by Shannon Landry
October 22, 2024
As I made my way through the New Product Showcase at SUPERZOO 2024, I couldn’t help but be struck by the number of new pet supplements products.
As I made my way through the New Product Showcase at SUPERZOO 2024, I couldn’t help but be struck by the number of new pet supplements products I was seeing. I know this market has had one of the strongest growth rates in the pet retail market in the past three years, but nothing spoke to the strength of the category more than the number of innovative new releases on display. Here are some of the top trends I noted as I perused the aisles:
Lots of Lickables: Alternative delivery systems are nothing new, but I noticed that pet supplements marketers have really absorbed the fact that chewable tables and soft chews won’t work with every pet. Especially in the cat area, I saw a lot of lickable gels and pastes that were clearly targeting cats’ finicky natures, making supplement time an opportunity for treat time, rather than a wrestling match. In a nod to the explosion of gummy supplements in human supplement selections, I also saw a few dog gummies on display, a chance for humans and pets to share their supplement experiences.
Mushrooms and Other Natural Ingredients: With “natural” fatigue on the part of pet owners (what does it really mean, anyway?), pet supplement marketers are positioning around ingredients from obviously botanical sources. Mushrooms were one that stood out to me, as did the several “whole foods” supplements products formulated with less processed-sounding, more recognizable ingredients such as yeast, seaweed, blueberries, goat milk, and various probiotic bacteria.
“Wellness” Supplements: Pet health and wellness has been a major pet industry driver for a while, and pet supplement marketers have clearly taken this to heart. Granted, pet supplements have an obvious tie-in to the trend, but I noted that “overall wellness” was one of the primary positionings at a LOT of the pet supplement displays I visited. Marketing text describing the many new multivitamin product launches utilized descriptives like “daily wellness,” “wellness support,” and “wellness rituals,” with even condition-specific products being touted more holistically as contributing to overall health.
See the new study Pet Supplements and the full Pet Products & Services Catalog for more information.
About the blogger: Shannon Landry is the Packaged Facts Pet Brand Manager.
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