A pet store owner who started his business with his dad on eBay eight years ago is hoping this year’s Black Friday event will be the best yet.
Mike Dixon began operating Huggle Pets with dad Ian, selling items such as dog crates. The online pet products business has continued to grow ever since, now employing 18 people and even opening a bricks-and-mortar store in Woverhampton.
With a turnover of £2m, the last quarter of the year is always the busiest for Huggle Pets. With 2020 being the year of coronavirus and accompanying uncertainty, Mike and his team are still hoping for strong sales this coming Black Friday to end the year on a bit of a high.
Mike said: “This year will be our third taking part in Black Friday activity. Due to our success on eBay in previous years we’ve decided to invest a lot more into this year’s event and the team started preparing over a month in advance to ensure that we have the extra stock levels needed to cope with the increased demand.
“We’ve also taken the time to prepare our deals and hire extra staff to make sure orders are fulfilled in time. We were fortunate to experience increased sales during the coronavirus pandemic as people spent more time at home with their pets and invested in new products, so our team has been kept very busy this year!
“Last year, we saw around 2,500 orders between Black Friday and Cyber Monday, which was a 35% jump compared to the previous week. We’ve learned from our experiences and are hoping that this year will be our most successful Black Friday yet.
“The period has proven really important to our business in previous years as it’s a great way to lift our sales in the build up to Christmas and we know that our customers look forward to the discounts and plan their shopping around them.”
“The uncertainty of this year means that it’s much harder than normal to predict how Black Friday will go. That said, we’re still expecting a similar uplift in sales, particularly with more people shopping online this year during the second lockdown.
“Our Christmas ranges always sell particularly well at this time of year, and we’re expecting a big boost in this area as people look for great deals on new toys and gifts for their pets.”
