Pet owners who dote on their four-legged companions have a new e-tailer to peruse, now that New York startup Inubar has come out of stealth mode today. Inubar offers a selection of aesthetically designed products and is initially focusing on toys, bedding, and accessories for dogs. New items will be added each week.
Websites that curate products for shoppers have been popping up lately and at first blush Inubar looks like a crossbreed of BarkBox and designer goods site Fab.com. Inubar co-founder Tiffany Luck says her company has a different strategy than BarkBox, which sends each subscriber a monthly box of pet products picked by the staff. Luck says Inubar sells a mix of essential items that pet owners need, as well as eye-catching, rare products to discover. “It is a little more traditional retail than BarkBox,” Luck says.
And while Fab offers such items as handmade rugs and designer coffee tables, Inubar is all about pets. “We are trying to be the place you go when you want to try something new and you need something,” Luck says.
Inubar, which is bootstrapped thus far, sells items that are designed for an evolved sense of style, yet ready for everyday use. For example, the site sells colorful squeaky twig toys designed to satisfy any dog’s urge to chew and to appeal to pet owners who’d like something more sophisticated than rubber steaks strewn across their floors. A white ceramic jar with a sculpted dog on the lid might look at home on kitchen counters—but it is for dog biscuits and barbeque-flavored treats shaped like squirrels, not cookies. “The idea is we’ll always have this highly curated collection that’s rotating,” Luck says.
Inubar plans to introduce four new products each week with popular items retained in an evergreen section of the website. All products currently on the site cost less than $100 each, though Luck foresees adding items that cost up to $200. “If you go into a boutique retailer, you see prices of $500 for a pet bed,” Luck says. “We’ll be
