Veterinary Services in the U.S.: Competing for the Pet Care Customer, 3rd Edition

Across the pet industry a uniform focus on animal health has spearheaded the most important marketing and product development thrusts, driven by pet humanization and pet parents’ heavy involvement in pet care. This metatrend has included pet parent insistence on – and willingness to pay for – quality services and products that offer demonstrable health benefits on par with what they seek for themselves. With human health concerns elevated in the face of COVID-19, pet owners’ heightened focus on the health of their fur children has been a natural side effect, especially as they rely even more heavily on their pets for companionship and comfort.

Focusing on dog and cat owners, this new report from U.S. pet market research leader Packaged Facts provides a comprehensive and in-depth look at the competitive dynamics surrounding the veterinary care customer:

• perspective on pet ownership rates in wake of COVID-19
• veterinary care usage patterns, customer priorities, and demographics
• trends and opportunities in intersecting service markets: non-medical pet care services (such as grooming, boarding, and training) and medical coverage (including pet insurance and wellness plans)
• trends and opportunities in intersecting product markets: pet medications, pet supplements, and pet food.

The information contained in this report was obtained from primary and secondary research. Primary research includes national online consumer surveys of U.S. adult pet owners (age 18+) conducted through January 2022 by Packaged Facts, to measure usage patterns and attitudes regarding veterinary services and intersecting service and product markets. Primary research also includes consultation and information exchange with vet market experts and veterinary association professionals, partly in conjunction with presenting Packaged Facts research at veterinary industry events including VMX, UVSA Annual Conference, VMAE Summer Conference, AVMA Economic Summit, NAVC E-Commerce Summit, and the KC Animal Health Corridor Market Insight Seminar.

Secondary research includes information- and data-gathering from business and trade publications, company reports and literature, and information culled from Packaged Facts’ extensive pet and vet market research database and report collection. Our analysis of veterinary care customer and pet ownership trends relies in part on cross-tabulations of data compiled by MRI-Simmons, New York, NY, including the Fall 2021 study release.