China pet nutrition Consumption Report 2024

I. The pet nutrition market continues to rise, and pet owners' preferences are gradually diversified.

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Pet nutrition market continues to rise, the growth rate is relatively stable

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The market scale of urban pet (dog and cat) nutrition products continues to grow, reaching 7.22 billion yuan in 2023, an increase of 26.7% over 2022. Among them, the pet dog nutrition market size was 3.59 billion yuan, an increase of 24.4% over 2022, and the pet cat nutrition market size was 3.63 billion yuan, an increase of 29.2% over 2021.

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Pet owners tend to buy nutrition products for pets in a diversified and functional way

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The types of nutrition products purchased by pet owners for pets are mainly distributed in TOP4. Among them, the preference of gastrointestinal conditioning and enhanced immune products was similar, accounting for 40.7% and 40.6%, respectively. The preference degree of calcium supplement for bone and skin care for hair was similar, accounting for 37.6% and 37.1% respectively. In addition, pet owners are also more concerned about their pets' mouths, and the proportion of nutrition products purchased for oral care is 30.7%.

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Nutritional products are "snacking" in pet owners' cognition

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At present, pet owners' positioning of pet nutrition is relatively vague, 52.0% of pet owners believe that nutrition can be used as a snack in addition to supplement nutrition. In addition, the increasing need for "snacking" means that nutrition products need to better balance the relationship between nutritional supplement, nutritional properties, portability and palatability.

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Pet owners tend to buy nutrition products rationally, and "stockpiling" is no longer a trend

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28.1% of pet owners choose to buy once every two months, 26.9% of pet owners choose to buy once a month, 17.4% of pet owners choose to buy more than once a month, 13.9% of pet owners choose to buy once every three months. The proportion of those who choose to stock up is relatively low, at 9.4%. The average monthly consumption of pet owners to buy nutrition products is mainly 101-300 yuan. Among them, the proportion of those who chose 101-200 yuan was 27.2%, and the proportion who chose 201-300 yuan was 24.8%.

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II. In the era of fine feeding, demand stratification deserves attention.

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In the young stage, the main purpose of feeding nutrition is to improve the pet's resistance, immunity and promote growth and development.

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Forty percent of dog owners and 55.6 percent of cat owners feed their pets nutrition during infancy. Among them, 40.4% of the pet owners fed nutrition products to enhance the baby's resistance, 39.3% of the pet owners to improve the baby's immune system, 34.4% of the pet owners to promote the baby pet growth and development, 31.9% of the pet owners to supplement vitamins for the baby pet, 30.2% of the pet owners to improve the baby pet hair. 22.7% of pet owners do it to help relieve environmental stress.

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Owners of first-line and second-line dogs tend to feed enhanced immune nutrition, while owners of third-line and below urban dogs tend to feed skincare and hair-grooming nutrition.

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The feeding structure of dog owners in first-tier and second-tier cities is the same in adult dog stage, and calcium and bone strengthening, gastrointestinal conditioning and immune strengthening are the main nutritional categories for feeding. The proportion of dog owners in cities below the third line feeding skin care and grooming nutrition was relatively high, accounting for 44.1%. In addition to gastrointestinal conditioning and immunization supplements, first-line cat owners tended to feed skin-care and hair-enhancing supplements, accounting for 31.5%, and second-line, third-line and below urban cat owners tended to feed hair-enhancing products, accounting for 24.1% and 34.6%, respectively.

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Probiotics are Top1 pet nutrition products

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In summary, the main nutritional products fed by dog owners and cat owners in the childhood and adult stages of their pets are probiotics, ranking first.

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In addition, in addition to probiotics, among the nutritional products fed to dogs and cats during their infancy, the proportion of dog owners feeding formula milk was relatively high, accounting for 18.4%. The proportion of cat owners feeding hair cream was relatively high (18.7%).

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In the adult period of dogs and cats, dog owners will feed nutritional products such as vitamin tablets in the adult period of pet dogs. In addition to feeding hair cream, cat owners will feed fish oil, nutritional cream nutritional products.

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III. "Confusion about product choice" has become the main consumption pain point of pet owners.

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"Confusion about product selection" is the main problem that pet owners encounter in the adult pet stage

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In the adult pet stage, in addition to price sensitivity, the main problem of pet owners is the nutrition product itself. 17.4 percent chose a lack of product introduction, and 14.9 percent did not know how to choose due to a large number of brands. The proportion of uncertain product effect was 14.0%. About 6.8% were concerned about product safety. The proportion of the results were not obvious or inconsistent with the reality was 5.5%. Lack of professional guidance, do not know how to feed accounted for 1.3%.

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Increasing promotional activities and improving product cost performance are the primary recommendations for pet owners when feeding adult pets

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In the adult pet stage, 27.2% of pet owners suggested increasing promotional activities to improve the cost performance. 19.5% of pet owners suggested improving product quality to ensure food safety. 16.0% of pet owners suggested special guidance to better understand the product. In addition, pet owners are also more concerned about the supervision of the current nutrition market, and 2.2% of pet owners suggest improving the market supervision system.

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For middle-aged and elderly pets, pet owners are more concerned about the information introduction and effect of nutrition products

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When pet owners buy nutrition products for middle-aged and elderly pets, unclear product introduction and uncertain product effects are the main consumption pain points, accounting for 14.8% and 12.5%, respectively. In addition, 8.5% of pet owners believed that the dose of nutrition was difficult to control. 5.1% of pet owners are concerned about the safety and side effects of nutritional supplements. 1.8% of pet owners believe that the effect of feeding nutrition is not obvious or inconsistent with the reality. 1.5% of pet owners believed that nutrition lacked feeding instructions for different age groups.

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IV. How to do a good job in market education under the replacement of channels?

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Pet doctors and pet shops are the main channels for pet owners to obtain nutritional information

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The main channels for pet owners to obtain nutrition information were recommendations from pet doctors and pet shops, accounting for 47.1% and 44.8%, respectively. It was followed by friend recommendation and media channel acquisition, accounting for 35.8% and 30.5% respectively. The proportion of online inquiry is relatively low, which is 24.6%.

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Douyin has become the first online information channel

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Among the online channels, Douyin surpassed Taobao as the primary information channel to obtain nutrition products, but the gap was small, accounting for 59.6% and 57.4%, respectively. Followed by Little Red Book, JD, accounting for 44.1%, 43.1%. Kuaishou, Zhihu, Baidu accounted for a relatively low proportion, accounting for about 27%.