Have you noticed, it seems like everyone has a new pet. On Facebook, a show of hands in any social group proves many caved and bought a pandemic puppy. Comments range from hell yes, to huge excitement surrounding the new fur baby (and a million pictures). Some raise their hands with some embarrassment (with pictures and pup names also included).

"During the COVID-19 pandemic, nearly one in three of Americans adopted a pet, according to the Insurance Research Council’s October 2020 report and 85 million families own a pet." ^1. In 2020, the pet category market size was $104 Billion. ²

So why are we, as SAS Retail Services, writing about the uptick in the purchase of puppies? At retail, the pet category is a complex category with multiple manufacturers, much variety, many, many SKUs. It's a category that can be quite profitable for retailers. It's also a category that, like those young pups, is HIGH MAINTENANCE. Here's a recent Supermarket News article about some of the challenges.

Keeping in stock is key and people just really like purchasing for their pets, so introducing a well-thought-through variety of products is also important. That's where we can help. Call us complex category crazy, but we love working these categories, and we are experts.

In the retail and Consumer Product Goods (CPG) world, we take for granted the success of what flies off the shelves and what gets lost in the shuffle of ever-changing trends. With constant movement and consumer shopping habits, it is easy for products and procedures to fall through the cracks. This is also true for promotional displays throughout stores. The only way to combat this is with top employees equipped with the necessary tools to not only get the job done, but get it done right.