Danielle Schwartz didn’t ask for an oil painting of her cat. But she loves the portrait of Stinky that hangs in her upstate New York home, a surprise gift from an unlikely place: an online pet store.
It’s one of the more than 1,000 free paintings that Chewy sends to select customers each week — even during the pandemic — tapping into people’s obsession with their fur children and, it hopes, winning customers for life.
In the cutthroat world of online shopping, that personal touch and a bit of kitsch is how Chewy is looking to stand out among the competition, which has only gotten stiffer as more people shop online and add pandemic pets to their families. Pet ownership is expected to grow 4% in 2020, the first increase in several years, according to the Petco Foundation.
Chewy’s strategy seems to be working on Schwartz, whose blue-eyed cat likes to rub up against the painting from his cat tree.
“I just want to buy everything from them,” she says….