One day, Jochen Vogel, Chairman of the Management, REWE Nord, called me out of the blue. He told me about the crazy idea of opening a ZooRoyal store in a former Sky location near my REWE store in Norderstedt. I didn’t think about it for more than ten minutes before I said yes – that’s how brilliant I thought the idea was!

By no means. Although the road was rocky at first. We had to set up a completely new infrastructure. Three days before opening, for example, 30 percent of the product range was not yet maintained in the checkout system. But it is precisely these efforts that make our success today all the more fulfilling.

We were overwhelmed by customers for the first three days. I knew immediately that the effort had paid off. Another highlight for me is our annual summer party, where we work closely together as a team from the store and head office.

For example, it was challenging to find the right product range for our customers. We only had experience from e-commerce. But what works online is not always what customers want to buy in-store. So we learned and adapted a lot on the fly.

At ZooRoyal, I experience a completely different, much more emotional retail world. We are a specialist retailer and are responsible for the well-being of our customers’ pets. 8 out of 10 customers need advice, sometimes also on health issues. This means that we need really good specialists and have to give them more time for advice than my REWE team, for example. The customer contact itself is also much more personal because we get to know the customer’s life situation during the conversation. That’s great fun.

The ZooRoyal own brand has always done very well in my REWE-Marktplatz store, but of course only a limited range can be sold there. In the specialist stores, customers can not only find everything their pet’s heart desires with a larger range than in the online store – they can completely immerse themselves in the ZooRoyal brand world. They can touch cat beds, test dog crates directly in the car, recreate their aquarium with aquascaping and try out decorations and give their dog a shower at the washing station. We offer an all-round successful shopping experience. From a company perspective, the specialist stores help us to get to know our customers and what moves them. The online store and shop-in-shop systems also benefit from this valuable feedback.

Pet supplies are a regular customer business. It is therefore important to get involved locally. For example, we regularly organize summer parties and workshops. We once even hosted the qualifying tournament for the European Dog Diving Championships. We always gain a new customer base with events like this. The idea that a ZooRoyal store should always be located near a corresponding REWE-Marktplatz store is also great – the stores bring customers to each other. As with REWE, the same applies to ZooRoyal: customers want an increasingly personalized shopping experience. As retailers, we are closer to them and can react quickly to trends and customize product ranges.

Be open to a completely new world of retail! If you want to become a ZooRoyal retailer, you should be aware that a pet supplies store requires a lot of commitment – often more than a food retailers, especially at the beginning. But I’m still happy every time I go to my ZooRoyal store. The teams are highly motivated. The cooperation with suppliers is close and informal. I can let off steam creatively. And I would never have thought this before – I’ve made lots of great dog friends.