NEW YORK — NexPet, a cooperative of pet retailers and owner of Grandma Mae’s Country Naturals, has partnered with Directworks-Moblico, a digital marketing platform offering custom geo-targeting advertising campaigns to improve customer communication.

Brick-and-mortar pet store owners can identify their local competitors through the platform, which then pushes the original store’s promotional offers directly to the mobile devices of pet owners shopping at the competitor.

Retailers buy into this partnership to drive traffic to their store, according to Grandma Mae’s. They can choose between three memberships ranging from “beginner” plans that last three months to annual digital marketing plans that are more tailored to that specific retailer.

NexPet said a handful of its retail members already utilizing geo-targeting have seen an improvement in foot traffic and sales, which they attribute to the Directworks-Moblico mobile marketing campaign.

Brick-and-mortar pet retailers — and pet food and treat brands that rely on them — are utilizing technology and digital marketing tools to bring pet owners in as the pet product retail landscape becomes increasingly omnichannel.

For example, Petcurean partnered with Promoboxx in March 2019 to provide pet specialty retailers with branded promotional content to help drive foot traffic. Stella & Chewy’s partnered with Good Boy Studios, an app connecting millennial shoppers with brands and promotional offers, in November 2019. Pet product distributor Animal Supply Company launched its own e-fulfillment and delivery platform, Animal Supply Connect, in April 2019 to help retailers get a leg up in online sales.

Grandma Mae’s Country Naturals is an exclusively retailer-owned brand managed by NexPet, a cooperative organization of 540 independent pet retailers. All Grandma Mae’s dry and wet dog and cat foods are manufactured in US co-packing facilities.

NexPet is Directworks-Mobilco’s exclusive partner in the pet specialty category.

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