Special Report: Driving In-Store Traffic with Reptile and Aquatics

r From Pg. 16 ers purchase their live foods on at least a weekly basis, he said. “Each customer and their needs are unique, so a blanket suggestion isn’t possible. Customers with a more advanced setup at home for caring for their animals and live feeder insects might be able to buy in larger quantities and keep the live feeder insects for longer. e-Commerce is great and it allows us to serve the customer directly which we love to do, but the DTC orders we normally fill are larger quantities for consumers with several animals requiring feeder insects. We are looking into offering smaller quantities directly to the consumer, but we need to work out logistics and marketing for those items.” is you give fish brine shrimp or peas or something with roughage to clear it out —a laxative, more or less.”

Care for fish is admittedly different, Hovanec said. “People say fish, or even reptiles, but fish especially are hard, and they’re not hard. They’re foreign. They live in water instead of air. Dogs and cats, you can pet and hold, and you can see if they’re healthy. To a certain can say ‘I can do that.’ The beta used to be $1.99. There are betas now that go for thousands. The colors now available will blow your mind. They rival any saltwater fish in colors and finnage. And you don’t need a $1,000 set up. Betas are lively and interact, they come up for food, and they become pets.”

“Fish people and reptile people want to see the new animal. That’s part of why you go to the store, to see what’s new. I definitely am a proponent, we support the independent pet store, and it doesn’t have to be a huge inventory in time or space or money to get your feet wet with these. Bearded dragons are popular. That’s what a youngster will start with. They’re relatively easy to keep. Supplies for bearded dragon—the food and the supplements, the lighting and heating for them, is a big draw. Get dog food, get crickets for the bearded dragon; it’s an add-on sale that people can do right there.” — Tim Hovanec, Dr. Tim’s Aquatics

As its name suggests, Dr. Tim’s Aquatics specializes in the care of fish, but the company recently entered the reptile segment with lighting and heating supplies—food is to come later this year. Even with fish food, said owner Tim Hovanec, pet owners are restocking weekly with options such as brine shrimp, worms and the like.

Illustrating the caliber of advice given by specialized pet retail associates, Hovanec explains a common misconception about fish food: “Fish flakes are the most popular because they’re the most convenient, but they’re probably the worst fish food you can give your fish.”

Fish flakes are usually made with grains, and fish don’t have the right enzymes to properly digest them, resulting in the fish flipping upside down and floating on the surface of the aquarium. According to Hovanec, it’s an old wive’s tale that this is a swim bladder disease and that the cure is to puncture it. “The problem is the intestine is blocked with these foods; it’s broken down by bacteria that produce gas, and the fish develop a Good Year blimp inside. The fix extent you can see that in reptile, but with fish, you have to do water testing. Maybe there’s a buildup of ammonia but you don’t know that. That’s why fish are harder. They’re foreign to us. Test kits, chemistry—people get freaked out because of that.”

Nonetheless, the enthusiasm for welcoming home a new pet fish—or a few of them—during the pandemic was palpable. “Fish sales went way up during the pandemic,” he said. “People got bigger aquariums. New people picked up a smaller aquarium; existing hobbyists went big.”

General pet retail stores would do well to capitalize on this for not that high an investment, he said. “We talk to a lot of stores who want to increase their fish selection or bring in reptiles. It’s tough if you’re dog and cat—you have to have something else to compete with Chewy. Beta fish are a huge category, subcategory of fish, just like freshwater shrimp. You don’t need a 55-gallon aquarium for either one of those. They are not hard to keep. They don’t take a lot of space or expense and they can be absolutely gorgeous. They are two growing segments that if done right, even in a cat-dog centric store, are perfect. You can have an end cap with betas and betas supplies and people

Germany-based Sera has found that a few recent growth drivers in aquatics include nano tanks, planted tanks and aquascaping, according to Claus Frenken, COO for Sera N.A. “Social media and in particular Instagram with its focus on aesthetic images is the ideal place to promote beautifully scaped tanks and to reach a huge audience,” he said. “YouTube is also a significant platform for hobbyists and influencers but also beginners who are in need of advice or are looking for an introduction to our hobbies. While Millennials and Gen Z really enjoy digital media channels, they also still value classic, face-to-face events, especially since most people are happy to see people in person after years of little to no contact to the outside world. The Aquashella for instance attracts many hobbyists and enthusiasts as well.”

Face-to-face interactions are a facet innate to the segment and will naturally carry over into sales in other categories, said Hovanec with Dr. Tim’s Aquatics. “Fish people and reptile people want to see the new animal,” he said. “That’s part of why you go to the store, to see what’s new. I definitely am a proponent, we support the independent pet store, and it doesn’t have to be a huge inventory in time or space or money to get your feet wet with these. Bearded dragons are popular. That’s what a youngster will start with. They’re relatively easy to keep. Supplies for bearded dragon—the food and the supplements, the lighting and heating for them, is a big draw. Get dog food, get crickets for the bearded dragon; it’s an add-on sale that people can do right there.”