The online flea and tick market: when is best to strike?

In a category characterized by seasonality, understanding website search and traffic trends is critical for pet care brands.

PETS International analyzes digital engagement across 4 markets, revealing key insights that can help brands capitalize on the monthly trends.

Pet specialists vs big tech

Data for the flea and tick segment provided by data aggregation company Similarweb reveals a number of interesting trends in online consumer behavior in the US, UK, Germany and France. Based on website traffic, clear market leaders emerge in each country.

Across all the markets – unsurprisingly – the figures show Amazon’s strong influence, primarily due to its wide product range, aggressive pricing and brand trust.

Pet specialists like Pets at Home (UK), Zooplus (France and Germany) and Fressnapf (Germany), doubtless offer a more specialized shopping experience, but attract less traffic volume online.

United States

– Amazon leads the pack

With 24 million visits in September 2024, Amazon clearly leads traffic volume in the flea and tick category, followed by Chewy with just over 1 million.

Amazon consistently attracts unique visitors, ranging between 14.4 and 20.7 million from 2021 to 2024 – greatly surpassing the other sites. Amazon’s engagement is also high, with 3.44 pages per visit in the flea and tick segment as of September 2024.

The figures according to the Similarweb insights do, however, show fluctuations.

For example, Amazon recorded the lowest number of unique visitors in the flea and tick category in February 2024 (14.4 million). Yet, this is still higher than those of the other sites.

– Visitor activity elsewhere

Chewy experienced 1.2 million visits in September 2024 (although its peak is 1.4 million visits, in July 2024) and over 3 million page views. With decent traffic and engagement (2.53 pages per visit in September 2024), Chewy stands out for its sustained growth.

PetSmart has just under 1 million page views (955,038) and Petco slightly fewer at 827,392 as of September 2024.

In 2024, PetSmart saw the most fluctuations, with unique visitors ranging from 188,948 in February to 338,874 in July. Despite getting fewer visits than Petco and Chewy, PetSmart makes up for it with stronger user engagement, as its 3.05 pages per visit in September 2024 demonstrate.

Petco has shown minor fluctuations across the months of the year, with unique visitors ranging from 308,785 to 381,012 in 2024. The lack of significant spikes or dips indicates a stable audience base, although it registers lower engagement than the other sites.

United Kingdom

– Most visits to Amazon

From September 2021 to September 2024, amazon.co.uk received 151.7 million visits, making it the dominant platform for flea and tick product sales.

Its closest competitor, Pets at Home, saw 8.6 million visits in the same period, followed by smaller pet medication players such as VioVet and Pet Drugs Online.

Amazon attracts a much higher number of unique visitors each month (an average of around 2.4 million over 2021-2024, with a maximum of 3.8 million in January 2021), while Pets at Home shows a fluctuating pattern – unique visitors ranged between 95,066 and 233,589 in the period 2021-2024.

Both sites experience the seasonal effects of flea and tick products, with a dip in unique visitors in February.

– Engaged Pets at Home users

Amazon’s pages per visit across the 2021-2024 period (3.3 on average) remain relatively stable, suggesting that users engage with multiple pages each time.

Interestingly, despite Pets at Home’s fewer visits and unique visitors, engagement in the flea and tick section appears to be around 2.87 pages per visit.

This suggests that its user base is highly engaged, and its niche and specialized content encourages users to spend more time browsing multiple pages.

Germany

– Amazon strong in 2024

With high traffic to its site (the highest, in July 2024, was 216,220 visits) and strong engagement (2.86 pages per visit), Amazon also leads the flea and tick segment in Germany.

Users are highly engaged, viewing nearly 3 pages per visit and generating nearly half a million page views, making it ideal for large-scale campaigns.

Looking at the whole period running from September 2021 to September 2024, Amazon drew the highest number of unique visitors in 2024, with numbers ranging from 32,520 in January to 129,074 in July, according to the Similarweb data.

– Home-grown platforms

Over the 4-year period, visits to Zooplus range between 15,156 and 68,528. Growth is achieved in the early months, typically peaking in July.

The stabilization that follows shows the platform’s dynamism and growth potential. Zooplus shows good user engagement, right behind Amazon, with an average 2.72 pages per visit.

Fressnapf has the smallest number of unique visitors, with 3,519 in January 2024 and 13,856 in September 2024. It sees consistent growth across the different months, albeit at a slower pace than Zooplus and Amazon.

For brands catering to a more specific and niche audience, Fressnapf offers a smaller but engaged user base.

France

– Amazon way out in front

Amazon dominates the online flea and tick market in France, with as many as 60.15 million visits between September 2021 and September 2024.

Here again, Zooplus is trailing far behind, attracting 4.22 million visits over the same period.

– Seasonal fluctuations

Zooplus saw a peak in March 2022 at 105,583 visitors, but experienced a significant drop in September 2024, hitting a low of 35,975.

Amazon, however, maintained a larger visitor base with more consistent traffic, peaking at 1.45 million visitors in July 2024.

Seasonality and external market conditions likely influenced these trends.

Amazon US sales data

Value sales data for flea and tick products on Amazon in the US accounted for $31.3 million (€28.9M) for dogs, and $19.4 million (€17.9M) for cats in August 2024.

This market segment also experienced notable shifts – for both dog and cat items – in seasonal fluctuations and overall growth.

Analyzing monthly sales data from Similarweb for September 2022 to September 2024 reveals key trends and an overview of how the market for products like these has recently evolved on Amazon.

Flea and tick product sales show a clear seasonality pattern, with significant peaks during the warmer months of spring and summer. Sales consistently rise between March and August, corresponding to the period when flea and tick activity is at its highest.

Patterns in cat and dog products

In 2023, sales of flea and tick products for dogs surged from $11.8 million (€10.9M) in January to $42 million (€38.8M) in May, reflecting strong demand that continued through June and July.

A similar pattern was seen in 2024 where, in March, dog product sales rose considerably from $16.9 million (€15.6M) in February to $33.8 million (€31.2M), going on to reach a new high in May – $41.9 million (€38.7M).

As well as these seasonal peaks in sales, there are also notable dips. This is particularly in colder months such as December and January, when sales were at their lowest – $13.2 million (€12.2M) and $11 million (€10.2M) respectively.

The cat flea and tick market also fluctuates but, all in all, good sales performance has been reported. In fact, between February and July 2024 sales almost trebled, going from $9.2 million (€8.5M) to a peak of $24 million (€22.2M) in July, showing the strong seasonal demand.