How Tangiblee Is Changing The Online Pet Industry

Read the original announcement via Retail Dive.

It’s no secret that the pet industry is booming since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. But just how significant has that growth been? And is it sustainable?

Fior Markets estimates that the global pet care e-commerce market will grow from $22.66 billion to $45.82 billion by 2028 at 9.2% per year. Meanwhile, a recent survey by Packaged Facts revealed that 64% of U.S. pet owners are ordering pet products online.

So, what’s been driving all of this growth? The answer is simple: pet adoptions. The pandemic has left many people feeling lonely, leading to increased pet adoptions as people seek companionship.

Shelter Animals Count runs a database that tracks pet adoptions across 500 rescue organizations. In 2020, an additional 26,000 were adopted when compared to 2019—an increase of 15 percent.

All of this had led to booming sales at some of the biggest pet e-commerce companies. Chewy.com saw its 2020 net sales increase to $7.15 billion—a staggering 47% increase.

And despite this explosive growth, e-commerce shopping experiences are falling short. Pet owners rarely have access to the same interactive shopping experiences available in other popular e-commerce categories.

Keep reading to learn more about the current state of the pet industry and how Tangiblee is bringing much-needed e-commerce functionality to the growing sector. 

Why Shopping Online for Pet Gear is Such a Bad Experience

Pet products have lagged behind when it comes to digital transformations when compared to other popular categories. The same Customer-centric shopping experiences that have become the norm in fashion haven’t made the jump to pet products quite yet.

After all—shopping for pets is complex when you consider the different types of animals, breeds, sizes, and options available. It’s challenging to create those same personalized experiences to which we’ve become so accustomed.

Product catalog management is another area that further complicates the pet product shopping experience. Pet products often come in a variety of forms and styles and have inconsistent turnover. Additionally, producing contextual shopping experiences across the multiple SKUs has only stalled innovations in this category.

And then there’s the lack of infrastructure between in-store and online channels—something that affects all of e-commerce. This often leads to customers ordering products that appear to be available, but are actually out of stock.

All of these factors combined are creating a poor customer experience. And with an influx of new pet owners and increasing adoptions, pet product e-commerce is only going to grow.

How Tangiblee is Solving the Customer Confidence Problem

Tangiblee delivers an interactive, contextual shopping experience to every product page.

By leveraging existing product catalog data (product imagery & product specifications), Tangiblee creates a visual, intuitive experience that makes it easy for shoppers to understand the relative size & overall "fit" of a product. Tangiblee currently serves retail categories such as jewelry, watches, furniture, handbags, toys, and home decor and is partnered with some of the biggest e-commerce brands all over the world.

Now that a few of the Tangiblee team members adopted their own furry friend, there was more understanding as to what kind of struggles consumers are having when it comes to knowing what will work for their animal and in their space. And of course, Tangiblee knows what struggles online retailers are facing, as well - on a technical level as well as brand level.

So, the need and direction was clear: Tangiblee was going to solve the issues - size, fit, and personalization - for the online pet industry, helping eCommerce teams solve their loyal consumer problems quickly and effectively.

Here are the key capabilities developed specifically for online pet toys & supplies retail:

Compare pet items side-by-side to assess size and scale:

Place pet furniture in real-life settings using lifestyle scenes and backgrounds for inspirational context:

Determine scale and context against everyday items, various breeds, and other catalog items:

Interact with breed-specific models to see what collars and accessories look like on or near the animal:

COMING SOON: Virtual Try-On for Pets: We  plan to release an augmented reality experience (Virtual Try-On for Pets) in 2022. This feature will allow pet owners to see what collars and accessories look like on their animals.

How Does Tangiblee's UX Help the Pet Industry?

We’ve already seen the impact that augmented reality or mixed reality shopping experiences have had on other top e-commerce categories.  Virtual Try-On transformed the jewelry industry by allowing customers to try on pieces without visiting a store - a vital capability during Covid-19 lockdowns.

Some of the biggest benefits include:

• Reducing customer uncertainty and product returns: It’s easy for pet owners to purchase the wrong product, leading to a poor customer experience and increased returns. Contextual shopping solves this problem by providing the necessary context a customer needs to make an informed, confident purchasing decision.
• Boost conversions without increasing cost: Having a solution that’s built for customer engagement will lead to higher conversion rates. And with the ability to extract existing product images and data for every SKU from your website, Tangiblee makes it easy to create an interactive experience.
• Deliver dynamic product content at scale: Pet owners can easily use seasonal lifestyle imagery, change pet breeds, and look at any particular category or item—on-demand, giving customers more control and confidence than ever before.
• Improving customer loyalty and retention rates: Positive experiences are one of the easiest ways to build brand loyalty. This same logic applies to pet products and brands, where owners typically stick with the brands they love and trust.

The end result is simple: pet e-commerce companies get a powerful tool that gives them a notable differentiator in a growing e-commerce category.

How To Get Started with Tangiblee

Pet adoptions continue to increase and show no signs of slowing down. And with that comes the inevitable need to buy more pet supplies, which many customers may not be able to do in person right now.

Tangiblee makes it easy for pet e-commerce companies to offer a transformative shopping experience using an intuitive platform that leverages your existing catalog.  Add one snippet of code to your website's tag manager and Tangiblee handles the rest.

Stand out from the competition and give customers an effective, intuitive experience that keeps them coming back to your website over and over again. Tangiblee’s product experience platform gives retailers the tools needed to provide customers with an engaging, personalized shopping experience.

Schedule a demo and see how Tangiblee can help your e-commerce business increase conversions, build brand loyalty, and reduce costs.

Find the Retail Dive announcement here.