Pooch & Mutt

Because pups deserve healthy treats, too; Pooch & Mutt delivers natural, supplement-boosted food to the UK’s luckiest dogs in order to nurture their bodies and minds. During lockdown, their sales soared as consumers switched from their usual supermarket brands to online shopping.

That’s when the brand knew it was time to level up their on-site experience with new creative, new designs and a new subscription service. Here’s how our team at Underwaterpistol optimised the Pooch & Mutt store to paw-fection...

Services
Art Direction
Design
Development
Content
Loyalty
Subscription

Technology
Shopify
ReCharge
LoyaltyLion
Klaviyo

Challenge

Rapid growth meant more eyes were on the Pooch & Mutt store than ever before, but the brand was aware of a few on-site issues that they wanted to tidy up – and fast. First up, the user experience (UX) was not as intuitive as it could be, with page structure proving confusing, and individual products set up as variants. The ecosystem needed to be pulled apart, then pieced back together again, so that shoppers could find the right food for their pups with ease. This was challenge number one.

Additionally, the existing subscription service was low on sign-ups and high on churn rate. It needed to be relaunched in order to remain competitive with Pooch & Mutt’s retail partners. They were finding that, whenever a retailer applied an offer or discount to their products, they were losing sales revenue on their official ecommerce store. By introducing subscription and loyalty point models, they hoped to provide customers with an incentive to shop D2C (direct to consumer), without needing to match Amazon’s deep discounting.

And, finally, they needed a content refresh. Though Pooch & Mutt’s unique selling point is their nutritious ingredients, their visuals showed the food pouches without letting consumers see what’s inside. The goal was to revamp the content, the design and the images displayed on the site, without compromising their highly lucrative rankings for SEO.

Solution

A doggie photoshoot

Pooch & Mutt knew how important it was to work with an ecommerce-focused content team. They were bursting with ideas for a product and still life photoshoot, but they needed help bringing their dream visuals to life, as well as finding practical shooting solutions.

That’s where our Art Director, Francesca Boyd, stepped in. With over 10 years of production and shooting experience, she was able to turn Pooch & Mutt’s mood boards into a fun and functional shoot brief. She liaised with photographers, commissioned prop stylists, and even helped to cast model dogs (the dream, no?), so the brand could step onto the set with every detail taken care of.

Francesca ran the shoot days, too. She directed the photography team – and the model dogs! – to make sure Pooch & Mutt would get the website and paid social visuals they needed. After the very best shoot day ever (because, honestly, what tops directing dogs?), she oversaw post-production to ensure colours popped and GIFs moved in the most thumb-stopping ways.

Redesigning the user experience

In a meeting of form and function, our Design Lead, Sara Azmy, gave direction on a whole new visual style for the Pooch & Mutt website, complete with a fresh colour palette. Punchy peach, pink, purple and blue tones correlated with the product packaging colours, but a white background broke them up, ensuring the multitude of hues felt clean and cohesive – never garish.

Complex filtering and navigation

A large product portfolio meant filtering was key to the new customer journey, so shoppers could browse by their pup’s age, size, unique health needs and favourite flavours. We designed and built an easy-to-navigate mega menu and complex filtering system that would help consumers pinpoint the perfect product for their pup.

Then, there were all the ecommerce extras that turned this dog food brand into a digital disruptor. We created a visual style for – and then built – a ‘Find Your Food’ recommendation engine. After answering a few quick questions about their dogs (such as their breed, age and size), shoppers can now get a bespoke recommendation of healthy, nutritious eats to keep their pooch fighting fit.

Supercharging their subscription

While other Pooch & Mutt retailers, such as Amazon, were winning customers with deep discounting, the team wanted to try a more creative tactic on their D2C site. So, we worked with them on a ‘Subscribe & Save’ model that would reward customers for their loyalty. A brand like Pooch & Mutt is the perfect subscription candidate, with consumables that shoppers need to top up regularly.

Working on the design and build for the ‘Build a Subscription Box’ engine, we enabled shoppers to quickly and easily pick their products and delivery frequency. They’re able to choose from the full Pooch & Mutt portfolio, with the option of mixing and matching flavours, as well as switching up their pack sizes. Subscribers are then able to manage their subscription in the accounts section, so they can pause and cancel boxes without hassle. And, not only do they save up to 23% when they subscribe, but they also now earn triple PoochRewards (loyalty points) to spend on future purchases.

Keeping pooches pleased has never been simpler.