Pet Food Sales Get Physical: Brick-and-Mortar Stores Preferred by Dog and Cat Owners

While e-commerce has been a blazing hot trend for pet food sales, don’t nail shut the coffin on physical stores just yet. An overwhelming majority of Americans still purchase pet food in stores – 88% of dog owners and 93% of cat owners purchased in a store in the last 12 months, as reported in Packaged Facts’ new report Pet Food in the U.S., 13th Edition.

In addition, 76% of dog owners and 81% of cat owners purchase all of their dog/cat food in a physical store, without pre-ordering it anywhere else.

Not surprisingly, Millennials are the most comfortable with non-traditional buying options. They are more likely than other age cohorts to purchase through a website or app for home delivery. They are also more likely than others to buy online for pickup in a store (BOPiS).

Indeed, while pet specialty retailers spent much of 2017 beefing up their online offerings, they weren’t ignoring brick-and-mortar by any means. PetSmart opened its 1,600^th store in late 2017, adding 63 in the first three quarters of 2017. Petco now operates more than 1,500 stores, and Pet Supplies Plus added its 400^th location in May 2017. Maybe there’s something to having a physical presence. Just look at the biggest e-commerce player of them all – Amazon.com – which gave a big vote of confidence to brick and mortar with its purchase of Whole Foods in 2017.  And during the holiday season, Walmart used its 3,500-supercenter reach in the U.S. to offer store pickup of Walmart.com orders until 6pm on Christmas Eve. So, while e-commerce continued its gains in 2017, physical stores remain a vital part of the sales mix.

-- by George Puro, market research analyst