In 2018, the retail market of the US for dog and cat food accumulated sales of US $27 billion, which was a 4 percent increase up from 2017.
This is attributed by Packaged Facts as a result of the growth of the petfood market, aided by the acceleration of online sales driven by retail giants Amazon and Chewy.
“Although brick-and-mortar retailers have been losing sales to e-tailers, the Internet has been delivering incremental sales growth in the pet market overall,” David Sprinkle, research director for Packaged Facts explains. “E-commerce sales have, in fact, been so strong that they have been more than off-setting sluggish pet product sales in other channels. We at Packaged Facts estimate that 12 million households purchased pet products online in 2018, attracted by the competitive prices and the endless aisle appeal of Internet sellers, and this number will only increase in the coming years. For petfood marketers, an omnichannel approach is therefore a necessity in a business whose consumer base will increasingly be doing some or all of its pet food shopping online.”
Owing to these factors, Packaged Facts predices that from 2019 onwards, online sales will play a major role in the future of the market. Other market drivers include personalised petfood (home-delivered, customised petfood); an emphasis on sourcing, sustainability and animal welfare (driven by pet owners’ needs for safe, nutritious food for their pets); and premiumised cat food (with the dog food category long dominating superpremium petfood, which has since shifted its focus towards cats suffering from UTIs, dehydration and obesity).
These trends and driving factors have all been discussed in Packaged Fact’s ‘Pet Food in the US, 14th Edition’ which can be accessed, HERE.
For more information on Packaged Facts visit their website, HERE.
