Number of U.S. households buying pet products in store or online 2013-2018

In 2018, over 13 million households in the United States stated that they bought pet products online, while about 60 million reportedly bought such products in retail stores. Between 2016 and 2018, the number of online pet product buyers grew by over five million.

Online pet product buying options

In 2018, a little over a third of all pet care sales were made at mass/dollar/club stores in the United States. Just over ten percent of all pet care product sales were made through e-commerce, making it the smallest purchase channel in terms of actual sales. When buying products online, there can be a plethora of buying options at one’s disposal. One could for example make use of subscription-based services: in 2019, about ten percent of cat and dog owners in the United States made use of online subscription or auto-ship services in order to purchase pet treats.

Most common pets in the U.S.

By far the most common pets found in American households were dogs and cats respectively in the financial year of 2019/2020. That year, over 60 million households in the country had a dog, while just over 40 million owned a cat. About four and a half million households owned a reptilian pet.