eCommerce Success Story: Natural Dog Food by Farmer's Dog

Those of us who have animals at home know well that we have a special bond with them. We are responsible for our animals and want to give them the best quality of life.

There is a huge market around pets: toys, accessories, fashion... and food, of course. eCommerce has been taking advantage of these extraordinarily profitable niches for years.

In this post, we are going to tell you about the success story of Farmer’s Dog, and how an idea from a home kitchen grew to serve 100,000,000 servings of healthy pet food.

Before talking about online stores or marketing strategies, it is essential to focus on the sparks that start everything, those insights that light the bulb.

In this case, the premise is simple: if we want to improve the quality and life expectancy of animals, we must give them a natural diet.

The benefits are clear: it better controls the weight of dogs, gives them more energy, and reduces many health problems, ranging from better dental health to lowering the risk of cancer.

To sum up, animals live longer, better, and you save a lot of money on vets.

As one of the founders of Farmer’s Dog says, animals are living beings like people. Therefore, if we know that ultra-processed foods are unhealthy, why do we feed our pets dry kibble that we do not even know the exact contents of?

Brett, who would become a key figure in Farmer’s Dog, started cooking with fresh ingredients to feed Jada, his Rottweiler puppy with digestive problems. Despite trying all the brands on the market, no industrial kibble helped.

The result was surprisingly effective, though logical. Jada began to eat better, and her health improved. Brett told his friend Jonathan about it, and together, they saw a scalable business model here.

Farmer’s Dog started with two friends cooking to the rhythm of Doo Wop in a home kitchen. Years later, as the business grew, they moved to professional facilities and incorporated veterinary nutrition specialists. They professionalized as much as possible, seeking the best experience.

If the idea was to compete with an industrial product that uses unknown and unrecognizable ingredients (often from diseased animals not fit for human consumption), Farmer’s Dog’s product not only had to be healthy but also had to seem to be healthy.

In each serving of their dog food, the ingredients are visible. You can see and smell them: if you are giving your pet beef with vegetables, you can see the pieces of meat, the carrots, the potatoes...

In some way, and saving the distances, it looks more like baby food than dog food.

It is relatively common for businesses to fail from success when scaling. In the case of Farmer’s Dog, they had certain conditions to consider when defining their business direction:

With all this in mind, the optimal way to market the product is through an online store. Why? Mainly because it is the best way to control the entire distribution chain and because, by working directly with the customer, establishing a subscription model with recurring purchases is easier.

Regarding the third point, positioning, the online channel is perfect for spreading information, relying on studies, showing who is behind the brand, empathizing with the customer, and creating a personalized proposal.

Do not expect the classic online store with a search bar and categories. It works in a completely different way.

The main model is through a subscription. What is interesting is how the offer is generated. It is a bit lengthy for what we are used to, but it is handled so personally that it actually feels short.

They could just ask us the breed and weight of the dog, but through the tool, without us realizing it, they gather much more information (age, animal’s temperament, customer’s goals...).

At the end of the process, we preview the recommendations in bags like the ones we wll receive, with the animal’s name on the label. All that is left is to put them in the cart and check out.