disrupting a $100 billion

industry

136%

retail growth

Animal Supply Company

CLIENT
Animal Supply Company
OVERVIEW
The distribution industry isn't well known for being highly digital or innovative. And developing the right digital solutions to propel the business forward can be a challenge when many of your small retail customers aren't digitally savvy and are fearful of how the Amazon effect is changing their businesses daily. With 21 warehouses across the country, more than 7,000 independent retailers with over 23,000 doors and relationships with more than 465 premium brands, ASC is a leading distributor of high-quality pet products. The pet market is booming, with U.S. customers spending ~$70B on pet products with $29B spent on food alone (in 2017). With 30 years of experience in the pet market, deep relationships with retailers and a national network of warehouses, ASC is a critical link between brands, retailers and pet lovers.
PLATFORMS & SERVICES
Commerce
B2B
Digital Transformation
Channel Expansion
INDUSTRY
Professional Services
THE CHALLENGE

The pet industry has been experiencing explosive growth, largely driven by the rise in eCommerce shopping (expected growth from 4% in 2015 to 25% in 2022). Pet shoppers' purchasing habits are signaling a desire for choice and flexibility when it comes to how, when and where to purchase (in-store, local shopping experiences and the convenience of online shopping options). Traditional brick and mortar stores needed to find a way to enter the eCommerce marketplace to retain and win back consumers who were flocking to online competitors, like Amazon and Chewy.

The good news is that ASC was already on a path to help. The distributor knew it had an opportunity to develop innovative solutions to help its retailers compete as they struggled to meet this challenge. But in addition to helping customers, ASC knew it also needed a clear digital strategy of its own.

OUR APPROACH

It takes creative leaders to recognize the need for change and push forward even in the face of uncertainty. In his first year as CEO, Don McIntyre set out to better understand the overarching challenges ASC and its retailers were facing. As a result, Don set a vision for nothing short of a full-scale digital transformation. One of his first steps? Recruiting digital strategy and marketing expert, Angela Spears.

First, we began by reimagining the customer ordering journey. Given ASC had grown rapidly through acquisitions, this step necessitated a change to a new national eCommerce platform, OroCommerce (taking the place of four legacy ordering systems). Next, ASC partnered with the user experience (UX) team at Bottle Rocket to develop a new UX design and navigation for the web front-end, making web orders simpler and engaging. With this new foundation in place, the team quickly shifted gears to take on their next big challenge: mobile.

Working in lock step, Bottle Rocket and ASC created an industry first mobile ordering app that allowed retail customers to quickly find products, create favorite shopping lists and track orders. A barcode scanner allows customers to quickly reorder previously purchased items simply by scanning the barcode on products on the shelf.

NEXT UP