During the ongoing pandemic pet owners shifted to e-commerce out of necessity, and consumer retail data reflect this. For example, analysts with Byzzer, a consumer packaged goods (CPG) research firm, observed that cat food e-commerce increased 52% over the past 52 weeks. What’s more, new cat foods and treats were successful with only 4% of new products in January 2019 being delisted by January 2020. Leveraging these and other data may help pet food makers, suppliers and retailers evolve along with changing pet owner behaviors.
“There is a huge opportunity for pet brands to start integrating data into their growth strategy,” Byzzer CEO Susan Dunn said in an email. “Data has the potential to change the way manufacturers and retailers work together. When working with retailers, brands need to do more than talk about their value proposition, they need to help retailers understand how their brand can expand category growth and appeal to more shoppers. Meeting consumer needs is still a crucial qualitative piece to a pet brand’s success, but beyond getting on shelves, pet brands really need access to data to track their trade promotion spend and optimize their pricing strategy. So, many small pet brands operate on tight budgets and need to make sure they’re spending strategically.”
Shameless Pets applies CPG data
Byzzer worked with pet food startup Shameless Pets in some of the CPG data analysts' early work. Shameless Pets brought the dual perspective of a small pet brand and the buyer side, Dunn said. Shameless Pets founder James Bello learned in a decade with Target how hard it is to convince retailers to introduce new products. Retail data analysis allows brands to know what retailers a look for by giving the brands access to category trends, pricing, and promotion data
“Shameless Pets brought to life a unique idea and has embodied it in their business model,” said Dunn. “They’ve made incredible innovations to eliminate food waste, so it’s very cool that we’re able to empower them with the quantitative data they need to complement their brand story.”
