(PRESS RELEASE) BOSTON — Ecommerce sales in the household and pet care category are expected to increase by $56.4bn globally by 2025. Amazon is set to lead the growth in this category, ahead of the online pet specialists, according to data from a new report from Edge by Ascential’s research and data insight arm, Retail Insight, The Household & Petcare CPG report.
This new report reveals that ecommerce currently accounts for 19.2% of household and pet care chain retail sales globally, and will increase to 26.9% by 2025. This shift is further accelerated by shifting consumer habits towards online and in-home consumption as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Moreover, data from Edge by Ascential reveals that by the end of 2020, the online share of sales in this category is expected to rise to 8.9% globally, an increase of 2.4% on pre-pandemic levels.
The sector will see rapid growth for ecommerce retailers in particular, with Amazon set to grow the fastest. By 2025, Amazon sales in this category will increase by 11% to reach $27.2bn in sales. This is followed by Alibaba (+12.9% to $25.5bn) and JD.com (+13.8% to $13.7bn). Walmart is still expected to be the global market leader but will grow at a slower rate of 2.8% to reach $37.6bn. Dedicated pet care retailers PetSmart (+10.5% to $20bn) and Zooplus (+10% to $2.5bn) are also set to see strong growth between now and 2025, with Pet Smart’s online platform Chewy.com adding 1.6 million net active customers in Q1 2020.
Florence Wright, senior retail insight analyst at Edge by Ascential, said: “Smaller household sizes, urbanization, aging, along with new social distancing measures have seen a shift in consumer behaviors which now show a heightened preference towards online. This, matched with increased pet ownership and trends around pet humanization (where we see our pets more and more as family members!) has seen ecommerce pet sales skyrocket this year. For this reason, brands must begin to prioritize partnerships with leading ecommerce retailers to best leverage product sales.
In terms of market outlook, the US (1.9%) is set to experience the third biggest uplift in household and pet care sales between pre and post-COVID-19 growth rates in 2020, behind China (4.2%) and Germany (2.9%). Analysts at Edge by Ascential previously forecasted the UK market to decline this year due to Brexit-related economic uncertainty, but this has now been reversed due to changing shopping habits, with growth increasing from -0.3% to 1.6%.
Florence continues: “With big ecommerce players like Amazon, Alibaba and JD.com accelerating their pet care offerings, it’s crucial that pet specialists and retailers ensure they are also on top of shifting consumer trends in the sector, as consumers’ affinity with their pets increase. In order to enhance offerings in-store, brands and retailers should focus on developing experiences and improving and curating exclusive ranges across pet departments to entice shoppers. This should go hand in hand with upgrading supply chain and fulfillment services to support the frictionless experience, particularly in light of the current pandemic.”
Retail Insight analysts also have the following additional predictions for the household and pet care sector post-COVID-19:
Ecommerce sales growth is set to compromise store-based retail, which is set to grow at a rate of 3.5% between 2020-2025. This is below the 13% forecast for growth in ecommerce.
According to data from Edge by Ascential’s Market Share, which helps businesses drive growth and performance on Amazon, total sales of pet supplies on Amazon US have grown 38.2% YoY in the first half of 2020, reaching $3.9bn weekly sales. Sales significantly increased during w/c 15th March spiking at $206.1m as a result of stockpiling. This is almost double the sales generated in the previous weeks.
Within pet supplies on Amazon US, the ‘dogs’ category is the highest selling, reaching sales of $931m in the last 12 weeks ending 2nd August. The next best selling sub-category within pet care is ‘Pet Birthday’, reaching sales of $871.3m in the same period.