Nowadays, it’s much easier to order just about anything online, including necessities and goodies for your furry friends. Plus, given how heavy some bags of food or containers of litter can be, it’s an added bonus to have those items delievered right to your doorstep.
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When it comes to where to order your pet supplies from, things aren’t as straightforward. Amazon is one of the largest online retailers in the world, but the animal-centric retailer Chewy definitely has everything a pet parent could possibly want or need.
Like Amazon Subscribe and Save, Chewy lets you set up automatic shipments so you can schedule your pet’s food and meds to be delivered to your door on a regular basis at a discount. Read on as we compare these two online retailers to see which e-commerce site you should be ordering your pet supplies from.
Chewy Vs Amazon: Delivery And Shipping
There’s no way Chewy can keep up with Amazon Prime’s free two-day shipping, right? Wrong. Chewy orders over $49 come with free two-day delivery. Orders under $49 ship for a flat rate of $4.95. According to Chewy, most customers can expect to receive their food and supplies within one to three days, but expect longer if it’s a new prescription or requires personalization.
Chewy Vs Amazon: Pricing
Prices fluctuate and even vary within Amazon since different merchants peddle the same products at different prices, but the prices on both sites are usually comparable if not exactly the same. Both will probably beat out the prices at your local store and the vet, and both offer discounts when you sign up for their subscription services. Keep your Amazon assistant on so you can easily compare prices between sites.
Chewy Vs Amazon: Subscription Discounts
Just like Amazon’s Subscribe and Save, Chewy’s Autoship will ship your favorite items to your door on a regular basis. Amazon Prime members can save 20% on subscribe and save items, but you have to be subscribed to at least five items, otherwise, the discount is only like five percent. Chewy gives you a 30% discount on your first Autoship order (at the time of this writing) and saves you 5% to 10% on every order after that.
Chewy Vs Amazon: Customer Service
Besides the prescriptions and variety of foods that Chewy carries, the other thing that sets them apart from Amazon is their stellar customer service. Amazon’s customer service is great, but Chewy has thoughtful, knowledgeable, enthusiastic employees available 24/7, ready to chat, pick up the phone, or answer your email. That’s right, an actual person picks up the phone!
Chewy’s Customer Service Center doesn’t use an automated answering system. The staff is super friendly and adept at resolving issues. Will Amazon send you a handwritten holiday card? No. Will Chewy? Yep! Sometimes Chewy will surprise its customers with hand-painted portraits of their pets. That’s worth it to get your dog food from Chewy just on the off chance you are one of those lucky customers! Amazon isn’t going to send you flowers when your pet passes away. The point is, this company has heart.
Chewy Vs Amazon: Returns
Amazon’s standard return window is one month, but Chewy’s is a whole year! Return anything (except prescriptions) for any reason and Chewy will give you a full refund. On the other hand, Amazon doesn’t even accept returns on products sold by third-party sellers.
Are You Shopping For Health Products Or Medications?
In addition to its large variety of products, Chewy also has a pharmacy. This is the biggest differentiating factor when it comes to pet supply-centric Chewy.com and retail giant Amazon. Amazon does sell some meds, like flea and tick treatments, but it can’t fill prescriptions.
Our cat Livy is on Revolution, which isn’t available on Amazon since it is a script, but Chewy has it for the same price as at the vet’s office, and I don’t even have to drive to town to get it.
Find heartworm, pain relief and arthritis, skin and coat, allergy relief, and ear and eye care medications, as well as treatments for health conditions ranging from behavior and anxiety to immune support, respiratory care and asthma, seizure and epilepsy, thyroid and hormone, and urinary tract and kidneys. All you have to do is get your pet’s prescription from their vet and mail it in to get it delivered to your door, often at a substantial discount.
Are You Looking For A New Brand Of Food?
Both sites sell dry food, wet food, veterinary diets, raw food, human-grade food, and food toppings for dogs and cats, plus fish food, bird food, chicken feed, turtle food, frog and newt food, lizard food, hermit crab food, horse feed, and horse treats, but Chewy has better filters so you can find the perfect food for your pet.
Filter by category/type, brand, special diet, food form (wet, dry, etc.), life stage, or health features, such as digestive health, hairball control, or urinary tract health. You can even filter by food flavor, texture, packaging type, price, and customer rating. You have to scroll and search on Amazon, but Chewy puts the nutritional information front and center and even includes feeding instructions. There’s also a section that compares similar items, just like on Amazon.
Are You A New Pet Owner?
In addition to food, Chewy is a trusted source for puppy and kitten supplies, including litter and litter boxes, travel carriers, treats, supplements, dental chews, flea and tick medicine, toys, scratching posts, brushes, beds, collars and leashes, and other accessories like nail clippers. You may think all you need for a new puppy is some food and a leash and collar, but Chewy suggests potty pads, teething rings, treats, a bed, pet stain and odor remover, dog poop bags, tags, and even vitamins and supplements.
If you adopted an older animal, filter the essentials by “adult” or “senior” life stage. Cats and small dogs are considered seniors once they reach about 11 years of age, while the biggest breeds of dogs are considered to be seniors at just seven years old. Everyone knows Fido ages seven years for each human year, but here’s how to tell your cat’s age in human year.
Conclusion
Why wouldn’t you buy pet supplies from an online pet store? Amazon has so many sellers that your purchase experience won’t always be reliable, but Chewy has dependable customer service. Both offer a wide variety of products at very competitive prices, but since Chewy specializes in pet products, you can find a wider variety of brands on their site. Amazon doesn’t have a pet pharmacy, but Chewy can deliver your pet’s prescriptions to your door. Which site should you order from? We’re paws-itive it’s Chewy!