Any pet parent knows that taking care of your pet can sometimes be stressful, but PetSmart Inc. looks to make its customers’ experience smoother, and more customizable, with a composable commerce strategy.

“Being able to put it in a piece-by-piece process … allows us to drive down risk. It allows us to ease into making sure that not only does commercetools work,  but it works within the context of our environment,” said Greg Fancher (pictured), executive vice president and chief information technology Officer at PetSmart. “The question is how do you make it work with your data, your promotions, your pricing, and hooking it into your broader enterprise?  That’s where the challenge is always going to be.”

Fancher spoke with theCUBE Research’s hosts Rebecca Knight and Shelly Kramer at the commercetools Elevate event, during an exclusive broadcast on theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s livestreaming studio. They discussed what services pet parents are looking for and how tools such as artificial intelligence and a composable system are impacting the user experience. (* Disclosure below.)

Shifting to a composable system for online services

PetSmart provides a number of services to its customers, ranging from grooming to overnight stays. The company has been undergoing a transition from one “core” commerce system to an open commerce system with commercetools GmbH.

“We need  to make sure our platforms are up-to-date and current in the store, and then also online,” Fancher said. “So, going through and updating the technology and really making sure that we have an open platform, that we can then hook in different pieces of technology to change the experience over time, to tweak it and make it really the best for that customer.”

AI is being incorporated into PetSmart’s business in multiple ways, including algorithms that give pet parents a customized experience and using generative AI to produce pet care information for associates.

“One area people always look at is personalization,” Fancher said. “We’re having a lot of fun with personalization with our new loyalty program we just launched … giving offers to people based on that past purchase history that really resonate and using machine learning AI to really drive that and provide that value to our pet parents.”

Through all of the technological upgrades, the company’s goal is to improve the lives of pet owners and their pets, Fancher added.

“Having pets in our life makes us better people,” he said. “We really look at what we can do with that online experience  and the in-store experience, bring it together to really help pet parents be close to their pets.”

Here’s the complete video interview, part of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE Research’s coverage of the commercetools Elevate event: 

(* Disclosure: TheCUBE is a paid media partner for the Elevate event. Neither commercetools GmbH, the sponsor of theCUBE’s event coverage, nor other sponsors have editorial control over content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)

Photo: SiliconANGLE