Pets Supported:  

While PetFoodDirect supports a variety of different animals, from horses to birds to smaller animals, the obvious focus is on dogs and cats. From the company’s logo to the variety of options outside pet food, everything seems to focus on cats and dogs. While most pet owners fall into one of the two categories, we would like to see a little more variety in the supplies and, if nothing else, in the clip art images on the front page of the site.

Selection:  

PetFoodDirect, as the name implies, provides most pet food. Their variety of pet food available for each kind of pet is varied so you should be able to find what you need. Whether it's dry or canned or something specific that will help with weight management for your dog or cat.

Features:  

While the benefit of being able to use an online store is that you can access it anytime 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, you do lose the personal touch and ability to get help if you have questions or don’t know exactly what you’re looking for. PetFoodDirect tries to circumvent that problem by giving users so many options that are supposed to make navigation simpler. However, because there is so much going on, it makes it a little difficult to navigate for first-time users. But the drop down menus on each page do make navigation simpler and easier if you know exactly what you’re looking for (i.e. a specific brand of dry dog food).

Once you get to individual product pages we appreciated the important information included with each product. Whether it was the nutritional information on the dog food or the important information related to a cat toy, they give you the facts up front, so you know what you’re buying into.
 

Payment Options:  

PetFoodDirect only takes credit cards, but they do accept the major ones from Visa, MasterCard, American Express and Discover. But you can’t use internet payment services. You do have the option, however of setting up Auto-Ship Pet Food plans where the money will be taken out of your account automatically and you will receive regular deliveries of your selected pet food at the frequency you would like.

Security:  

While they don’t go into detail about their specific security measures, PetFoodDirect said their site is secure and they have taken steps to ensure users’ information and payment is secure.

Customer Support:  

From email, fax and even telephone, PetFoodDirect tries to make it as simple to get in contact with them as possible. Along with their variety of options available for contacting them, PetFoodDirect also has a customer service page available on their website with links to just about anything you could think of asking, as well as customer testimonials. It’s a great resource and even has a walk through for first-time users available to help them become familiar with all the options available.

PetFoodDirect has a lot of options, however, we thought it made things a little confusing. While you will be able to meet your needs with the wide variety of pet food and supplies for just about all kinds of animals available, you will have a hard time finding just what you need unless you know exactly what you’re looking for.

How do other leading online pet supplies retailers compare to PetFoodDirect? Read our reviews of PetSmart and PETCO for details.