Let’s cut right to the heart of what’s going on with the pet industry and why it’s a great industry to invent in. I will be sharing my personal experience from attending the pet industry trade show SuperZoo year after year, my experience with inventRight members who are licensing in this industry, as well as some truly amazing pet industry statistics.
If this first conversation doesn’t drive the point home, I don’t know what does. I talked to a manager for a dog toy company at last year’s Super Zoo that said he’s been in the pet industry for over 20 years, and he’s seen it grow year after year for the last 20 years!
So I looked into the statistics for the pet industry. It’s growing by leaps and bounds. This year’s 2023 Super Zoo and industry statistics show no sign of slowing up. There is nothing but growth in this industry.
It was growing before the pandemic, and after the pandemic it got a huge jolt. 66% of U.S. households own a pet in 2023! Every year this figure seems to grow. I knew a lot of people have pet’s but i no idea this many did.
The vast majority of pet owners consider their pets family. And pet owners are treating their family’s well with 43% of pet owners prioritizing their pet’s food more than they value their own.
At this year’s 2023 Super Zoo and at every Super Zoo, one thing that really jumps out at anyone attending for the first time is the huge amount of pet food options available. About 60% of the show is food and the rest is toys, utilitarian items such as crates or leashes, beds, ramps, pet care and grooming, wearables and tech.
Fun fact. Did you know that Americans spent $490 million on Halloween costumes for their pets?
That same manager at the dog toy company said this to me. Pet food drives this industry. It’s consumable and there is big money there. Our dog toys are “extras” to retailers, but we make a very good living on “the extra”.
In the 24 years we’ve been coaching product developers at inventRight, I have only known one of our students to work on a dog treat or food. If you are working on dog food or treats, there is a lot of opportunity, but most of you aren’t. Fortunately for you, all the other categories I mentioned are booming as well.
The global pet market is worth 261 billion dollars.
Just the global natural pet food market is 22.8 billion.
Now let’s talk tech.
The Pet Industry Market Is Set To Grow At A 22% Compound Annual Growth Rate From Now Until 2027!
I interviewed Jacob Zuppke, CEO of Whisker, at the 2023 SuperZoo show last week. They employ 585 people and have 700,000 users registered on their app and 1.4 million litter robots out in the field. They have a litter robot and feeder robot for cats. I was amazed at how much business this company is doing. Tech for pets is here and it’s big!
Take a look at my interview with Jacob here.
He talks about his company and why he thinks the pet industry is great industry to innovate in.
Then there is inventRight member Chuck Lamprey, who does an amazing job managing our Discord.
He just licensed two new products. Here, you can see him in the booth of the company he licensed to pointing out the products he licensed.
Chuck is a serial dog toy inventor and a good one. Here’s a video of him talking about the show.
Another successful pet product developer that is part of the inventRight community is Keith Mullin. He sold his Bionic line to the Hagen Group and is now the brand manager for the line working from within the company. He’s living every inventors dream! Check out his web site here https://www.bionicdogtoys.com/.
And watch the video of him I took where he demos his indestructible dog toys here.
There are endless other stats that show clearly the pet industry is growing in every way. I won’t bore you with a bunch of statistics though. I’ll just say that if you are an inventor and interested in inventing in the pet industry, I would go for it. Lots of opportunity. Are all companies in the pet industry open to outside ideas? No, they aren’t. At the last year’s SuperZoo and this one, I talked to some companies that have their own development teams and are not open to outside inventors. But that’s true of any industry. Given the growth this industry is experiencing, companies need your ideas. So approach the companies that are open and don’t worry about the ones that aren’t open to outside ideas.
As always, study the market first, then come up with a product that has a clear point of different. You can license in this industry, just like Chuck, Keith, and other members of the inventRight community.
