Pet Store Empowering Campaign in China

(Beijing June 15, 2022)

At the third year affected by novel coronavirus, the 40,000+ pet stores in China are still struggling with unprecedented challenges. According to a 2020 survey done by China International Pet Show (CIPS) on pet stores in China, 45. 5% shut down their business, 31.8% shortened business hours, and 20.5% shifted to online sales. Some signs of recovery have appeared in 2021. According to petdata.cn, pet owners placed more service orders to pet stores. Grooming & skin care still tops all the services, with a 31.7% increase from 2020. The demand for photography service, amusement center, and training have increased respectively 96.6%, 25.5% and 116.7% compared with the previous year.

The survival and success of pet stores plays a key role in the post epidemic recovery period. In April, CIPS launched the "Empowering 10000 China Pet Retailers" campaign. They have held training seminars in 6 cities so far and plans to hold 200 seminars and events till the end of the year.

The campaign’s key activity is the fine grooming and skin care seminar, which includes lectures and practice to improve pet store groomers’ skills. The systematic training is designed especially for pet stores to meet customers’ needs and increase their return on service. Besides contents on grooming and skin care, the seminar also includes store management skills, marketing techniques and niche classes, for example, on bakery, photography, healthcare, etc. The first group of 25 teaches have finished their training and started classes in various cities. The organizer expects a team of 100 teachers join the campaign in the next couple of months.

This will be the biggest pet store empowering campaign so far, and in the years to come. “The seminars differ in size, from a dozen groomers to hundreds of participants. It is not a once for all event, but a continuous systematic training process,” said Ms. Lu Peng, GM of CIPS. “We believe a healthy and sustainable retailing system is what China desperately need now. Pet stores services differ them from online e-commerce sales, which focuses more on products. Pet owners need the person-to-person communication now more than any time before.”

Based on special needs in different cities, the organizer may add cat shows, or grooming contests, or both, sponsored by PureNatural and PUNGO. More than 400 store owners and leading groomers have participated in the seminar. “We have received very positive feedbacks from the participants. The program is designed to help the store to generate more revenue. All the teachers are amazed by how enthusiastic this young generation of groomers are. Their feedbacks help us to further improve the program,” according to Mr. Gao Yuan, director of the campaign and chairman of CIPS Global Grooming Conference (CGGC).

The campaign is also a strategic move of CIPS to enhance its domestic buyers’  network in China. Brands need to work with strong wholesalers and to interact with pet stores to expand their market in China. CIPS 2022 will be held both online and offline on Nov. 17 to 20 in Guangzhou, China.