Channeling Fish, Bird, Small Animal, and Reptile Sales

Data from Packaged Facts’ June/July 2017 National Pet Owners Survey shows where pet owners of fish, birds, small animals, and reptiles (FBSAR) purchased items for their pet in the previous twelve months.

The data make it clear that pet store chains are the most popular channel for pet owners looking to purchase something for their pet for fish, small animal, and reptile owners. In fact, for fish and reptile owners, a greater percentage shopped at the pet specialty chains then at club stores, dollar stores, drugstores, and supermarkets combined. [Figure 1]

Mass Merchandisers and Supercenters Key Segments

While the mass merchandiser channel is the second most popular channel for most of the pet categories, the greatest percentage of companion bird owners actually choose to shop at supercenters such as Walmart and Target for at least some of their pet products. However, since sales by dollar figure are actually highest in the pet specialty chains for all of the categories (not shown), the survey results in the figure suggest that the mass merchandiser channel is simply more convenient for impulse or quickly needed items.

E-Commerce Also Trending

Internet sales are also immensely popular with many pet owners. Except for reptile owners, more owners purchased products for their pets online than from independent pet specialty stores in the last twelve months. As with the mass merchandiser channel, online sales by dollar value are much less than sales from independent pet specialty stores, so convenience is once again the likely reason for purchases online. However, since online sales are the fastest growing of all channels across all pet categories as well, soon it will be more than convenience driving online sales.

For more information on the market for pet small animal, fish, reptile, and companion bird products, take a look at Packaged Facts’ Fish, Small Animal, Reptile, and Bird Products: U.S. Pet Market Trends and Opportunities. The report provides a comprehensive discussion of these survey results as well as an analysis of marketers and sales of these pet products broken down into a number of different segments.

-- by Norman Deschamps, market research analyst

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