A businessman’s best friend, and unique selling proposition, is his dog

Understanding your customer is the cornerstone of any successful business but when those customers are animals, it takes that relationship to a whole new level.

Petstop chief executive and founder Anthony Gallagher attributes the success of his stores to the personal relationship he and his staff have with all of their customers. From knowing the pets and their owners by name to understanding their nutritional needs, it’s all part of what makes Petstop one of Ireland’s premier pet care companies.

Gallagher recently shared the story behind his successful pet store empire in an interview with Time Well Spent, the new podcast series from AIB Merchant Services, that shines a light on Ireland’s heroes of enterprise and how they deliver exceptional customer experiences with the clever use of technology.

In episode one, we learn about his rise to success, from sweeping the floors of retail giant Penneys to founding one of Ireland’s largest pet companies, Petstop. Time Well Spent examines some of Ireland’s greatest success stories and how they employ payment technology to drive their business forward, Louise Phelan, senior marketing manager with AIB Merchant Services, explains. “We want to turn the spotlight on some of the inspiring entrepreneurial businesses that make such an important contribution to the economy and to the life of communities around Ireland.”

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Throughout the podcast series, renowned Irish brands delve into the secrets behind their standout success, sharing how the integration of technology and data-driven strategies, both in-store and online, has transformed their customer experience and propelled their businesses to new heights. Time Well Spent also talks to the experts in AIB Merchant Services who take an in-depth look at the technology and innovations that are shaping Ireland’s retail landscape and provide insights into what businesses need to do to prepare for the future.

According to Gallagher, understanding customer demographics has played a vital role in the success of Petstop. “AIB Merchant Services provides us with Main Street Insights every month, it’s incredibly valuable. It tells us how many customers we had this month versus last month and gives us a lot of demographic information that we didn’t have before. For a small retailer like us it can be difficult to get that kind of information. We can look at our sales every day and compare them against last year, against budget and so on. We do an analysis of how we are doing every week. With that data we can pinpoint if a store has more or less customers this month against last month and ask why.”

With 12,500 products in stock and more than 75,000 customers visiting the 12 stores every month, the level of detail provided by Main Street Insights is critically important. Gallagher believes in dedicating time each week to analysing the data and using it to help drive the business. “Our business is very data driven at the back end. The data from AIB Merchant Services tells us how we are doing against a number of metrics and allows us to look at what we can do to improve.”

Gallagher also spoke about some of the quite dramatic changes to the retail landscape since he opened his first store in 1995, one of which was the move to online based on a tip off he received from his daughter who was living in China at the time of the pandemic. “We sucked up as much stock as we could, and I think my staff thought I was mad because our warehouse was completely jammed. You couldn’t get down the aisles. It was absolute chaos. And then, Leo Varadkar came on and said, ‘Right, effectively everything is closing down.’ Everything just took off. I mean, the online business, we went from having 100 orders a day to 1,000 orders a day to 2,000 orders a day overnight.”

It’s about knowledge, knowing your customers and giving them what they want

The ecommerce business is now embedded in Gallagher’s business strategy. “Our online business pre-pandemic was about 10 per cent of turnover, now it’s 25 to 30 per cent. A lot of our customers do click and collect as well. They can see if an item is in stock in a store and collect it at a time convenient to them. That’s something we didn’t have pre-pandemic. The omnichannel offering has allowed us to get more information on our customers and understand their needs better.”

For Gallagher personally, time well spent outside of work means playing tennis, going to the gym and walking the dogs. “Exercise is important, I have two dogs at home which I walk every day. Hail, rain or shine they don’t care, they want to get out for their walk. Even if you don’t feel like going out, they will insist on it. That’s brilliant.”

He believes he has been very lucky. “I love what I do. Retail is a tough business to succeed in, but it is a great business to be in. Things change every day. What works today might not work tomorrow. You have to keep moving forward. It’s great fun and we have great craic. If we see wedding dresses or jackets for dogs, we will get them in and stock them. When we introduced prams for dogs, people told us we would never sell them, we are selling thousands of them every year now. Our aim is to double the size of the business over the next five years. Our view is that we are only 10 per cent through our journey and we have 90 per cent still to go. AIB Merchant Services partners with us on the journey and that is very important to us.”

To hear more about Gallagher’s story, and forthcoming interviews including airline giant Aer Lingus and Entrepreneur and chief executive Jean McCabe of Retail Excellence Ireland and retail outlet Willow, listen to Time Well Spent, available now on all big podcast platforms.

To hear more about Anthony Gallagher’s story listen to Time Well Spent, the new podcast series produced by Record Media for AIB Merchant Services, that offers business leaders first-hand advice from successful entrepreneur and organisations. Visit aibms.com for more information