By Laura Severs
Business Edge

There are pet spas, doggy day cares and even pet hotels – but one of the newest pet trends emerging in the United States is direct selling.
Like the old Tupperware model where house parties are held to sell product lines that include storage and serving items for the kitchen, Shure Pets, a Chicago-based company, has adopted a similar approach. It focuses on upscale pet products sold in a social environment where customer service and product knowledge are key.
In just under four years, it has a little more than 1,600 pet consultants who market Shure’s customized product lines such as filet mignon-flavoured toothpaste and other innovative items like its Ultimate Candy Bars – dog treats made to look like a Hershey chocolate bar – or their pet version of a McDonald’s Happy Meal.
“Our pet consultants are essentially personal shoppers,” says Shure Pets’ CEO Andrew Shure. “With this business model we have this volunteer army and we empower them with an incentive program. We have all these people selling to you in a one-on-one opportunity, while so many companies are looking for alternative ways to reach their customer base.”
Shure consultants don’t have territories and are allowed to sell products anywhere in the United States.
The model is working, says Shure.
He says it combines two of the hottest segments in the U.S. – soaring consumer spending to pamper pets and a growing direct-sales sector – while providing consumers with the service they’re looking for at a time when big-box stores are increasingly relying on self-serve options.
While Shure isn’t in Canada yet, it has this country on its radar screen.
“We get contacted on a regular basis from people in Canada – multiple times a day,” says Shure. “It would be a logical next step for us. We’re still getting situated in this country (the U.S.), but our next market opportunity for us, I believe, should be the Canadian marketplace.”
But it will be at least another year before Shure enters Canada, adds Shure. “We should have a better feeling for it sometime next year.”