as long as they do it in a responsible manner. Unfortunately many do not, and the results are what have soured me on the large reptiles. As far as the torts, I just think they are more difficult than people think and they get into them for he wrong reasons.

Steve Schindler
 
on the educational thing

you had better check your liability insurance in case of when attending schools and such. Of course this would probably only apply if you let kids handle species. The same can be added for your in-store policy. I know at least 3 pet stores that were sued under : salmonella infection on 2 customers and one on a bite infection from a iguana.
On the sales of under 4 inch rule: even though you can buy on-line and at reptile shows ( why , I don't know ) it is the federal law of no sales under 4 inch " absolutely no matter what " ! It is with ALL species of turtles . As a stationary pet store you can be closed down as we were threaten with for the sales of small tortoises and water species even with the signage of " for educational and or scientific purposes only ". I will get some arguments on this as I did before but I was hit with the USDA on this. And besides the law is still the vet check for the certain tick on sulcattas, leopards and I think the hing-backs.
Our sales were the best in the Kansas City area for reptiles mostly due to our displays and SOME roaming large herps that some customers didn't appreciate. Also I was hit by my insurance company of not doing this anymore ( the loose lizards ) and we had to tether our big display birds. I may not of read all the sub-post but here is what i was in contention of in my pet store days.

mike chambers
 
Thanks guys, I appreciate the help. In NJ, we can't sell ANY size turtle or tortoise, and its a good thing, cause I am clueless on how to care for them. I've also put a bottle of purell near the display to encourage hygeine. I'll let you know how it goes.

Sidney Dawson
 
The two most important things (the 2 things the chains fall short on bigtime) are having knowledgable staffers to answer questions and having healthy animals, those 2 factors alone should help some. Then follow up with some of the above suggestions like the caresheets, etc. Hell you can do better than the free Iggy, what about free Leopard Geckos? They stay small and can be had relatively cheap in bulk, cheap enough to build into the cost of a full setup. The Gecko at Petco would cost them around $30 or so, mark "Free Gecko with purchase of full setup, a $30 value" on the front of the cage.
 
Vince said:
30 dollar value? you could put $100 dollar value , I have seen normal looking leos this much at regular pet shops
Click to expand...
For juvis I think Petco currently gets about $30, they used to be about $70. For adults as you say they easily can be $100 plus in stores. :rofl:
 
This just my opinion .....I live in NY and Ive Been to Alot of pet stores From the borders of Canada to the Pa Borders and all points east and west And Ive been banned from alot of them ...Because I piss the owners off when I share my Knowledge with them ...One instance is Last year I was down on Long Island and went to a pet store around the Rocky Point area ..They Had a Gorgeous Albino Berm among other reptiles that was having a bad shed When I suggested when these animals are going into shed TRY MISTING THEM raise their Humdity levels The owner lost his mind telling me that hes been doing this for 5 years and he knows what he is doing ...In Turn I got Rude and told him You may of been doing this for 5 years ....Ive been doing this for 20 years and I'm still learning,when you find the time come to my shop upstate New York and see how a real pet store works well needless to say when he throw me out most of the customers left to The bottom line to this IF You dont Know How to care for your "HERPS PLEASE DONT SELL THEM" A nice looking Reptile sells faster then one having a bad shed or not pleasing to the eye...Sidney Where in Jersey is your Shop :dgrin:
 
You're totally right. That's how this got started actually. I usually went in to get a mouse or a rat on occasion when I was out of something. So, one day I walked into a huge disaster. They had a baby Jackson's in the same cage as an adult Columbian. Emaciated animals, bad sheds, horrible setups. So I wrote the owner a letter, and expected him to tell me where to put it. Instead, he offered me a part time job to help get it right and to improve the sales. I really give him credit for that. He told me to do whatever I wanted to do or that the animals should have. I've since changed the setups and a lot of things have improved. The owner is great, his staff is the problem. There are a lot of young high school kids there who don't seem to like the changes. They honestly seem upset because things look better. I don't get it. Anyways, to answer your question, we're in Central Jersey.

Thanks again for all of your help guys.

-Sidney Dawson
 
It seems as though all he has luck selling is corns, beardeds, balls, typical starter animals.
Click to expand...

You need to consider your customer base. I think the reason he has only had success with the "starter" animals is because most people buying herps in a pet store are often looking for their first one, and therefore, are looking for something relatively easy to keep for beginners. At least that has been my observation. Most of us that have been doing this a while, and are looking for more exotic species, know to go straight to the breeder or attend shows. I doubt too many of us would pay pet store prices.

I would suggest sticking with the typical "starter" species for now until you get a sense of what the local community is looking for. Now that you are working on the other side of the counter, it shouldn't take you too long to find out what other species are in demand, locally, and what would sell.

Good luck,
Bart
 
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