The Pet Retail Category is Dominated By a Non-Pet Brand

The bottom line up front

The brand that dominates the pet retail category isn’t a pet brand at all. Walmart commands nearly ~28% of mental market share, more than PetSmart and Chewy combined. The specialists have built strong recall in pet-specific moments — grooming visits, subscription deliveries, expert advice — but those moments account for a fraction of actual shopping occasions. The category’s defining tension: most pet supply purchases happen during a regular shopping trip or a price search, and the generalists win both. For the specialists, the path to growth isn’t more awareness — it’s intercepting the routine.

The Pet Retail Category Today

Walmart is the front door to pet supplies, and it isn’t close. With ~28% Mental Market Share, Walmart holds nearly double the next-closest competitor (PetSmart at ~15%) and commands the broadest recall across virtually every purchase situation. It leads on price searches (~68% brand association), regular shopping trips (~70%), and even dedicated pet runs (~49%). Its mental presence is deepest among lower-income households (MMS ~34% vs ~15% for $100K+), but it leads in every income tier, every region, and every age group.

The pet specialists compete on depth, not breadth. PetSmart, Chewy, and Petco form a tight second tier (~10–15% MMS each) but carve out different niches. PetSmart owns the in-store service occasion — ~52% associate it with grooming and vet services, and ~51% with wide product selection. Chewy dominates digital convenience — ~50% link it to online ordering and ~47% to auto-delivery subscriptions. Petco trails both but holds respectable recall across multiple CEPs, particularly among younger and higher-income buyers. Amazon plays a hybrid role: strong on online ordering (~59%) and fast delivery (~49%), but with surprisingly modest MMS (~10%) given its universal brand presence.

Several brands are under-recalled relative to their physical footprint. Target, Costco, and Sam’s Club all have broad awareness (42–50%) but thin mental market share (3–6%). Target’s ~49% aided awareness translates to just ~6% MMS — a brand that’s known as a store but not thought of as a pet destination. Costco shows a similar gap, suggesting growth is available through activation, not reinvention.

Pet ownership is at a modern high, expanding the addressable market. Per MCI data, ~76% of U.S. adults live in dog-owning households and ~59% in cat-owning households — the latter climbing roughly 8 points since 2018. This is a growing, engaged category, not a mature one.

Who Are Pet Retail Buyers?

How Segments Differ

The core structure holds across demographics. What changes is the balance of power between generalists and specialists.

Income: Walmart’s MMS surges to ~34% among under-$50K households vs ~15% for $100K+. PetSmart and Costco flip in the other direction — PetSmart rises to ~17% MMS and Costco to ~8% among affluent buyers. The specialist opportunity is concentrated upmarket; the generalist dominates downmarket.

Age: Younger buyers (18–34) show the highest mental penetration for specialists — Petco at ~85% penetration and PetSmart at ~89%, both well above their 65+ levels. But these younger buyers also show higher Network Size scores, meaning they’re linking brands to more occasions. Associations are being formed now; loyalty follows.

Region: Walmart’s MMS peaks in the South (~33%) and Midwest (~32%) and dips in the West (~19%) and Northeast (~24%). PetSmart is strongest in the West (~17% MMS); Amazon overperforms in the West (~15% MMS vs ~10% nationally). The South and Midwest are Walmart territory; the coasts are where specialists compete most effectively.

What's Blocking Conversion

Why This Matters Now

“Don’t fight Walmart on its turf.” The routine shopping trip and price-search occasions are structurally Walmart’s. Specialists that try to compete on everyday value will lose. The growth lever for PetSmart, Chewy, and Petco is to make the non-routine occasions — subscriptions, grooming, expert advice, curated selection — feel essential rather than optional.

“The subscription moat is Chewy’s to lose.” Chewy owns ~47% of auto-delivery associations, but subscription salience is only ~9%. If Chewy can increase the share of pet owners who see subscriptions as a default behavior rather than a convenience upgrade, its narrow depth becomes broad lock-in. The audience is already digitally native and Amazon Prime-habituated — the muscle memory exists.

“Physical retail is an experience play, not a convenience play.” PetSmart’s strongest positions — grooming, expert advice, wide selection — are service-driven, not transaction-driven. The ~52% grooming association is a genuine moat. But service triggers represent only ~8% of purchase occasions. Converting those service visits into routine supply purchases is the conversion multiplier.

“Breadth beats depth — but so does interception.” Walmart’s dominance rests on being where the shopper already is. The specialist opportunity is not to build more awareness but to intercept the routine at a different point — via subscription before the store trip, via curbside before the Walmart run, via loyalty rewards that make the dedicated trip feel more rewarding than the add-on.

About this research

Morning Consult conducts over 30,000 daily proprietary surveys in 45 countries covering more than 5,000 brands and 50 economic indicators. 

Our category advantage research is aimed at understanding the needs driving consumers in your category — and how your brand can own more of them. This research is built on validated principles of brand-driven growth and powered by Morning Consult’s industry-leading sampling technology.

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