Pet Product Sales on Amazon Reach $2B

Amazon’s purchase usage penetration among pet owners as also grown to 32 percent, surpassing Petco’s user breadth and intruding on PetSmart’s.

NORTH AMERICA–As of 2016, online sales of pet products accounted for roughly 9 percent of the $48 billion industry, and Amazon is leading the way, reaching $2 billion in pet product sales in 2016, according to market research publisher Packaged Facts.

Packaged Facts’ findings are part of its newest report, U.S. Pet Market Focus: The Amazon Pet Food and Supplies Shopper.

According to the study, pet products are among the fastest-growing online retail categories, reporting a 45 percent growth over two years in the number of adults purchasing pet products online in the past three months. This trend is also reflected in Amazon’s pet product sales, which were up 40 percent from 2015.

Furthermore, over the course of three years, Amazon’s purchase usage penetration among pet owners has grown 19 percent to 32 percent, surpassing Petco’s user breadth (25 percent) and intruding on PetSmart’s (32 percent). However, the number of pet owners buying products from Petco and PetSmart, who also purchase from Amazon, has grown. At least 36 percent of Petco and PetSmart users now shop at Amazon, according to Packaged Facts.

Additionally, Packaged Facts believes that the e-commerce giant is capitalizing on a critical growth trend in the U.S. pet market and has the potential to become an even more formidable presence among the online pet market.

“The fact is online sales of pet products are at a tipping point,” says David Sprinkle, research director, Packaged Facts. “For all players–brick-and-mortar, multi-channel and online-only alike–the good news is that the market itself continues to grow. However, the sheer size of the Amazon user base, coupled with its aggressive growth, huge Amazon Prime membership base, burgeoning ability to meet any and every product need within that category and an Amazon Prime value proposition that is very hard to beat, make Amazon both very threatening and very intriguing.”

Packaged Facts also recently reported that toy sales in the pet care category surpassed $1 billion in the U.S. in 2016, up from $851 million in 2011, and reflecting a growing consumer demand for the category.