The dog and cat food and treats market continues to grow in spite of its mature status. anastas I iStock.com
| Getty Images/iStockphotoWith so many new pet owners joining the market and driving sales of pet food and pet supplies forward, there seems to be opportunity everywhere, Raha Alavi, senior vice president of retail client services for NielsenIQ, told Petfood Industry in an email.
“However, we have noticed some potential downward trends in some types of products,” she said. “For one, there’s been a stark drop in searches for the term ‘grain-free’ in dog food, whereas search for refrigerated and frozen wet dog and cat food have gone up significantly.”
Across all pet foods, specialized diets and ingredients are experiencing strong growth, she said, quoting Nielsen’s statistics for the overall pet retail market.
Along with the pet food types that people buy, the places where they buy the products have been changing too.
“The impact of online shopping on sales of pet food pre-COVID into early 2022 is substantial,” she said. “Looking at the entire pet food category, sales from online-only buyers and omnichannel shoppers (buying from both online and in-store) have steadily increased over the last three periods compared to shoppers who only buy in-store.”
“Given the rapid expansion across the category and how shoppers want to access products, one of the most important factors moving forward is going to be a more accurate and holistic view of how pet food shoppers are both searching for and buying these various product subsets, not just from your brand, but your competitors' as well,” she said. With this data, brands can understand who is buying what products where, and they can create the most optimized and effective messaging to meet shoppers where they’re buying.
Tim Wall covers the dog, cat and other pet food industries as senior reporter for WATT Global Media. His work has appeared in Live Science, Discovery News, Scientific American, Honduras Weekly, Global Journalist and other outlets. He holds a journalism master's degree from the University of Missouri - Columbia and a bachelor's degree in biology.
Wall served in the Peace Corps in Honduras from 2005 to 2007, where he coordinated with the town government of Moroceli to organize a municipal trash collection system, taught environmental science, translated for medical brigades and facilitated sustainable agriculture, along with other projects.
Contact Wall via https://www.wattglobalmedia.com/contact-us/
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