In recognition of National Dog Day, Slice Intelligence is unleashing data about how pet owners pamper their four-legged friends through online shopping. Slice found that online spending on cat and dog supplies is up 67 percent from July 2015 to July 2016. These pet-friendly shoppers spent ruff-ly $40 per order on products for dogs and cats.
Spending on pet food is the main driver for the entire pet category. Revenue generated from pet food sales grew by 121 percent since the beginning of 2015. Data also shows that 57 percent of all online cat and dog spending is on their food.
Is the nation more demo-cat or ruff-publican?
The one debate that divides the nation perhaps more than this year's presidential election is the historical schism between cat and dog owners. So, is the U.S. more team canine or feline? The data has gone to the dogs--there are 1.4 times as many online shoppers who buy dog products as people who purchase cat supplies.
Slice examined the state-level buying trends to find which of the 50 are most dog-loving by comparing the ratio of online shoppers who buy dog products to those who buy cat supplies. The following color-coded map shows each state's pet preference.
Interestingly this map looks very familiar to politicos as most states' pet preferences mirror the region's political leanings. Dog states are generally concentrated in the American South and Mountain West, while New York and many northern states lean cat. South Dakota has the highest proportion of dog buyers; for every online buyer of cat products in South Dakota there are 2.6 dog-supply purchasers. Somewhat curiously, its northwestern neighbor, Montana, is the most cat friendly, with 71 percent more cat supply buyers than dog buyers in the state.
Dog buyers dominate the major U.S. cities
Dog buyers dominate online pet shopping in the country's largest cities. Dallas, Texas is one of the most pro-dog cities in the United States, where there's over two times as many shoppers who buy dog gear as cat supplies. Here's the dog-to-cat buyer breakdown for the major U.S. cities:
About this data
With a panel of over 4 million online shoppers, Slice Intelligence gives the most detailed, and accurate digital commerce data available, and is reported daily.
Slice Intelligence is the only service to measure digital commerce directly from the consumer, across all retailers, at the item level, and over time. Our retailer-independent methodology precisely measures commerce as it happens. By extracting detailed information from hundreds of millions of aggregated and anonymized e-receipts, Slice can map the entire Purchase Graph, connecting each and every consumer to all their purchases.
Slice gets its data from e-receipts – not a browser, app or software installed by the end-user – so its measurement reflects comprehensive shopping behavior across multiple devices, over time which are key in an increasingly omnichannel retail world. Slice Intelligence is the exclusive e-commerce data provider for the NPD’s Checkout Tracking e-commerce service.