Spain heading down the right track

When it comes to finding out more about their customers, the top people at the Tiendanimal pet store chain are not scared of investing a fair amount in research to achieve this. Roughly 5 000 questionnaires were sent out last year to customers, another 100 to animal welfare organisations and the same number to veterinarians.
3 314 questionnaires were returned between June and September 2018, 45 per cent more than in the previous year. The animal welfare organisations sent 70 back, while the vets returned 29. No further information was available regarding the regions returning the 2018 questionnaire, unfortunately. 86 (previous year: 85) per cent of the respondents were female and 36 years of age on average (previous year: 35). A clear majority of the respondents (90 per cent) keep 1.4 dogs on average as compared with 85 per cent the previous year, also with 1.4 pets on average. The number of cat owners also increased from 35 to 37 per cent. These kept 2.3 cats on average in 2018, a slight increase from 2.0 in the previous year.

One important aspect covered in the survey was the amount of time spent daily on pets. 49 per cent of dog owners and 53 per cent of cat owners said they devoted one to three hours a day to their pet. 47 per cent of owners of cage birds, 52 per cent of aquarium enthusiasts, 54 per cent of reptile owners and 48 per cent of owners of small animals and rabbits spent 1-3 hours on their pets. Pet owners who devoted less than an hour a day to their pets were in the single-digit percentage range, while the number of those spending between three and five hours on their pets was pleasingly high at 27 per cent on average. 16 per cent of all pet owners spend more than five hours on their pets on average. The outliers here were reptile owners at the top end of the scale at 21 per cent and cat owners with the lowest value at 12 per cent.

The information provided by respondents on where they shop is likely to have been particularly pleasing to Tiendanimal. 82 per cent said they shopped in pet stores and 76 per cent indicated that they used online pet product retailers, both of which channels are operated by Tiendanimal. Perhaps the company will extend its next survey to include the names of the store chains and online retailers?