Pets United Makes Internet Retailer Best of Web 2007

How do you fit a horse, a dog, a cat, a ferret and a bird in one shopping cart? By creating a common cart that enables one to visit each of the animals' e-commerce habitats and select and purchase products via the lone cart.

This is just one example - which the company currently is assembling - of how PetsUnited LLC continues to ramp up its business, which includes a growing number of individual animal sites. And it strides forward with new e-commerce sites, product offerings and online functionality based on the input of customers. "Our customers continue to react very favorably to our ongoing efforts to give them exactly what they ask for" says PetsUnited CFO Chris Van Doren. "We have a dedicated team of staff members working on an ongoing basis to recategorize aspects of the web sites, add new categories and make more changes based on our customers' wants and needs."

The e-retailer links individual sites under the PetsUnited umbrella. It offers plenty of practical content for customers, who have myriad questions and concerns about their animal companions. And the sites build communities via forums that unite dog lovers, horse lovers and others with the common aim of ensuring the health and well-being of their animals.

"Each of the company's sites display a mastery of their subject matter and the fundamentals of crisp, clear e-commerce," says Maris Daugherty, senior consultant at J.C. Williams Group Ltd. "The expansive selection of targeted pet products and enhanced content combined with clearly displayed stock availability and helpful online communities project that the pet lover is in the right place to shop with confidence."

PetsUnited, however, is not resting on its laurels - it is striving to improve upon its already effective e-commerce sites. It is seeking, ahem, purrfection. "We're not satisfied with where we're at, and we probably never will be," Van Doren says. "Doing well in e-commerce means continually fine-tuning sites and operations based on the precise desires of the customers."