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NAVC eCommerce Summit: What We Learned For You!

Published on 9/25/19

 

 

Have you heard of the NAVC? You may know them as the hosts of VMX as well as through their publications, Today’s Veterinary Practice and Vet Advantage (among others). The mission of the North American Veterinary Community (NAVC) is to provide “world-class continuing professional development and support services for the global veterinary healthcare community.” A rather newer way that they carry out this mission is through their eCommerce Summit.

 

The second annual NAVC eCommerce Summit took place in Kansas City, MO this past week (September 17-18, 2019) and, having attended last year as well, we were excited to see how this event has developed. Although it’s really geared toward manufacturers and distributors, our thoughts were always “how can we use this to support our customers.” That’s why we wanted to make sure we brought back what we learned so you could benefit from all of the awesome presentations on eCommerce trends, strategies, and emerging technologies as well.

 

Here are five things we learned at the NAVC eCommerce that we think you should know too!

 

1. What’s the deal with Millennials?

 

Millennials and how they impact society seems to be a never-ending conversation. However, it’s an important one for you to be part of! Did you know…

 

  • Millennials (Age 18-39) are the most likely to own multiple pets - and also to own exotic/non-traditional pets! 11% of Millennials owned 2-3 dogs in 2004, compared to 19% today.
  • When it comes to professional pet care services, Millennials spend less on Vet Care than Boomers (Age 55-74) do and they spend more on training.
  • When asked what sources of information for pet care are most important to them, 70% of respondents said their Veterinarian, with the next highest being “My own past experience” at 52%.

 

A recurring theme during the summit was this idea of blending “vet” with “pet”. Millennials want to know their pet is healthy, but they’re also concerned about their mental well-being, their behavior, and creating a lifestyle that makes their “fur-baby” happy.

 

 

2. What’s happening to retail?

 

Did you know that 22 Pentagons' worth of retail space was emptied in 2018? That’s about 155 million square feet! In 2019 we surpassed that number in May… how crazy is that? A good question that retailers, and your practice, should be asking is “why you?”. Why should a pet owner come to you for their care and to purchase their products? How are you creating and maintaining loyalty to you as an entity? Another recurring theme was that convenience is key. Value isn’t talked about just in terms of money anymore. Time is value.

 

Let’s say it again - convenience is key. In a world of instant gratification (streaming movies/tv, same-day shipping, searching information online), consumers expect things to be quick and easy. In what ways can your practice make your services more convenient for your customers?

 

 

3. Alexa, What’s Wrong with My Dog?

 

This year there were two presentations that spoke about telehealth/telemedicine - a service that has had a wide-spread adoption in the animal health industry. 45 exhibitors on the floor at VMX this year that had something to do with telemedicine - that’s saying something! Although there’s been no argument against telemedicine in the animal health industry, there is still work to be done in normalizing it.

 

We also got a demonstration of MyPetDoc, an Alexa skill that can help pet owners discern what might be wrong with their pet and connect them with a veterinarian via phone, for a fee. The result is that 70% of MyPetDoc consults do not end up needing a vet visit, freeing up clinics to focus on pets who do need physical attention. 55% of households own a smart-speaker so you could guess that about 50% of your customers have access to this.

 

 

4. What's up with AI these days?

 

Along with telehealth, AI was a big subject at this year’s summit. In short, Artificial Intelligence is when a system is given data to look at for patterns and the computer automatically learns from those patterns. We learned about LifeLearn Sofie, a search engine for veterinarians, as well as Furbo, a dog camera that does more than just watch your dog. Both services use AI to take data and interpret that data based on what the software was taught. For example, Furbo software has learned the difference between dog and human movement and can alert you whenever either is present. There's a lot happening in AI and a lot will happen in the future as the community continues to discover how it can be leveraged to improve the quality of life for pets and pet owners alike.

 

 

5. What’s so Important About Data?

A lot, actually! Data was mentioned a lot throughout the summit as a tool that fuels everything we’ve mentioned so far. We know that telehealth and AI might not be super feasible to you, but data can have a real impact on your practice. One way is by leveraging data to personalize marketing. To do this, you would need to have clean, organized data, but if you are able to distinguish buzzwords in your customer profiles, such as overweight, diabetic, or senior, you can use those words to segment your customer base and send personalized, relevant communications.

 

 

It sounds like a cool summit!

It was! It’s always great to be immersed in the industry with other industry leaders and professionals. At the end of the day, it’s about supporting the veterinary community. We hope that, even though you may not have been in attendance, you learned a little something new through our recap.

 

 

Check out our previous blog that shares 3 Things You Should Know About Pet Health Insurance!

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