Currently, as reported in Packaged Facts’ recently released study of new owners of dogs or cats, 7.4 million households adopt one or more new dogs annually while 5.4 million households adopt one or more new cats. A somewhat higher percentage of cat owners than of dog owners adopt a new pet each year, reflecting in part the higher prevalence of multiple-cat ownership. Nonetheless, the number of pet-owning households who adopt dogs exceeds the number who adopt cats, given the greater population of dog-owning households. Approximately two out of three newly adopted dogs or cats are under 1 years old at the time of adoption.
Shopping patterns of new pet owners
New dog or cat owners are likely to be filling out their assortment of pet products, and thus generally show higher shopping rates across channels than do dog or cat owners overall. New dog or cat owners are disproportionately likely to shop at pet specialty stores (71%) compared with dog or cat owners overall (51%). Similarly, new dog or cat owners show especially high rates for shopping through specialty pet product websites such as Chewy.com, though the same pattern does not hold for general product websites such as Amazon.com.
In tandem with generally showing higher shopping rates across channels than do dog or cat owners overall, new dog or cat owners show higher purchasing rates over the last 12 months across most durable and non-food product types, including bowls or feeders, at nearly half of new owners of dogs or cats, compared with only one-fourth of dog or cat owners overall.
Puppy and kitten food trends not keeping up
Puppy and kitten formula pet foods, however, are not fully benefiting from the high tide of new pet owner spending. Breaking out puppy formula dog food into dry (kibble) versus wet/moist formats, Simmons Research data show the percentage of dog-owning households that buy dry puppy food slipping from 14% in 2009 to 12% in 2019 (see Table 1), while the percentage buying wet/moist puppy food remained stable at 4% despite an increased level of popularity for wet/moist pet food overall.
TABLE 1: Kitten and puppy formulas, in both dry and wet/moist categories, show significant room for purchasing growth.
Among cat-owning households overall, the percentage buying kitten formulations has edged up slightly — but at significantly lower rates for dry/kibble kitten formula than for dry/kibble puppy formula.
This underperformance in usage rates for puppy or kitten formula pet food suggests room for more effective marketing of this product type and next-generation product development. Puppy and kitten formula pet foods not only bear the advantage of medically common-sense nutritional merit, but avoid the logistical ambushes of open-ended fragmentation of pet foods into endless product differentiations and combinations. Puppy and kitten formula pet foods can also help sow the seeds of brand and retailer/e-tail loyalty in an omnimarket era where maximizing customer loyalty is the name of the game.
