Think about your online shopping habits. What do you look at first? For many people, a product with less than four stars is not even considered and a bad review can be a deal breaker. Also, pet food reviews can differentiate products for pet owners and influence purchasing decisions. The percentage of food and pet food sold online has been growing for more than a decade. After a sharp boom during the pandemic, internet-based pet food sales have come to rival sales at brick-and-mortar retail outlets. Packaged Facts estimates that 36% of pet food sales will occur online in 2021.
Considering the importance of online retailer reviews, scientists analyzed 5,632 reviews of pet food products on Amazon, Chewy, Petco and Walmart to determine which attributes were associated with positive and negative reactions of the users. pet owner. Their research identified certain characteristics mentioned in those reviews that could help those products stand out from their competitors. The journal Agribusiness published the results of the study.
“The results indicated that appearance/shape characteristics were the most effective point of difference between the two products,” Lonnie Hobbs, Ph.D., lead study author and assistant professor of agricultural economics at Kansas State University, told Petfood Industry. “The results also indicated the potential to augment product differentiation strategies of the two products using packaging, taste and breed-specific characteristics.”
Hobbs’ team identified categories of attributes mentioned in reviews that influenced consumers’ post-purchase experiences. These categories are packaging, health/benefits, ingredients, taste, smell, appearance/appearance, natural/organic, processing, sourcing, small or large breed, price and service. Some of these characteristics greatly influence customers’ positive or negative reactions after purchasing pet food.
“Attributes more likely to be associated with a positive post-purchase experience include great breed, taste, price and appearance,” Hobbs said. “Packaging and smell are the attributes most likely to be associated with a negative post-purchase experience.”
While the study’s results provide insights for pet food and treat makers into the relationships between product attributes and post-purchase experience, Hobbs said the results do not indicate causation. . It cannot be definitively said that the characteristics caused positive or negative reactions, only that they were related.
“The underlying assumption is that higher use of specific attribute-related words in product reviews reflects the importance of that attribute to the customer’s post-purchase experience (whether positive or negative),” he says. “However, the results indicate attributes that are more likely to be associated with positive and negative post-purchase experience. They do not provide statistical evidence that attributes cause/influence post-purchase experience.”
Pet food brands can review their own reviews
In the study, the Hobbs team estimated a product’s review rating as a function of the number of times a word associated with the attribute was used in an online review, while controlling for other variables. The team then used statistical methods to estimate the parameters associated with specific product characteristics and whether the relationship was positive or negative.
“There are several implications implied in the paper,” Hobbs said. “To keep it short, the results indicate a potential untapped opportunity to position themselves based on breed-specific product characteristics. Additionally, there is an opportunity to increase the effectiveness of current differentiation strategy through improved product packaging and related services (eg, delivery).
Although the statistical software and content coding involved in the study may be outside the usual range of experience of pet food professionals, the method can be replicated by the pet food brand’s own market researchers, says said Hobbs.
“The insight generated from these methods can be very useful in providing implications both within and beyond the scope of this study,” he said. “More specifically, there is a lot of useful information about customers’ perception and valued product attributes that can be generated from the methods applied in this study.”
