Is a smart collar worth adding to your pet range?

The main thing it adds is the sale you currently give away. Your customers buy a harness and a lead from you. The smart part, the tracker, goes to someone else's brand, often on Amazon. A collar under your name keeps that sale and the customer relationship with it.

It also gives owners a reason to open an app that carries your name on the collar and the box, which is a daily reminder of your brand.

A first batch, the packaging, the samples and your own time. I cannot give you figures, because the unit price and the minimum order depend on quantity and branding. You receive both in one quote, within one business day of your request, together with the sample cost and delivery time.

The cost that is easy to miss is support. A smart product produces questions about an app. Someone on your team will answer them.

Look at your own evidence. Do people ask you about trackers? Do your reviews mention them? Do you lose sales to brands that sell them? I have no market study to hand you, and I will not invent one. Your own inbox is better evidence than my opinion.

• Certificates: radio approval for your market must be confirmed in writing.
• Fit: the features may not match what your customers imagine. There is no GPS location claim and there is no shock module.
• App: what the app can carry in terms of your brand is stated in the quote, not promised in advance.
• Support: you answer the customer.

Each is cheap to check before a batch exists. That is why the order of work starts with samples.

You should say no if you want a design no one else has, because the collar is built to a factory's design and your changes are limited to the logo and packaging. You should say no if live location is a must, if a fully branded app is a condition the quote cannot meet, or if you cannot confirm certificates for your country.

Saying no early is a good result. A short refusal from me costs you less than a batch you cannot use.

Ask for two samples. We ship two collars with a mock of your logo. You test them on real dogs, show the box to a few customers, and decide on a small first batch, or you do not. There is no obligation after the samples.

For a brand that has never sold electronics, this is the gentlest way in that I know.

You could build one yourself, which takes the longest road and carries every risk. You could resell another brand's tracker, which leaves the customer with that brand. White label sits between them. I compare the three more fully in Build your own smart collar, resell a tracker, or white label one?.

I would write down the three customers who asked me about trackers, ask for samples, test them for a fortnight and decide with the quote in hand. If no customer has asked, I would wait.

A smart collar can make the other products easier to talk about. An owner who sees calories in the app has a reason to think about food. An owner who sees activity thinks about walks and gear. I do not claim that it raises your sales of anything else, because I have no data to show it. It is a reason for conversation, and the rest is up to you.

It also gives your brand a product that a competitor cannot copy by changing a label on a plain collar.

If your customers told you they wanted location above all, I would say look elsewhere. If your certificates could not be confirmed, I would say stop. If you needed a branded app and the quote said it was not possible, I would say consider another route. Any of those is a fair reason to say no, and I would rather hear it from you early than late.

Decide what a good result looks like. A number of customers who say yes to the box. A test that shows believable numbers in the app. A quote that fits your budget. If you know the result you want, you can tell quickly whether the samples gave it to you.