The Complete Package for Pet Health
For this team of experienced vets and veterinary nurses, launching Barrowman Goodman Vets and Prey Pet Food was the two-pronged approach they needed to address their shared passion of complete pet care. We sat down with David and Natasha to unpack their journey so far.
A two-pronged approach to pet health
Barrowman Goodman Vets shines as the gold standard of boutique veterinary services and paves the way with their focus on the latest high-tech equipment and advanced procedures. Though this isn’t their only point of difference. This veterinary clinic provides a unique experience for pets and their owners, as advocates and specialists for raw pet food.
Working hand-in-hand with Barrowman Goodman Vets is Prey Pet Food. Free consultations, custom dietary plans, and an in-store and online shopping experience are just some of the ways that Prey Pet Food works to facilitate pets and owners through their raw food journeys. Prey Pet Food improves both pet and owner wellbeing by solving a range of medical and behavioural issues in pets with a raw food diet.
“Nurturing is at the core of our ideals. This means nurturing both the pet, but also the owner’s knowledge. The more understanding we have, the better opportunity for our pets to thrive to their full potential.”
The magic with their approach is that both businesses work with and for one another.
They’ve leveraged their veterinary expertise to build brand trust in Prey Pet Food and become reputable providers of raw food diets. And they’ve leveraged the raw food diet through Prey Pet Food, to solve a lot of medical and behavioural issues in pets. A lot of their veterinary clients become Prey Pet Food customers, attracted by the health benefits of raw feed. While a lot of Prey Pet Food customers become Barrowman Goodman Vet clients, because unlike other vets, they advocate for and have expertise in raw feeding.
Extending the experience
With Barrowman Goodman Vets and Prey Pet Food providing such a comprehensive package in-store, you might be wondering why they bothered to venture into the online realm. Well for them, it was all about extending the experience. Not wanting their customers and clients to be limited to the range of products they stocked in-store or restricted to the traditional in-store shopping experience, Barrowman Goodman Vets and Prey Pet Food went in search of an Ecommerce platform provider.
“There were two contenders, but what persuaded us to go with Storbie was the integrations. We’re big supporters of Virtual Vet Nurse, so it made sense for us to stick with the option that supported them too.”
Storbie is working to empower both Barrowman Goodman Vets and Prey Pet Food to fulfil their ambitions through an Ecommerce website.
Storbie’s integration with SVS Veterinary Supplies enables Barrowman Goodman Vets to tap into the wholesale veterinary products that SVS stocks through drop-shipping. This means their customers can find the products they want, at a good price, and get it delivered directly to their door. Storbie’s Subscription Order feature enables Barrowman Goodman Vet’s customers to set-and-forget repeat orders of products they regularly need, such as flea and worming products. And the integration with Virtual Vet Nurse means their customers can get 24/7 support with common queries, online shopping, and appointment bookings through an on-website virtual assistant.
Additionally, through Storbie’s Ecommerce capabilities Prey Pet Food has their range of raw pet food on their own online store, so that customers can easily browse the products and order them for click and collect.
“We had to think about what’s available now in the present, and what’s potentially available in the future. How do we tap into these things and how do we get our clients using them? For us, it’s about providing a total package for our clients.”
What does the future hold for Barrowman Goodman Vets and Prey Pet Food? It’s simple. Just more of what they’ve already been doing. For Barrowman Goodman Vets, more cutting-edge equipment, technology, and procedures. For Prey Pet Food, more digital presence to increase the awareness and education around raw food diets. They’ve nailed their complete package for pet health, now it’s time to get more pets and their humans hooked on the solution and reaping the benefits.
Secrets to success
Now the lesson here isn’t to start a complimentary business to better serve a shared purpose and bolster business for one another – though this has certainly worked for Barrowman Goodman Vets and Prey Pet Food. We asked the team behind it all what their golden nugget of advice would be, and their answer was to make use of expertise.
Like other small independent businesses, veterinary clinics are guilty of trying to do everything themselves and on a tight budget. Limited resources are simply the reality for these businesses. However, Barrowman Goodman Vets and Prey Pet Food believe in pushing against this norm whenever and wherever possible.
“Make use of the experts. You’re better off focusing on what you’re good at and bringing in experts to do what they’re good at. Funnily enough, it all works a whole lot better.”
What does this look like for Barrowman Goodman Vets and Prey Pet Food? Well for starters, they don’t do washing. They leave the stress and mess of their dirty clinic scrubs to the laundering professionals.
And they entrust their website and omnichannel presence to Storbie.
For businesses such as theirs, with complex supply chains and a vast range of products, populating an Ecommerce website with products may seem like an impossible feat. And forget trying to keep in-store and online inventory levels up to date. Luckily, Storbie are the experts and provide solutions in the form of our Supplier Network and wholesaler integrations.
“For me being an absolute technophobe, it’s been super easy. The whole process is driven by Storbie – they tell you what you need to provide, and they put it all together, it’s all turnkey. The people at Storbie are so passionate and enthusiastic about what they do and about what we do, which makes the whole process a lot more fun.”
Without dealing with soiled scrubs or the complexities of creating their own industry specific Ecommerce website, Barrowman Goodman Vets and Prey Pet Food have the time to focus on their own field of expertise – helping pets thrive to their full potential. The team behind both businesses are passionate about their work, believe in what they’re doing, and feel like they’re making a meaningful impact. Take their advice, focus on your area of expertise where you’ll do the best work, and entrust the rest to others.
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