The Growing Pet Wellness Market: Trends and Opportunities for Retailers

By Matt Simon, Executive Director, Retail 

Ask any pet parent and they’ll likely agree: The saying “you’re only as happy as your saddest child” doesn’t just apply to the parents of humans. Our Shopper Insights Survey found 86% of respondents in households with a dog or a cat said their pets contribute to their overall wellness. 72% said owning a pet contributes to their overall mental health, 40% said pets provide social support, and 37% said having a pet contributes to physical activity.

Pet parents are increasingly committed to reciprocating the sense of well-being they get from their pets by helping them live long and healthy lives. We see this in pet insurance growth — the total number of insured pets grew 17% over 2023, according to the North American Pet Health Insurance Association — and in the expansion of the pet wellness market. 

In the pet care aisle alone, we estimate health and wellness to be a $3 billion market covering products and services such as vitamins, supplements, medicine, grooming, and flea and tick treatments. The pet health and wellness department accounts for just 4% of the overall pet care business today. But that doesn’t include many categories consumers see as essential to their pet’s wellness, such as healthy food, treats, toys, and functional food ingredients. 

While the pet wellness market continues to evolve and grow, there’s an opportunity for specialty pet, grocery, and club retailers to help consumers keep their pets healthy, happy, and active, but there are also significant challenges and trends to watch out for. 

Growth areas in pet wellness

The pet health and wellness aisle, along with pet care overall, surged during the pandemic when families, led by millennials and Gen Z, adopted dogs and cats in droves. The market has since stabilized. Pet health and wellness dollar sales were up 2%, while overall pet care was flat versus a year ago, for the 52 weeks ending in mid-August 2024. Unit growth in health and wellness has been driven from outside the pet specialty channel over the last year. We’ve also found the pet care department is flat versus a year ago with food, litter, and supplements (+9%), medicines (+3%), and flea and tick (+5%) all outpacing department growth. 

Although pet food isn’t typically part of the health and wellness aisle, consumers consider what they feed their pets to be the top priority contributing to their wellness. When asked what a healthy diet means for their pet, the top two consumer responses were functional ingredients, including probiotics and vitamins, and all-natural foods. What’s more, Gen Z and younger millennials value fresh or human-grade food more than older generations of pet owners. And while refrigerated and frozen pet food is only 4% of overall pet food, it continues to grow year over year.

Cost barriers for pet consumers

62% of people own some type of pet, but 73% of all Gen Z and younger millennialsown a pet. The enthusiasm young consumers have for pet ownership is good news, but it does createsome challenges for the industry around cost. Overall pet ownership costs have risen significantly in recent years. According to a U.S. News and World Report survey, at least 76% of pet owners say they went into debt to save their pet’s life, owing  $2,632 on average. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the price of urban veterinary services increased almost 8% between February of 2023 and 2024, while inflation has driven up the cost of other pet supplies. 

These costs create hardships for pet owners of all ages, but younger consumers with less disposable income may feel the burden most acutely as they wrestle with educational debt, soaring rent and housing costs, and lower salaries. To reach these cost-conscious consumers, retailers may need to lean into private label brands, particularly when it comes to fresh and refrigerated pet foods. We’ve found 57% of dog and cat owners cannot provide the most optimal diet for their pet because they feel it’s too expensive, and 16% of younger millennial and Gen Z pet owners report the optimal diet is not available where they shop.

As Circana found in our recent global well-being report, consumers have widened their scope in terms of what they believe contributes to their wellness. Caring for their pets, and feeling cared for in return, was among the 55 ways we identified how consumers activate their well-being. Retailers have an opportunity and a role to play here. They can create solution endcaps and displays that mix a variety of pet wellness products, from supplements to grooming, to nutritious foods based on their life stage, to demonstrate how consumers can reduce expenses while caring for their pets.