Two American obsessions—a growing affinity for products that promote health and wellness, and a love for pets—have converged to create a perfect storm of potential within pet retail. With 95% of U.S. pets considered part of the family and spending on pets growing dramatically over the last decade, there are incredible opportunities in the industry.
Nielsen is committed to helping retailers and manufacturers unlock growth in this booming segment. So the company is pleased to announce that it has acquired GfK’s Pet Specialty Point-of-Sale (POS) business, the exclusive measurement service for the pet specialty channel in the U.S.
For the past seven years, Nielsen has expanded its resources to serve the unique needs of this channel and become the preferred analytic provider for most pet retailers. This new investment builds on the company's momentum to double its coverage of the pet specialty segment by adding neighborhood pet specialty, as well as veterinary clinics to our retail roster. Nielsen is proud to provide the industry’s most holistic view of pet retail across both specialty and non-specialty channels.
For retailers and manufacturers, this will produce a more robust picture of performance and competition across the retail landscape, inclusive of pet specialty stores, grocery stores and mass merchandisers—from a single source. Nielsen clients will benefit from harmonized category measurement, a deeper understanding of pet owners’ consumer behavior and the ability to keep pace with the nationwide trends that ignite in neighborhood pet stores.
This news also comes on the footsteps of the company's recent announcement around the growth of e-commerce measurement capabilities. Nielsen now holds the most comprehensive, multi-sourced e-commerce measurement solution for the U.S. market, delivering full visibility into the burgeoning pet care e-commerce landscape to complement our brick-and-mortar store read.
“We are excited to bring our holistic view of the pet care landscape to the U.S. retail and manufacturing community,” said John Tavolieri, President, U.S. FMCG and Retail at Nielsen. “The combined strength of Nielsen and GfK’s data assets will allow us to deliver best-in-class solutions and services to this growing vertical, and we look forward to continuing to grow our capabilities to provide a more localized and omnichannel pet measurement view.”
