Behind the Price: Understanding the Cost of Doglyness Products

At Doglyness, our mission is to provide high-quality, effective, and environmentally-friendly grooming products. We are the world’s first plastic-free, Ecogea-certified organic and vegan pet grooming brand, and we go above and beyond to ensure our products are safe for your furry friends and yourself! Our commitment to our values will never change. However, as a small business, we want to provide transparency about the pricing of our products.

We have built a loyal community over the past few years, and a huge part of creating these connections is our openness and honesty about what is going on behind the scenes. So we’d like to take this opportunity to open our doors and show you what goes into the pricing of Doglyness products.

Ingredients: Highest quality and safest available

From the beginning, before we even started creating and developing our formulations, we created a set of in-house rules and goals. These standards dictated how our products were developed, what kind of ingredients we chose to use, the type of packaging that we would source and the end result on the dogs coat that we wanted to create. The main idea was to create a product that no one had ever created before - safe, free of allergens, made with the highest quality natural and organic ingredients, third-party certified, and transparent. And on top of it all - very effective. It was not an easy mission, but we knew it was possible. And we were prepared to pay the premium when it came to ensuring only the highest quality, organic and natural ingredients were used in our formulas. 

The Doglyness Standard - all our products are benchmarked on this standard.

When we started sourcing our ingredients and developing our formulations, we knew we wanted to certify everything through ECOGEA Institute. ECOGEA standard is complete collection of strict rules for the certification of natural and organic cosmetics, cleansing products and fragrances. In order to receive their certification, products must comply with all criteria of the standard. These criteria aims to highlight the enhanced value of ingredients from natural origin and organic agriculture. It also puts a focus on environmentally-friendly physical and chemical processes, biodegrability, low ecotoxicity and contributions to sustainable development. When you see an ECOGEA logo, you can be sure that the product is high quality and all ingredients are verified in detail.

We didn´t stop just there. If you look on the ingredients list of many dog shampoos and de-odorizing sprays, you'll likely see a variety of different fragrances listed. This could appear as the actual name of the fragrance, such as "lavender essential oil," or, most commonly, you'll just see "fragrance." And while we'd like to assume that all pet care product brands have our dog's health top of mind, the reality is less optimistic. Our fragrances are IFRA-certified allergen-free fragrances, so they won’t irritate your dog's sensitive skin. Our formulations contain more than 98% naturally derived ingredients and are EWG scores are almost all at 1, which is the highest quality score available. Even when compared to human-grade products, our scores are better. We also source our ingredients from the EU, so there are stricter quality regulations than in other parts of the world, and that is of utmost importance to us. Plus, sourcing in the EU means less environmental impact than sourcing cheap, international ingredients that need to be imported in. All of these factors impact the price point of the ingredients we use, as the higher the quality, the inevitably higher the price. And the process of certifying products is both time-consuming, and expensive. But we don’t, and will never, cut corners as you can’t compare products that ‘claim’ to be natural and officially certified natural products.

Packaging: Zero waste and sustainable

The pet care industry is notorious for using a lot of plastic. When packing liquid products like dog shampoo and dog conditioner, you need suitable packaging. And plastic is cheap to make and effective at holding liquids. But plastic is also incredibly destructive to the environment. We wanted to provide a plastic-free option to dog owners and groomers seeking an eco-friendly alternative to traditional plastic packaging. Part of Doglyness’s mission is to care about the environment the same way we care for our pets. That's why we use bottles that are fully compostable and plastic-free, made of raw sugar cane. The caps and labels are also compostable, ensuring zero waste from our packaging. Our packaging partner, LysPackaging, won the World Plant-Based Award in 2020 and supplies our patented Veganbottles.

All of our products are packaged in sustainable packaging. 

We invest in sustainable packaging to reduce our environmental impact and support a better future for our planet. So, would our products be cheaper if we used plastic? Maybe a little less. Compostable packing is not what makes Doglyness cost more. And recyclable packaging is a myth on its own and another form of greenwashing in the pet care industry. At the end of the day, only 5% of plastics are ever recycled. Plastic waste is extremely difficult to collect, virtually impossible to sort for recycling, environmentally harmful to reprocess and often made of, and contaminated by toxic materials.

Concentration: Long-lasting and cost-effective

Doglyness products are highly concentrated solutions that last longer than typical pet grooming products. For example, when diluted with water, 500 ml of our shampoo is equivalent to 10-12.5 litres of traditional shampoo. This means you get more uses from our products and ultimately save money in the long run. A little goes a long way, and for small dogs, one bottle is enough for an entire year. Many of our customers have raved about the longevity of our products, making them worth every penny. You can check out the Doglyness customer reviews to see what others have to say.

Our solutions are highly concentrated - so one bottle lasts you up to 20X longer.

The reality of running a startup

Running a small startup is challenging. We cannot purchase high volumes of ingredients and packaging upfront due to budget constraints. We must also pay for warehousing and transportation. These expenses are not included in the cost of goods.

As small business, we must compete with larger brands with significant advantages in purchasing power and brand recognition. However, we believe that our commitment to sustainability, quality, and customer service sets us apart from larger brands. We invest in high-quality ingredients, sustainable packaging, and long-lasting products to provide the best possible experience for our customers and their pets.

Furthermore, we have to compete with larger companies that have more resources and economies of scale. These companies can purchase larger quantities of ingredients and packaging materials, allowing them to negotiate lower prices with suppliers. They also have larger marketing budgets and can afford to offer discounts and promotions to customers. As a small business, we cannot compete on price alone, which is why we have to focus on offering high-quality products that are unique and differentiated from our competitors.

Research and development

One important factor that goes into the pricing of our products is the cost of research and development. Developing new products takes a lot of time, money, and resources. At Doglyness, we spent months researching and testing different formulas, ingredients, and packaging options to create our products. It took us over two years working on our base formula concept to ensure that, not only is it high-quality ingredients-wise, but that it is actually effective. We work with a team of experts, including chemists, biologists, and packaging engineers, to ensure that our products are effective, safe, and environmentally friendly. This process is not cheap, and it is a significant investment that we have to make to bring our products to market.

Brand visibility and customer service

Another cost that goes into our pricing is brand visibility and customer service. Although Doglyness has growth hugely thanks to our quality, transparency and word-of-mouth, as a small business, we cannot rely on this alone to grow our brand. We also need to invest in strategies to raise awareness of our brand. This includes creating and maintaining a website, running social media campaigns, attending trade shows, and working with members of the Doglyness community to promote our products. All of these activities require time, effort, and money, which ultimately adds to the cost of our products.

Our customers are the most important part of our business, and we go above and beyond to ensure they are happy with their purchases. In addition, we offer responsive customer support via email and social media to ensure that everyone gets the support they need when purchasing and using our products. While providing excellent customer service is not a direct cost that goes into the pricing of our products, it is an investment that we make to build trust and loyalty, which is one of the pillars of the Doglyness mission.

What goes into the final price of Doglyness products?

The Doglyness commitment

The pricing of our products reflects the many costs that go into running a small business and creating high-quality, sustainable, and ethical products. While we understand that our prices may be higher than some of our competitors, we believe that our products are worth the investment. We are committed to providing exceptional value to our customers by offering products that are effective, safe, and environmentally friendly, as well as exceptional customer service and a commitment to ethical and sustainable practices. We will continue to provide transparency and insight into our operations to ensure that everyone in our community feels confident and happy with their continued use of our innovative products. And we want to say a huge thanks again to our Doglyness tribe for your continued support and encouragement. We truly couldn’t do it without you!