Chewy set out to win the love of pet owners and loyal and long-term customers are helping it win the fight for pet market share.
Chewy CEO Sumit Singh began his discussion of the online retailer’s first quarter results by saying the company has been engaged in a tug-of-war between strong consumer demand for pet goods, and an operating environment filled with challenges like inflation, shortages, and supply chain costs. But the more critical tug-of-war Chewy needs to win is the fight to hold on to its customers, and to fight off the competitors who want to steal them. Singh outlined yesterday how Chewy is winning that fight, and how it plans to keep winning it. And this time it looks like his words, and Chewy’s Q1 numbers, won over Wall Street. Chewy shares surged by more than 25% today, following its earning call after the market closed on Wednesday. The stock closed today at $29.18, up 24.2% for the day. Singh and other Chewy execs, in the quarterly earnings calls, tend to outline their growth strategies in greater detail than many public company leaders. That may be because Wall Street, since Chewy’s first days as a public company, has often reacted skeptically to Chewy’s claim that it was building a lasting growth engine. Chewy’s strategy, from the beginning, has been one of winning over customers with online convenience and 24/7 customer service staffed by passionate pet owners, and to make repeat purchases easy with its Autoship feature.
