Analysis: European pet retail reflects uneven economic recovery

The latest data from Eurostat, the European Union’s statistical office, points to a short-term slowdown in retail activity across Europe. In June, seasonally adjusted retail trade volume decreased by 0.3% in the euro area and by 0.1% in the EU compared with the previous month.

Despite this monthly decline, retail trade volume in the EU was 1.2% higher than in June 2025, pointing to a broader recovery in retail activity that could also benefit the pet sector.

Looking at online retail, and more specifically pet e-commerce, growth also remains uneven across Europe. While e-commerce in Spain is showing significant, near-double-digit growth, Germany is expanding more moderately, following strong growth in 2025 and coming from a higher base.

Meanwhile, overall retail sales in the Nordic countries illustrate how broader macroeconomic conditions influence category-specific trends, with the pet sector broadly following general retail trajectories in both Denmark and Finland.

Germany 

E-commerce revenue in the country for pet supplies grew by 2.5% year-over-year (YoY) in Q1 2026. Between January and March, the category saw €572 million ($650M) in sales, according to the German E-Commerce and Distance Selling Trade Association (bevh).

In Q1 2025, online revenue in the category hit €558 million ($634M).

However, Q1 growth for pet supplies was lower than in 2025, when it registered the third-largest uptick at 5%. The category also grew below the average for e-commerce goods in general (3.6%), driven by increases of more than 10% YoY in groceries and drugstores. 

Total goods revenue amounted to €20.7 billion ($23.5B). This was the second-largest quarterly growth since Q2 2025 (3.8%). Although the association celebrates the positive numbers, it classifies the recovery as “subdued.” Online services revenue in the period surpassed €3 billion ($3.4B), registering a 6.8% yearly surge.

Channel performance 

According to bevh, in terms of channels, the performance of retailers varied “considerably,” with pure-play online shops delivering a modest 0.6% rise, multichannel brick-and-mortar retailers increasing by 3.9% and online marketplaces expanding by 5.2%.

Chinese-owned online marketplaces saw a marked increase in the period (12.9%). “While this is significantly less than the 33.9% increase in the same period a year ago, Temu, Shein and AliExpress are still growing 4 times faster than the overall online retail sector in Germany,” the association highlights.

The growth of online shopping runs counter to the industry as a whole, which shrank in the country last year, pointing to a digital transformation of pet spending.

More recent data from the German Pet Trade & Industry Association (ZZF) and the Industrial Association of Pet Care Producers (IVH) show that the pet market in the country reached €6.99 billion ($8.2B), slightly down from €7 billion ($8.2B) in 2024.

Spain 

E-commerce of seeds, flowers, plants and pets amounted to €127.3 million ($144.8M) in the fourth quarter of 2025. This represents a 16.3% YoY jump, according to Spain’s National Commission for Markets and Competition. 

The figure represents the second-largest quarter revenue, behind only Q2 2025, but with a small difference of less than €1,500 ($1,700). For the whole year, sales in the category amounted to €488 million ($555.3M), and grew 14.9% from 2024. 

In Q4, 59.5% of revenue came from transactions from Spain to international markets, 33.2% from within the country, and 7.3% from international sales to Spain. Internal e-commerce and international sales from Spain grew in share YoY, representing 29.7% and 6.6% of revenue in Q1 2024, respectively. 

Across all categories of goods and services, e-commerce in Q4 was €31.4 billion ($35.7B), with 57.8% from transactions from Spain to other countries, 31.3% from sales within the country, and 10.9% from sales from outside to Spain.

Denmark

Retail sales of pet animals and pet food in Denmark totaled DKK 382 million ($58.2M/€51.1M) in Q1 2026, representing a 9.1% increase from the same period last year. Of this revenue, 99.7% comes from domestic sales, according to Statistics Denmark.

The government agency also releases a retail turnover index by industry, which grew 1.75% from January to May for retail sales of pets and pet equipment. Additionally, the average index for the first 5 months of 2026 is 3.7% higher than the same period last year, indicating that, despite monthly fluctuations, the pet trade is stronger overall. 

The retail trade category has a higher index of 122 for May, having increased 3.4% from the previous year.

Finland

Finland is moving in the opposite direction to its neighbors. Store sales of pet and related products totaled €84.2 million ($96M) in the first quarter, down 7.6% from the previous year. However, this drop is smaller than the 7.8% fall in total sales.

The decline reflects a broader trend. The Finnish economy grew by 0.9% in the first quarter, driven by jumps in investment and exports, but marked by a decline in employment and hours worked. 

Even with the decline, the category is more protected than the overall average, showing that resilience still plays its role amid a crisis.