Online pet pharmacy report

Pompano Beach, Fla. — Online sales are up 4.1 percent at PetMed Express, Inc. but revenues still are on the decline, leading the company to boost its presence in the pet supplies market, according to a second-quarter financial statement.

"It has been another challenging quarter due to our having to pay more to advertise, combined with customers giving greater consideration to price and reducing their usage of the product categories we offer," says Mendered Akdag, president and chief executive officer of the PetMed Express/1-800-PetMeds, dubbed the nation's largest online pharmacy.

The statement comes on the heels of a consumer call to action by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to use online pharmacies accredited through the Association of Boards of Pharmacy's Vet-VIPPS (Veterinary Verified Internet Pharmacy Practice Site) program. Only seven online pharmacies, including PetMed Express, have been accredited thus far. The other accredited pharmacies include Drs. Foster & Smith Pharmacy, Pet Meds n More, PetCareRx, SmartPak, VetCentric and VetRxDirect.

Over the course of its second quarter, PetMed Express reported a 2 percent decrease over last year's second quarter and a 3 percent decrease in net sales for the six months ending Sept. 30, 2010, compared to 2009 levels. Net income for the quarter fell 20 percent to $5 million, while reorder sales increased by 4.6 percent from $45.8 million to $47.9 million.

"Our online sales continued to increase by 4.1 percent to $43.9 million for the quarter compared to $42.2 million for the prior quarter, with approximately 72 percent of our orders being generated from our website during the quarter compared to 67 percent in the prior quarter," Akdag states. "Our focus in fiscal 2011 continues to be conversion optimization, and the expansion of our product offerings into pet supplies."