PharmaPets enhances customer loyalty and increases revenue with personalised engagement

Challenge

PharmaPets, a leader in pet care, had loyal customers buying from them but the connection felt transactional—not personal. The team couldn’t tap into the full potential of its customer data because it was scattered across tools like Google Analytics, Facebook Pixel, and their e-commerce platform. This meant they were missing out on opportunities to truly engage pet parents and build lasting relationships.

Solution

By bringing all their data into one place with Twilio Segment, PharmaPets could finally see the bigger picture. They got to know their customers in a way they never could before and could start tailoring every interaction—all based on real-time customer data. By focusing on what pet parents truly needed, PharmaPets turned data into deeper connections and won the loyalty of their growing customer base.

PharmaPets is an innovative leader in the pet health industry. Their mission is to provide pet owners with reliable, science-backed products and services to keep their furry companions healthy. From medication to preventative care, PharmaPets strives to ensure pets live longer, healthier lives, with a focus on personalised care and treatment plans.

At PharmaPets, the customer experience is at the heart of everything they do. The pet care industry is highly competitive, with challenges including intense e-commerce competition, price sensitivity, and product differentiation. Retailers also struggle with retaining customer loyalty and adapting to changing consumer preferences, as pet owners increasingly seek products focused on health, wellness, and sustainability. 

PharmaPets’ commitment to personalised customer experiences

The challenge was clear: PharmaPets needed to offer a seamless, personalised experience at scale, as their customer base grew and their communication channels expanded. With the risk of disconnected touchpoints and missed opportunities, failing to meet these needs could result in lower conversion rates and weaker customer loyalty. 

Personalisation can provide a competitive edge by offering tailored experiences, such as customised product recommendations, targeted marketing, and subscription services. These personalised touches build strong, long-term relationships with customers, fostering loyalty with pet owners who want the best for their pets. By creating emotional connections and meeting individual needs, businesses can stand out in a crowded market, leading to repeat business and word-of-mouth referrals, ultimately securing a competitive advantage.

Overcoming the data fragmentation challenge and leveraging multiple platforms

PharmaPets serves a dedicated community of pet owners who care deeply about their pets’ health and well-being. As a provider of personalised care, PharmaPets understood that pet owners seek more than just products: they need tailored, compassionate solutions for their pets’ health needs. 

PharmaPets stocks over 10,000 items, from daily nutrition and health supplements to grooming tools and dental care. The team is committed to delivering products that cater to each pet’s specific needs, recognising that no two pets are alike.

Before Segment, PharmaPets faced several challenges: fragmented customer data, missed opportunities for personalisation, and engagement challenges. With no unified view of each customer and data scattered across tools like Google Analytics, Facebook Pixel, and their e-commerce platform, it was hard for PharmaPets to connect the dots across various touchpoints. This fragmentation limited PharmaPets' ability to track customer behaviour, preferences, and purchase history in real-time, hindering their ability to offer tailored recommendations or targeted marketing. 

Without a comprehensive view of each customer’s needs, the brand risked delivering generic experiences that failed to resonate with pet owners. A lack of data integration makes it harder to build customer loyalty and affects conversion rates, as personalised engagement is key to fostering long-term relationships and standing out in a competitive market.

How Segment unified PharmaPets’ data for seamless personalisation and real-time insights

After extensive research and comparing various tools, Coddens and his team at PharmaPets knew they needed a solution that could truly unify their data and enable personalised, scalable customer engagement. So PharmaPets turned to Twilio Segment to consolidate their data and transform their customer engagement strategy. 

“We spent a lot of time searching for the right tool,” says Coddens. “My boss and I are quite technical and so we looked around at the market. We have both been in e-commerce for 15 years and knew what existed, but we compared all the tools. Segment looked like the best solution for what we wanted.”

Companies who sell multiple brands and products can struggle to connect the dots between all of their customer interactions. It can be hard to know when and how to reach out to customers in a way that feels meaningful. By implementing Segment, they were able to centralise customer data, deliver personalised messaging, streamline marketing and retention efforts to drive loyalty. 

“We’ve also automated processes, like creating help desk tickets via API,” Coddens says. “This level of automation was much harder to achieve before.”

PharmaPets uses Connections to streamline and unify data from multiple sources into a single, cohesive view. They can: 

• Gather pet health, purchase history, and interaction data from various channels (app, website, in-store purchases)

• Track customer activity (e.g., refill requests, vet appointments) in real-time, allowing PharmaPets to understand and respond to customer behaviour quickly

• Use Connections to standardise data from different sources, making it consistent and actionable across teams like Customer Support, Marketing, and Sales. 

With Segment’s Journeys, PharmaPets can automate personalised communications, triggering messages based on customer behaviour such as product browsing or past purchases). And with Engage, they can automate engagement campaigns allowing PharmaPets to deliver timely, relevant content to each customer, increasing the impact of their marketing. They can also: 

• Send personalised reminders for medication refills or upcoming vet appointments tailored to each pet’s needs

• Identify and target segments (e.g., pet owners who recently purchased a product but haven't reordered) to encourage ongoing engagement 

• Leverage Engage to test and optimise messaging strategies, allowing the team to iterate based on what resonates most with pet owners.

With Functions, PharmaPets can write functions to connect the company’s Magento platform to Segment for dynamic coupon generation. These coupons are personalised and can only be used once, which helps reduce misuse and enhances customer experience. 

The company is also focused on data privacy, adhering to the GDPR guidelines. They are mindful of only collecting essential data and managing it securely to avoid customer frustration or breaches. 

Using Segment, they can streamline data integration, keeping customer data in one unified location to simplify compliance and improve operational efficiency. Data privacy is managed through Segment's Protocols feature, allowing the company to define which data should be collected and ensuring that only necessary information is retained, making it easier to comply with regulations. 

“We follow GDPR here in Europe, which is vital for keeping customer data safe and ensuring we're not over-collecting information,” says Coddens. “Segment saves us a lot of time and effort in managing data and privacy.”

And with Reverse ETL, enriched customer data flows right back into the operational tools they use, making sure teams have the insights they need in real time to make smarter decisions.

Celebrating a 15% increase in conversion and 10% growth in retention and loyalty

By centralising their data and automating engagement, PharmaPets experienced significant results. “Before Segment, we used just two sources - Magento and our warehouse tool,” Coddens says. “Now we’ve added shipment data, help desk events, and soon, website data. Having everything connected through APIs means we rely less on external developers and can manage more in-house saving us time and resources.” 

Personalised campaigns triggered at the right moments led to improved conversions increasing by 15%. Targeted communications helped maintain stronger, more lasting relationships with customers leading to a 10% boost in customer retention. These improvements were a direct result of PharmaPets’ ability to deliver timely, relevant messages based on a deeper understanding of their customers’ needs and interactions. 

Delivering on-time, customised messaging that resonates with customers at every touchpoint

PharmaPets now uses Segment’s capabilities to deliver: 

• Relevant and personalised messages across channels that are driving a few core use cases. 

• Tailored product recommendations based on browsing or purchase history that capture a customer’s interest by offering products they are likely to need, increasing the likelihood of conversions. 

• Personalised email campaigns that speak directly to individual preferences, making customers feel valued. 

• Real-time engagement activities, like triggering offers when a customer shows interest in specific products, creating a sense of urgency and relevance that prompts immediate action. 

• Automating customer journeys with follow-up emails, loyalty updates, and pet health tips that help maintain ongoing engagement by providing useful content throughout their journey. 

These strategies ensure that customers receive the right content at the right time, leading to stronger relationships, improved loyalty, and higher conversion rates.

Unlocking new customer engagement opportunities with Twilio Segment’s advanced features

For companies like PharmaPets, connecting Segment with Twilio Engage and the Twilio Communications suite can further optimise customer engagement approaches:

• It integrates seamlessly with Segment and helps companies execute personalised, multi-channel campaigns. 

• It supports email, SMS, push notifications, and in-app messaging, allowing communication with customers on the right channel at the right time, based on their behaviour and preferences. 

Twilio Flex integrates with Segment’s customer data to track customer interactions in real time and provide agents with a unified view of the customer. This ensures more efficient and tailored customer support, whether it's handling inquiries, processing orders, or offering product recommendations. 

Twilio Voice can also integrate with Segment to offer personalised voice communication, such as automated calls for appointment reminders, product recommendations, or health tips, creating a more intimate connection with the customer.

A more connected, personalised future for PharmaPets and customers

As the largest online pet pharmacy in Belgium, France, and the Netherlands, PharmaPets continues to expand its reach to provide more pets with reliable health care. PharmaPets has transformed its ability to engage with customers by delivering real-time, personalised communication that enhances customer experience. They now build unified customer profiles that improve targeting and messaging, and they automate specific marketing efforts in order to save time while improving efficiency. 

PharmaPets’ subscription model also offers convenience and peace of mind for pet owners. Customers can subscribe to essential products like food and supplements, ensuring they’re always stocked up on what their pets need. The subscription program has rapidly gained popularity, with over 10,000 members in just a few months, and it’s driving increased engagement and loyalty among customers. The company is now expanding this service across Europe, aiming for subscriptions to account for 60% of its revenue. 

Moving forward, PharmaPets plans to continue building on this success, further enhancing their customer engagement strategy and driving even stronger relationships. The company’s growth strategy focuses on delivering high-demand products at accessible prices, making pet care simple and affordable across borders. 

By leveraging Segment’s Connections and Engage tools, companies with similar growth plans can transform their customer data into actionable insights, enabling tailored, compliant, and impactful customer experiences across channels. With Linked Audiences, PharmaPets plans to dynamically segment customers based on their pet’s health needs, past purchases, and engagement signals, which will enable precise inventory predictions and proactive restocking. 

For instance, if a customer regularly orders flea treatments for their dog, PharmaPets with Linked Audiences can anticipate their next purchase cycle and ensure the product is available at the right time. By linking identifiers such as email addresses, purchase history, and pet profiles, they can refine customer segments for targeted replenishment reminders, personalised offers, and just-in-time inventory updates. This strategy will not only improve operational efficiency but also enhance customer satisfaction by reducing stockouts and ensuring timely fulfillment. 

This connected approach enables richer, more personalised engagement by creating unified customer profiles. Twilio Segment is committed to streamlining data management and enhancing customer engagement for pet healthcare companies like PharmaPets who are focused on delivering personalised services.