E-commerce performance trends in 2022

The American online pet retail industry may look weak due to a less optimistic economy and comparisons with pandemic-induced peaks in activity. Nevertheless, pet owners still want the best for their pets – and they often go looking for it online. Over the past year, there has been strong growth in the online channel for some pet food brands – including Purina Fancy Feast, Purina Pro Plan, Blue Buffalo and Pedigree – and especially for the accessories category.

State of play

Chewy is the biggest e-commerce seller focused on pet products in the US, but it also competes with larger mass-market retailers like Amazon, Walmart and Target. From November 2021 to November 2022, these 4 e-commerce giants sold a total of 1.31 billion units of pet supplies worth more than $23 billion. By both units sold and revenue, Chewy and the pets department of Amazon.com dominated pet product sales over the past year.

However, the current economic turmoil is affecting everyone, and the pet products industry is no exception. In a recent report, SimilarWeb reported that most online retailers of pet supplies saw a dip in traffic. In the 12 months from December 2021 to November 2022, Petco.com received 10.88% less traffic, followed by PetSmart.com (-7.52%) and Chewy (-5.68%). Non- specialist online retailers also registered less traffic in that period, such as Target.com (-13.36%), Walmart.com (-6.77%) and Amazon.com (-4.15%).

Chewy

For the American online pet retailer Chewy, Blue Buffalo was the top dog brand by units sold, at 10.94 million between November 2021 and November 2022. Purina Pro Plan led the category revenue-wise with $454.6 million. The fastest-growing brand was Pedigree, with sales up 583% by units sold and 113% by revenue.

When it comes to cats, Purina Fancy Feast was the best-performing brand on the online platform, with 21.49 million units sold and $387.9 million in revenue. The fastest-growing brand for cats at Chewy was Arm & Hammer Litter, with unit sales up 58% and revenue up 94% in the 13-month period.

Amazon

Amazon’s top-selling pet product brand overall was likewise Blue Buffalo, both by units sold (11.76 million) and revenue ($309.1 million, up 36% year on year). This pet food brand from General Mills was followed by Hills’ Science Diet (with a revenue of $296.6 million) and Purina Fancy Feast ($153.8 million), with the latter increasing its sales through the Amazon platform by 102% from November 2021 to November 2022.

Looking at the different types of pets, Pedigree was Amazon’s top dog products brand by units sold (8.08 million). In terms of revenue, however, Purina Pro Plan came out on top at $230.2 million. In terms of cat products, Purina generated the most revenue with its cat food brands Fancy Feast and Friskies, which together resulted in 15.3 million units sold and $283,500 in revenue.

Popular categories

There was also strong growth in subcategories like cat litter and accessories (revenue up 54% at Chewy and 43% at Amazon), cat treats (revenue up 49% at Chewy and 37% at Amazon), dog treats (revenue up 24% at Chewy and 37% at Amazon), and dog flea and tick products (revenue up 45% at Chewy and 26% at Amazon).

One notably fast-growing subcategory at Amazon was dog crates, houses and pens, with revenue up 74% to $290.6 million from November 2021 to November 2022. Leading brands within that category include New World Pet Products (+33%) and Midwest Homes for Pets (+24%). Although still smaller in terms of revenue, the Amazon Basics brand is in hot pursuit (up 407%).

Cameras to watch dogs when they are alone appear to be growing in popularity, with sales at Amazon increasing by 32% to 358,000 units. The e-commerce giant also sold 26% more grooming tools for dogs in the 13-month period, amounting to a revenue of $23.33 million.