Dog food e-commerce grew 92.2 percent in past year

Cat food e-commerce grew 63.2 percent over the past year.

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(PayaMona | BigStock.com)
(PayaMona | BigStock.com)

During a seminar, a Nielsen executive said that pet food contributes heavily to current dramatic growth in e-commerce, reported Supermarket News. Shelf-stable items that work well with subscription services, like pet food, are especially suited to e-commerce, said Jordan Rost, Nielsen vice president of consumer insights, while hosting the seminar “What’s in Store 2018.”

Over the past year, dog food experienced a 92.2 percent growth in e-commerce sales, according to Nielsen consumer research. Cat food e-commerce grew 63.2 percent over the past year.

E-commerce now accounts for more than 18 percent of all dog food sales, while nearly 13 percent of cat food sales occur online.

Online customizable dog food diet sales growing

In September, Petfood Industry reported that dog owners have an increasing number of options for custom dog food sold online and delivered to their door. Both large, veteran pet food companies and growing start-ups have found ways to meet pet owners’ demands for dog food that caters to their canine companions’ specific dietary needs and preferences. Along with that, pet food companies are eliminating trips to the store with online dog food sales and home delivery, while helping fight pet obesity.

Keys to grow online pet food sales

Online pet food sales continue to grow worldwide, reported Petfood Industry, especially in China where nearly 48 percent of the nation’s US$1.5 billion in pet food sales occur online, according to GfK. One Shanghai-based company, Navarch Pet Products, has grown its e-commerce sales to 78 percent of total sales since 2011. Jin Huang, international business director for Navarch Petcare, will share some of her company’s keys to online pet food sales success during her presentation at Petfood Forum Asia 2018 on March 28 in Bangkok, Thailand.

Huang told Petfood Industry about some particularly successful techniques used by Navarch to build their e-commerce presence.

“We use online promotional tools like CPM [cost per thousand], CPC [cost per click], CPS [cost per sale] to promote our products and brands,” she said. “It takes close and precise monitoring of market data response to fully utilize those tools efficiently.”

Along with those marketing tools, Navarch also maintains a strong social media presence.

Marketing tools and social media can work in many pet food markets, not just China. However, there are some differences between the US and Chinese pet food markets.

“Merchants use frequent promotional campaign and tactics to attract customers, compared to the subscription services in the US to attract and retain members,” she said.

Petfood Forum Asia 2018

Hear more from Huang about how to increase online pet food sales at Petfood Forum Asia 2018, during her presentation, “Building a social community to support pet food ecommerce.” Petfood Forum Asia is a conference for the Southeast Asia pet food and pet treat industry featuring industry experts presenting the latest research and information on the pet food market, pet nutrition, pet food palatability, processing, new product development and more. Attendees are provided the ability socialize and network with industry peers from throughout Southeast Asia and to meet those hard to reach prospects, have project update meetings on site with customers and meet new leads through networking events.

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