Founded in Brazil in 2002, Petz began as a single brick-and-mortar pet shop serving the São Paulo metro area. Between 2014 and 2020, the brand saw extraordinary growth—they partnered with an investment fund, overhauled their branding and in-store experience entirely, expanded to the online marketplace, launched a veterinary services brand, reached the 100-store mark, and ultimately issued an IPO.
Having been a multi-location, strictly brick-and-mortar business for more than a decade, the addition of eCommerce was accompanied by new opportunities and new challenges for Petz.
Their marketing team found themselves unable to pull and interpret customer data, limiting their opportunities to capitalize on behavioral trends and maximize revenue through strategic communication. Petz recognized that in order to execute their marketing effectively, they needed to begin leveraging data to help them send automated, strategic customer messaging. So they turned to Braze.
Developing a Data-Driven Customer Communication Strategy
Petz’s main objectives were to maximize customer lifetime value, decrease customer acquisition costs, and turn first-time customers into repeat buyers. As an example, customers feed their pets daily—pet food specifically is never a one-time purchase. The challenge didn’t lie in convincing consumers to buy food for their pets, but rather in strategically motivating new customers to create a purchasing habit, ultimately allowing Petz to capture more of the market long term.
Without in-house data engineers, they began looking at data-processing tools with which they could run experiments and interpret what they knew about their customers, allowing them to automate messaging that recommended products based on purchasing patterns. They searched for tools that were straightforward and efficient. Upon finding Braze, the team says the flexibility of the platform has been a major factor in their success.