The Benefits of Online Pet Licensing

In late 2017 we conducted a North America-wide study of the Pet Licensing Industry. We compiled data on over 600 pet licensing programs to obtain regional averages regarding a variety of program attributes, including the frequency of online pet licensing.

Overall, we learned that over 36% of pet licensing organizations in North America offer an option for their residents to license their pets online.

With so many organizations offering online pet licensing, how does your jurisdiction compare? Below you’ll find a chart of the frequency of online pet licensing by region, for which data was obtained on at least 10 pet licensing programs in each state or province.

With over one-third of pet licensing organizations already employing an online solution, perhaps now is the time for your organization to consider it as well. This of course begs the question: what are the benefits of bringing your pet licensing program online?

The Benefits

  • The Customer Prefers It: First and foremost, it is important to recognize that the majority of customers prefer an online solution. In a 2014 study when asked, “How important is it for governments to provide more services through digital channels?”, over 75% of respondents thought it was either fairly or very important to them. With a digitally maturing audience, customers are beginning to not only expect, but prefer engaging with organizations online.
  • Increased Compliance: An important aspect of pet license compliance relies on the convenience to the pet owner. Enabling an online solution immediately creates a wider reach and increased accessibility for your audience. Without the historical restrictions of location and time, pet owners can freely license from anywhere and at any time of day that is convenient for them. In our research, we learned that more than 60% of the healthy programs studied allowed pet owners to register for pet licenses online, whereas less than half of unhealthy programs offered this purchasing method. This convenience measure is a key factor in driving compliance.
  • Cost Savings and Reduced Administrative Time: Typically, launching an online licensing site is mainly composed of a one-time fixed cost. Therefore, once the new online operations commence and online license sales begin, these fixed costs don’t increase proportionally with additional license sales, as the majority of the necessary infrastructure is already in place. This new system begins to replace old and cumbersome activities that rely heavily on manual labor and with time streamlines the licensing process for a very low cost.
Did You Know: DocuPet does not charge ANY start-up costs. We give you the most up to date and complete pet licensing solution with the lowest risk pricing model on the market.
  • Accurate and Up-to-Date Database: Incorporating an online solution in your pet licensing program creates more accurate data, with users being accountable for the majority of field inputs. This gives the pet owner the power to ensure that all of their registered information is correct, including their contact information and their pet’s information. Having users license online themselves also facilitates up to date information, as the typical lag experienced between the period of purchasing a license and uploading the information in the database is eliminated. Therefore, the moment a pet owner registers their pet online, the pet’s information can be accessed immediately by shelter staff if the pet is ever found to be lost.

DocuPet’s Solution

Although more than one-third of organizations have an online pet licensing solution in place, it is clear that the majority still do not. DocuPet is the most complete pet licensing solution on the market today. Our outsourced partnership model is designed to automate and simplify both pet owner and administrator processes, contributing to increased licensing revenue and reduced operating overhead. At the core of our program is our online pet licensing system.

Our system has proven to be effective: within the first year of partnership with a new jurisdiction, more than 60% of new license sales and renewals are conducted online. This saves time for both pet owners and licensing administrators alike, and is one of the many reasons DocuPet is able to increase compliance rates so quickly.