Surges in sales. Immunity from financial downturn. And an ecommerce market share outpacing online retail as a whole.
By every metric, the pet industry represents one of the most lucrative opportunities for online brands. Every metric … except one.
Despite strong numbers, it’s a dog-eat-dog world with the biggest of the big devouring far more than their fair share.
Intense competition marks the pet food, pet care, and pet supplies landscape — especially mass merchandisers privy to high-volume sales, the luxury of lower margins, and scale.
Two players, PetSmart and PETCO, account for nearly half of all online pet product revenue. Amazon’s debut into white-labeled pet-food challenges start-ups lacking methods to address variable costs like supply-chain logistics and shipping.
What’s more, traditional retail giants like Walmart and Target are expanding their online presence — redefining the pet market and shoppers’ expectations.
How can DTC catch up with the pack? Good news: there’s plenty of hope.
With real numbers and tested strategies, this guide provides an overview into the state of the pet industry broken into two parts along with tactical lessons from ecommerce brands doing it right:
Pet Industry Trends: Growth & Statistics in 2022 and Beyond
1.The Boom of Ecommerce’s Pet Market
2.Pet Ownership and Buying Behaviors
3.Data on Three Verticals within the Industry
4.Pet Stores, Retail, and Pop-Ups
5.Amazon: The Elephant Great Dane in the Room
Pet Industry Marketing: Unleashing Your Ecommerce Strategy
1.Visitors: Driving Paid Traffic
2.Conversion Rate: Ad Creative & Web Design
3.Customer Lifetime Value: Cash Multiplier
4.Variable Costs: Profitability
5.Case Studies: Lessons from Three Pet Brands
Don’t have time to read it all right now? No problem. We’ve compiled all the statistics, examples, and data into a report you can download for later or share with your team.
Don’t miss that last section …
There you’ll find detailed examples — packed with tactics and lessons — from three fast-growing ecommerce companies …
Crown & Paw: After 3Xing conversion rates in the lead up to Black Friday, Cyber Monday, this custom pet portrait retailer 6X’d conversions in Dec and 10x’d growth to close out its first year at over $11M in sales.
PupSocks: Two years of record-breaking left its audiences exhausted and its reach tapped. The answer? A creative infusion that led to a 9.1% CVR, YoY growth of ~60%, and 2.6 ROAS on +$6M in spend.
MaxBone: As a luxury-lifestyle pet brand, both the challenge and opportunity was increasing customer lifetime value. By combining design-forward content and high-LTV first purchases, it 3X’d YoY revenue.
Pet Industry Trends: Growth & Statistics in 2022 and Beyond
Mapping data across the pet industry is notoriously difficult. Unlike fashion marketing, health and wellness, and the beauty industry, no single source of market research exists.
Thankfully, by coordinating resources, we can get clear answers on a number of pressing questions, namely …
How profitable is the pet industry?
How much is the pet industry worth?
Is the pet industry growing or shrinking?
What is lacking in the pet industry?
And what challenges do pet brands face?
Globally, the pet care market has grown to $261 billion in 2022; up from $245 billion in 2021. An estimated 6.1% compounded annual growth rate (CAGR), will catapult that figure to $350 billion by 2027.
While North America and Western Europe are mature, they still offer possibilities for an uptick in consumer purchases relative to the growth experienced worldwide.
Space exists for the development of new products and especially new channels: an advantageous lifecycle stage for emerging brands to enter and thrive.
Data via IBIS World Report
1. The Boom of Ecommerce’s Pet Market
While retail stores have seen a slow increase in buying, the online pet market has nearly quadrupled since 2013.
