Many businesses dream of acquiring repeated customers for life, but one business is actually doing it – Chewy.com. This online pet product retailer has come up with an unorthodox plan to tap into our feelings for the fur babies by sending hand painted surprise oil paintings of our pets. Sometimes for no big reason at all.

The company sends about 1,000 such paintings each week, pandemic or not. This boils down to this – there are many stores online and offline where you can buy dry kibble, but not many places will send you something like this.

Given the pandemic and all sorts of political unrests, pet ownership has been growing steadily and will no doubt continue to do so in 2021. Chewy has a stiff competition for all that business, but so far, thanks to things like the pet paintings, the young company is surging ahead of everybody.

When you get a special personal touch like this from a giant company, you are guaranteed to love them. And what’s not to love when Chewy has so much to offer. These paintings are trending online on social media, so even those of us without them know about it and love Chewy a bit more for that. This is free advertising at its best!

Chewy.com is known for more than ingenuous marketing decisions though. It was established in 2011 and has seen staggering growth, fast becoming the largest online pet retailer. It works because customers are treated with Amazon-like super-fast free shipping and exceptional customer service, not to mention thousands of brands and products for pets of all kinds.

See Chewy Promotions:

• Extra 20% OFF with promo code PUPSICLE
• 60% OFF Select Dog Treats when use discount code TREATS60
• Extra $15 Off select Hill’s Science Diet Dog Food with code HILLSWL

Americans have spent $99 billion on their pets in 2020 alone, so grabbing a nice piece of this pie is in everybody’s interest. And Chewy is way on its way. It was bought by PetSmart in 2017, but it left Chewy a separate unity. The company is valued at $40 billion as of lately even when it never made a profit.

Amazon is the only online company that rivals Chewy in pet product market online, the former holding about 50%, and the latter 34% of it. While many businesses have been crippled by the pandemic, Chewy thrived as many pet owners turned to ecommerce for all the needed supplies. The company saw its stock price triple in 2020, sales soar, and more than 5 million new customers join in, elevating the total number of Chewy nation to 18 million.

What truly sets Chewy apart from others is their customer service: you will always talk with a real person in less than two minutes, get hand written cards for holidays, receive an occasional painting of your pet, and be consoled with flowers after your pet passes away. How many businesses will do any of that?

But at the end of the day it’s those oil paintings that keep people on the edge and coming back. Nobody knows who or when will get that painting, but it’s usually those customers who have their pet picture in the profile or share one with customer service. Nobody knows how much those paintings cost and exactly who will be the author. Chewy has worked with hundreds of artists around the country who love the opportunity. We, the consumers, love the result. Keep up the good work, Chewy, and keep on keeping on!