LEHI, UTAH — Pattern, a retail analytics platform, released its data on e-commerce pet food and supplies purchases, revealing shifting purchasing behaviors on Amazon. The company analyzed market demand for pet food and supplies during the past three years to measure when consumers do the most online pet shopping and how COVID-19 impacted e-commerce demand.

Overall, Pattern found that demand for pet food and supplies via online remained consistently high throughout 2021, with dog products outranking cat products. COVID-19 caused an increase in online pet product demand, which has continued since, and online demand for pet food reached an all time high in early 2022.

Regarding pet supplies, e-commerce demand spiked during the summer of 2021 and hit its lowest point in December of 2021, according to Pattern, with dog and cat supplies leading demand.

For pet food, Pattern found that demand for both dog and cat foods are quite similar, with dog food remaining higher than cat food. Both cat and dog food witnessed spikes in demand in the spring and fall of 2021. So far for 2022, Pattern has noticed a large increase in demand for both dog and cat food products. According to the company, it has yet to discover what might be driving this large spike in demand.

It’s no secret that COVID-19 has impacted the demand for pet food and supplies overall, as both NielsenIQ and Packaged Facts have noted in their research. Pattern took a deeper look into the impacts to see how e-commerce demand for pet products and food has fared during the past three years.

According to Pattern, e-commerce demand for pet supplies has soared since the start of COVID-19 and continues to soar, with 2022 demand already topping the charts. In 2019, demand spiked in the summer, while demand in 2020 witnessed spikes in spring — when COVID-19 made its way to the United States — and in late fall. Demand in 2021 spiked in the summer.

Taking a closer look at the true effect of COVID-19, Pattern noticed that demand for pet supplies on Amazon soared around the same time as consumers faced lockdowns. According to Pattern, this increase in e-commerce demand for Amazon is a reaction to supermarket and pet stores shutdowns that  happened during the start of the pandemic. Even as supermarkets and pet stores reopened, e-commerce demand has remained high, hitting a low in November and December 2021.

For cat and dog foods, demand also rose at the start of the pandemic, but dropped sharply in April of 2020. According to Pattern, this sharp decrease may be the result of people stocking up on pet food while under lockdown. In 2021, demand started slow but rapidly rose in the fall, while demand for 2022 has, again, already topped the charts.

Keep up with the latest pet food trends on our Trends page.