Digital Pet Care Products and Services: E-commerce and E-connectivity

Report Overview

Digital Pet Care Products and Services: E-commerce and E-connectivity

This publication combines Packaged Facts’ report Digital Pet Care Products and Services: E-Commerce and E-Connectivity (August 2020) with a supplemental report Digital Petcare Focus: Online and Smartphone App Shopping for Pet Products (June 2020).

As of late summer 2020, the U.S. pet industry continues to confront the socio-economic challenges of the novel coronavirus pandemic and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future. With that said, the pet market is famously recession resistant, and even as COVID-19-triggered impacts on American lives and businesses continue to be felt, a number of silver linings have come into focus, representing opportunities for the pet industry broadly and digital pet services and products specifically. Digital Pet Care Products and Services: E-Commerce and E-Connectivity—a first-edition Packaged Facts report—examines the market for digital pet care including products and services that rely on the internet and/or Bluetooth technology and computers and/or smartphones, encompassing e-commerce (pet food and non-food pet supplies purchased online via computer or smartphone), veterinary telemedicine health services, app-based non-medical pet services (primarily pet sitting/walking and boarding) à la Rover and Wag!, and digitally connected products including pet trackers/monitors, automatic feeders/waterers, and litter boxes.

What's in This Report?

Factoring in thoroughly the current and expected impact of the pandemic, the report analyzes industry trends, projects future market directions, and pinpoints myriad opportunities, including the COVID-19-spurred pet adoption surge, the acceleration of pet owners online, the efforts of e-tailers and brick-and-mortar-based retailers to adapt to and capitalize on the online boom, the sudden urgency among veterinarians and veterinary back-office service providers to integrate telehealth services including telemedicine and teletriage, the ups and downs of app-based pet sitting services, and the interlinked and growing role of e-connected products to facilitate pet care tasks and provide increasingly sophisticated levels of pet monitoring.

Report Methodology

The information in this report was obtained from primary and secondary research. Primary research includes national online consumer polls of U.S. adult pet owners (age 18+) conducted on an ongoing basis by Packaged Facts, to measure purchasing patterns and attitudes regarding pet products and services. With sample sizes of approximately 1,000 pet owners, these surveys are based on national online research panels that are census representative on the primary demographic measures of age, gender, geographic region, race/ethnicity, and household income. This report relies mainly on Packaged Facts’ April/May survey, which was conducted from April 27 through May 11, 2020.

Our primary research also includes interviews with pet market experts; participation in pet industry events including the American Pet Products Association’s Global Pet Expos (2004-2020) and Petfood Industry/Watt Publishing’s Petfood Forums (2004-2020); on-site examination of retail and service provider venues; and internet canvassing, including blogs.

Secondary research includes information- and data-gathering from consumer business and trade publications including Pet Age, Pet Business, Pet Product News International, Petfood Industry, and Veterinary Practice News; company profiles in trade and consumer publications; and information culled from Packaged Facts’ extensive pet market research database and report collection.

Our estimates of market size and company performance are based on reported revenues of pet product manufacturers, retailers, and pet services providers; background sales data from sources such as IRI and Nielsen, surveys of independent and chain pet store retailers; government data including U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Consumer Expenditure Surveys; and figures from other market research sources.

This report defines digital pet care as including pet products and services that rely on the internet and/or Bluetooth technology and computers and/or smartphones, encompassing e-commerce (pet food and non-food pet supplies purchased online via computer or smartphone), veterinary telemedicine health services, app-based non-medical pet services (primarily pet sitting/walking and boarding), and digitally connected products including pet trackers/monitors, automatic feeders/waterers, and litter boxes. Factoring in thoroughly the current and expected impact of the coronavirus pandemic of 2020, the report analyzes industry trends and projects future market directions.

With the advent and ongoing impact of the coronavirus pandemic, all areas of digital pet care have gained momentum as pet owners, together with everyone else, seek to limit their exposure through social distancing, telecommuting, distance learning, and contactless modes of commerce including online purchasing for home delivery and/or curbside pickup. From April 28 to May 5, 2020—a period about a month and a half after the first social distancing measures were announced in the U.S.—Packaged Facts conducted a pet owner survey predicated on the statement “Because of coronavirus…”. Confirming the broad impact of the pandemic on pet owner behavior, the survey finds that over three-quarters of U.S. pet owners (76%) had changed their daily routines, with four-fifths (81%) going outside the home less, nearly three-fifths (57%) working from home/away from their typical workplace, and an even half (50%) putting in fewer hours. Regarding digital pet care:

• Over three-quarters of U.S. pet owners (77%) were using the internet more
• Nearly two-thirds (64%) were ordering/buying online more
• Nearly three-fifths (57%) were using smartphone apps more, with almost half (49%) ordering/buying more via smartphone
• Nearly three-fifths (57%) were using social media more
• Over two-fifths (43%) were buying groceries online more