In 2011, Entrepreneur Ryan Cohen was shopping at his local pet shop when he suddenly had an epiphany. The pet shop owner had always known Cohen and his pet by name, and Cohen realized that he had always trusted the owner. Why couldn’t Cohen bring the same level of care and trust he felt from his local pet shop to millions of pet-lovers? Cohen then decided, along with his friend Michael Day, to set out and create what would become the largest e-commerce pet business in the world.

After the failure of Pets.com in 2000 following the dot.com bubble, there was no real player in the online pet industry that consumers felt they could go to for convenience. Of course, companies like Amazon had come to offer millions of pet products online, but could not replicate the level of service that consumers typically experience when they go to their local pet store. Cohen realized there was a perfect opportunity to create a business where pet owners could take care of their pets without ever leaving their homes.

Chewy was founded on convenience and customer service. Cohen became obsessed with customer service, and wanted his customers to feel as if they were actually at a pet store when they went to shop online. Some ways that Chewy sets itself apart from competitors include: sending customers handwritten holiday cards, sketches of their pets, and flowers when their animals pass away. Additionally, a 24-hour customer service line promises to answer any call within six seconds. As for convenience, Chewy also revolutionized the pet industry by bringing a subscription based model to the e-commerce company, which accounts for almost two-thirds of revenue. Customers can set up instant reorders of pet foods, medicines or supplies that they use on a regular basis.

While Chewy has endured immense success unseen before in the pet industry, the company faced many challenges in its early days. In an interview with Inc. Magazine, Cohen talks about Chewy’s humble beginnings: “I couldn’t fund the business for the first few years,” Cohen says, noting that more than 100 investors passed on the opportunity. “And they were right. We were going head-to-head against Amazon, there was Pets.com–we know how that worked out–and selling 30-pound bags of pet food and shipping it across the country isn’t the highest-margin business.” Chewy also started in Florida, hundreds of miles away from Silicon valley, not the most ideal place for a startup looking to raise capital.

What inspires me most about Cohen is his perseverance and love for the pet industry. Despite the many challenges he faced when starting Chewy, Cohen continued to focus on his customers, and his business model. Cohen is among America’s richest young entrepreneurs thanks in part to Chewy’s listing on the NYSE in 2019, which valued the company at $8.7 billion. The company became so successful that is was acquired by Petsmart in 2017 in what was called “the largest e-commerce acquisition in history.” This success shows how important it is for entrepreneurs to take risk, and truly invest 100% of their time and resources in a business they want to grow. Cohen never backed down from his competitors, and proved that hard work and dedication will eventually pay off.

Sources:

https://www.inc.com/emily-canal/petsmart-acquires-chewy.html