Petsense by Tractor Supply

A smarter SMS strategy focused on relevance, efficiency, and turning every message into a better opportunity to connect and convert.

Overview

 

Petsense by Tractor Supply is a retailer that combines the sale of pet products with services such as grooming and a veterinary pharmacy, focusing on small and medium-sized communities in the United States.

We Build IT joined as an extension of the CRM and Loyalty team under a staff augmentation model to optimize and enhance its loyalty marketing strategy, starting with the text messaging channel.

 

Background

 

When Petsense came to We Build IT, it faced three structural challenges: increasing its brand relevance and wallet share against major competitors; making operational improvements in terms of pricing, availability, and speed of service; and, finally, shifting from a transactional relationship to generating genuine loyalty, recurring purchases, and sustainably increasing retention and NPS.

 

Solutions

 

We integrated as an extended marketing team to transform a volume-based model into a profitable strategy focused on customer lifetime value.

Through a CRM & Omnichannel Manager (responsible for restructuring messaging) and a Shopify Manager (focused on e-commerce optimization), we took charge of the strategy and daily execution to drive loyalty and omnichannel sales for Petsense.

 

Challenges

 

When managing an SMS or email channel, you likely see positive overall numbers but poor performance. The higher the message volume, the lower the results.

That was exactly what we found in Petsense’s SMS channel: revenue was growing because more messages were being sent, not because each one was more effective. When comparing metrics to previous years, the return continued to decline, even as the volume of messages sent increased. This is a clear sign of a saturated audience, not a growing one.

The real challenge wasn’t to send more, but to stop relying on volume and start sending the right message to the right person at the right time, even if that meant sending fewer messages.

 

Results

 

Replacing saturation with relevance transformed Petsense’s communication into a driver of profitable growth, highlighted by a 20% year-over-year increase in the reactivation of inactive customers. Optimizing return per message and improving operating costs enabled the company to consistently meet its commercial and brand loyalty goals.