Zooplus—a trusted partner for pet parents
Whether it’s a new puppy, a senior cat, or a tank full of tropical fish, zooplus offers everything needed to ensure pets are healthy, happy, and well cared for. From premium food and treats to toys, beds, and expert advice, the company delivers a seamless and reliable experience.
Driven by a passion for animals and a commitment to innovation, zooplus combines customer-centric technology with deep market knowledge. Flexible subscription models, fast delivery options, and localized online shops help meet the unique needs of pet owners across Europe. At its core, zooplus believes that pets are family and every decision, every innovation, and every order reflects that belief. The result? A loyal and growing community of pet lovers who trust zooplus to deliver not just products, but peace of mind.
The storage struggle: a familiar story with a not-so-familiar fix
It started with a flood of rich media from the zooplus Social Media and Content teams: images, promo videos, and campaign assets. All of it landed in SharePoint, their collaboration hub. But SharePoint wasn’t built to be a long-term archive. So they were running out of space fast, and throwing money at Microsoft for additional storage wasn't sustainable.
They were also lacking a proper archiving strategy. Some teams started mass deleting files. Others were told to "clean up" libraries manually. The result? Wasted time, lost content, and growing frustration.
What zooplus didn’t want was a solution that disrupted users or scattered their data across isolated silos. They needed continuity, compliance, and clarity.
Enter ShArc: smart archiving, not just storage dumping
After evaluating several tools, ShArc by Layer2 leading solutions stood out and not just because it spoke the language of IT admins. It solved zooplus biggest problem with a simple but elegant mechanism: replace old files with “stub files” (.sharc links) that point back to the original file in Azure Blob Storage. That means users still see their files right in SharePoint. They can click, wait a second for onloading, and get back to work. No frantic calls to IT. No broken links. No compliance headaches.
"If you're drowning in SharePoint storage and looking for a way out that’s both technically sound and end-user-friendly, ShArc delivers. It’s not just a workaround. It’s a well-thought-out system that fits into the Microsoft 365 ecosystem without breaking what already works."
Sara Leirós Rosanes | Microsoft Engineer at zooplus Services ESP S.L.
Savings of €25,000 and 20TB storage
In the very first run, zooplus offloaded over 20TB of cold data, media-heavy content that hadn’t been touched in years but still needed to be retained. Just like that, they lifted the pressure off their SharePoint quotas.
What zooplus gained with ShArc
- Zooplus saves close to €25,000 per year.
- No need to buy extra SharePoint storage licenses.
- Libraries are cleaner and easier to navigate, especially in Microsoft Teams.
- Ensured continued compliance with zooplus IT standards
- IT no longer plays the role of storage police.
- Teams can focus on content, without noticeable changes in the way it works.
- A simpler and more sustainable long-term storage strategy and improvement of data lifecycle management.
ShArc also keeps everything inside zooplus Azure tenant, which was critical from a compliance and security perspective. The app runs entirely within zooplus environment, and the ShArc team helped them configure everything, from the app service to access permissions, with impressive precision and professionalism.
Under the hood: what made the difference
From a technical side, ShArc checks all the boxes:
- Azure Blob integration for low-cost, scalable storage
- Stub file architecture that preserves metadata
- OAuth 2.0 authentication with Entra ID for secure access
- Deployment inside their Azure environment for full control
Yes, the initial implementation had its bumps (SharePoint throttling isn’t fun), but having the ShArc team close by made all the difference. Zooplus was operationalizing a new data lifecycle strategy.
User adoption? Surprisingly smooth.
Most employees barely noticed. The files that were offloaded weren’t in active use, and the one-click restore made access intuitive. Some users missed preview thumbnails for image libraries, a feature zooplus love to see in a future release, but overall, adoption was frictionless.
What’s next: smarter, automated lifecycle management
ShArc is now a permanent part of the zooplus data management workflow. They are working on automating the archive process based on metadata triggers and storage thresholds. The dream setup? Archiving kicks in automatically when a library hits 90% of its quota. Based on the roadmap, that’s well within reach.
Zooplus also keeps an eye on upcoming features like image preview in stub files, especially useful for creative teams.
Final verdict: would zooplus recommend ShArc?
Zooplus recommend ShArc without hesitation. For organizations like zooplus that rely heavily on SharePoint but struggle with long-term storage and rising costs, ShArc is a smart, scalable, and user-friendly solution. The combination of seamless integration, security compliance, and almost invisible impact on daily workflows makes it an ideal fit for any modern Microsoft 365 environment. At zooplus, they have seen firsthand how ShArc can simplify data lifecycle management while reducing operational overhead and spend. Zooplus is looking forward to upcoming additional features. They plan to automate archiving based on definded policies that trigger offloading before storage becomes a bottleneck, as soon as possible. In addition, they would like to see a image preview support within SharePoint libraries. ShArc is more than a helpful tool for zoolus, it’s a central part of how they future-proof their collaboration infrastructure.
The ShArc development team at Layer2 leading solutions is looking forward to continuing its collaboration with zooplus. Zooplus was extremely helpful during the ShArc pilot phase with a small group of beta customers, and it is always a pleasure to meet them.
