Using research to identify pet supplement sales opportunities

As product and ingredient brands look to the future, consumer insights can aid those anticipating where pet supplements – and their shoppers – are headed.

Beyond what pet parents have purchased in the past, future-facing research explores why and how they make their pet vitamin and supplement purchases.

The supplement purchaser

Pet supplement purchasers make up nearly a third (32%) of pet parents in the US, according to the last annual survey from Nextin Research by MarketPlace. This subgroup of pet parents is distinguished by several shared motivations and behaviors.

While there are attributes shared among those who purchase pet supplements, further segmentation by pet species and human behaviors can illuminate the nuances within this audience.

Pet supplement purchasers are more likely than average to buy a variety of pet products, with higher reported purchases of pet treats, grooming products and dental care products.

For brands and retailers, this may indicate an opportunity to bundle or merchandise complementary products: an allergy support supplement alongside anti-itch pet shampoo, for example.

Nearly a third of the purchasers report looking for a specific ingredient when buying pet nutrition products. Among pet supplement purchasers, 42% associate probiotics with positive health benefits for pets.

Search engine marketing and packaging design both play a role in helping pet supplement shoppers find the brands and products that contain the ingredients they seek.

What’s the benefit?

Among the pet supplement purchasers, 88% have dogs and 52% have cats, with the overlapping 40% indicating households with both cats and dogs.

The decisions they make for each type of pet are markedly different, even among pet parents with both. “A specific benefit” is the first and most common consideration on a pet owner’s path to purchase.

While skin and coat benefits are commonly sought by both cat and dog supplement buyers, cat parents are twice as likely as dog parents to have purchased a product for urinary and kidney support in the past 12 months.

In contrast, 40% of dog supplement purchasers made joint health product purchases, a 13 percentage point increase compared to joint support purchases for cats.

Information and influence

Pet supplement purchasers spend time researching pet health and nutrition topics. In addition to consulting veterinarians, friends and family members, they seek pet health inspiration and information from online searches (55%) and online reviews (42%).

They are also more likely than average to seek information about ingredients. More than half (54%) reported researching vitamins and/or minerals in the previous 12 months, a 16 percentage point increase compared to the overall US pet audience.

While conventional search engines like Google are used by a majority of pet supplement purchasers, there are a number of other online touchpoints through which brands can connect with consumers.

A notable subgroup (39%) of pet supplement purchasers seek pet-related inspiration and information from YouTube.

YouTube and video content

The YouTube subsegment is more likely to also get inspiration and information from Instagram (47%), TV (45%) and TikTok (39%), indicating a greater inclination toward video content formats.

For brands who use video assets in their marketing, leveraging these across multiple platforms may aid in recall and reach.

Topics of interest to pet supplement purchasers include cannabidiol/CBD (40%) and vitamins and/or minerals (64%), both of which the YouTube audience was more likely than average to have spent at least an hour researching in the past year.

Although identified by their use of the online video- sharing platform, more than half (56%) of the YouTube audience reported making a purchase at a pet specialty store in the past year (56%), 11 percentage points higher than the average pet supplement purchaser.

Learning about shopping habits

Pet parents who purchase supplements are most likely to shop at Amazon, online pet retailer Chewy, mass retail stores and pet specialty stores.

They’re notably more likely (+15 percentage points) to purchase pet products from Chewy than the average US pet parent.

And these pet consumers are also more likely to shop at multiple retail channels for pet-related purchases.

In addition to what pet supplement purchasers buy and where they consume content, how they shop can inform a deeper understanding of this audience.

These behaviors could indicate a motivation and willingness to seek out and stick with pet products they value, even if it means visiting multiple stores and websites to do so.

The bricks-and-mortar shopper

According to Nextin’s 2024 consumer data, 83% of pet supplement purchasers have bought pet products in bricks-and-mortar stores in the previous 12 months, whether mass retail, pet specialty, club or grocery.

But these consumers don’t only shop at physical stores: more than half of the bricks-and-mortar shoppers also reported purchasing pet products from e-commerce sites Chewy (58%) and Amazon (53%).

This bricks-and-mortar subsegment is distinguished by more than where they shop. For retail buyers seeking opportunities to expand, consider that 53% of these shoppers have also purchased pet dental products in the past 12 months.

So placing pet dental within the eye line of pet supplement shoppers could be a path to optimizing your shelf space.

The online shopper

Of those who purchase pet supplements, 55% reported making an online pet product purchase in the previous 12 months.

In addition to supplements, this audience was more likely than average to have purchased products for pet grooming, dental care and waste management, such as litter box supplies or dog waste bags.

Every respondent within this online shopper subsegment reported seeking pet health inspiration and information from online searches in the past 12 months, underscoring the importance of search engine optimization and marketing efforts for brands seeking to grow online sales.

Anticipating the category’s future

While purchase data is valuable when assessing current market size and the attributes of past product purchases, its retrospective focus on products that are already on the market can lack innovation-driving insights.

For those seeking to meet an unmet need or otherwise disrupt a category through innovation, consumer research can help bridge past behaviors, current values and motivations, and future aspirations, to provide valuable insight.