Time for another article of our Top Niches Series. As the pet market is a huge one (there are 471 million pet dogs worldwide), it’s only normal that the pet niche is among the top dropshipping niches to sell in 2023.
So, here’s an extensive guide on why you should start dropshipping pet supplies, the data and the insights that prove the pet ecommerce industry is very popular right now and what steps you need to take to start dropshipping pet supplies, among others.
Table of Contents
Why start dropshipping pet products?
Well, as said, the pet and animal supplies market is huge. According to APPA (American Pet Products Association), the pet industry reached $123.6 billion in sales in 2021 in the USA, the highest level in history. It seems this is the second consecutive record-setting year for this industry, and this trend is expected to continue in 2023.
Another survey by Statista predicts that pet store revenues will reach around $23 billion by 2026.
And the Covid pandemic made people spend more time at home with their pets which also meant they purchased even more products for their furry family members. 21% of pet owners spent even more on their pets than they did before the pandemic.
Now, if you do a simple search on Google Trends after the term “pet store” you will see that the interest has increased over the last 5 years worldwide.
Here’s also how the “pet products” search term is performing on Google Trends. As we can see, the search volume has kept a stable rhythm and has been trending high in the last 5 years.
So, let’s sum up why you should start dropshipping pet supplies:
– There is a high demand for this niche and it doesn’t seem to stop or even lower in the near future.
– You can dropship pet products all year long, this is not a seasonal category, which means you can make great sales all the time.
Let’s go through a few more important niche insights now.
Important pet niche insights and analytics
Before we discuss how important keywords in the pet industry perform on Google Trends, Keyword Planner or Semrush, let’s talk a bit about some important statistics and insights to help you better understand this industry.
There are many pet subcategories you can choose to sell, from pet food to pet care products, such as health and hygiene products, or toys, furniture, and collars, among others. One important recent trend is that people tend to take care of their pets just like they do for themselves or their loved ones. This means that people that are interested in organic, natural food, for example, will also look for the same type of pet food.
Probably the most trending subcategory is the pet food market, which has reached over $102 billion in 2020. So, pet food and treats make up for the largest sales. And just to give you an example, it seems that in the United States alone, pet food was the highest-selling product category and it will stay like this. Veterinary care and vet products sales are the second most profitable segment of the pet market.
Now, regarding the most important market for the pet industry, that’s clearly the USA, with annual revenue of over $43 billion. In the second and third place comes the UK and France.
Now, it’s time to check how a few important keywords are trending on Google, Keyword Planner and Semrush.
We will start with a general comparison between the terms ”dog”, “cat” and “pet” on Google Trends. As you can see below, these terms already show how popular the pet niche is.
Now, we also researched the search terms “products for pets” and “pet item”. See below how great they perform according to Google Trends.
Let’s also look at the search volumes for pet products and other important keywords on Semrush and Keyword Planner.
As you can also see, the avg. monthly searches for “pet store” is between 1M and 10M worldwide, and for the “pet food” is between 10K and 100K.
If we search for the same keywords on Semrush, we have around 246,000 monthly searches in the USA alone for “pet store”, and there are over 22,000 monthly searches for “pet food”. Of course, these numbers are higher if we talk global, as you can see above.
How profitable this niche can be? Well, it can be quite profitable, as all these top niches can be, but it depends on the subcategory you choose to sell, the region you’re in and your target audience, among others.
The common average margin for pet products is around 60%. Cat and dog food should be mostly around 50% while pet toys can have a margin of 70%. As always, we recommend starting small and testing your product potential before making significant profits and adding bigger markups.
What are the best regions to dropship in? Looking at the data from Statista and Semrush, the USA, UK and Canada are where these products are most trending. But at the same time if you decide to start a dropshipping business in the pet niche in these countries, then expect higher competition.
Choose your market after doing extensive research to see what’s trending there, and what are people looking for and can’t find easily. Also, just like with any other niche, the best market is the one you know and feel more comfortable with. So start there and work your way to other regions when you feel ready.
Benefits of dropshipping pet supplies
These are the most important advantages of dropshipping pet products:
- This niche is in high demand, maybe not one of the highest demands we saw in a long time. And what’s even better is that there is a demand for it throughout the year.
- The COVID pandemic has made the online pet products niche even more popular. During the lockdown, people spend all their time at home with pets, which actually meant an increase in the online demand for pet food and treats or other pet supplies like toys.
- This niche comes with good margins. As we said in the above chapter, the average margin for pet products is around 60% which means it’s a profitable business.
- You have a huge audience, one that you can find online on all social media channels. This means you can advertise and sell your products almost anywhere, from Google, Youtube or Facebook.
- It’s just simple to sell pet products online. Pet owners are your customers and they already know what they want, which means you don’t need to invest a lot in educating your audience. You only need to find the right selling point and what can you bring new to the market.
How to build a pet dropshipping store?
There are a few steps you need to follow to start a pet dropshipping business:
- Do extensive market research
- Build a business plan for selling pet products online
- Choose a pet subcategory niche
- Choose a name for your pet online store
- Incorporate your company – this is a mandatory step for every ecommerce store owner
- Build your ecommerce store – you can choose to do that on Shopify or WooCommerce
- Research and find a dropshipping supplier or platform to source your products from
- Build a marketing plan and start advertising your products.
Here is our detailed guide for starting a dropshipping business.
How to setup your pet supplies online business?
Before even building up your online store, you actually need to check what are all the legal issues and requirements for an online business. Legal requirements depend on your region, that’s why we recommend talking with another legal professional and deciding together what type of company you need to setup for dropshipping.
More on the legal issues behind dropshipping
Now, in most cases, dropshippers choose a sole proprietorship (also known as a sole trader in the UK) or LLC ( known as LTD in the UK).
Check this article on how can you setup a dropshipping business in the USA.
If you’re thinking to dropship in the UK, then here’s a guide on how to start a dropshipping business in the UK.
What pet care products to sell?
After doing our own extensive research, here are some of the most popular pet products you can dropship in 2023 and beyond.
Where did we look? Well, we searched on the mighty Google and used tools like Google Trends, Semrush and Keyword Planner. Also, we based our recommendations on our own experience.
Before starting, please keep in mind these products are mostly trending worldwide and in countries like the USA or UK. So, you should do your own research and check what’s trending in your own region.
Here’s how you know you’ve found a winning product
Now, below are a few pet subcategories you can start selling.
Pet food and treats
As said above, pet food is the most trending category in the pet niche. This also means that if you decide to start selling pet food and treats you will have to get in front of lots of competitors, offline and online. So, we recommend to niche further down on the pet food category and start selling specific food for all kinds of pets, like dogs or cats. Or you can sell premium pet food, which can mean organic, sustainable or made from natural ingredients.
Pet toys
As with pet food, there are lots and lots of toys for pets on the market, so the first thing you need to do is find out what works in your region, what are pet parents looking for and can find in their country? Or maybe sells toys that are plastic-free, handmade or even multifunctional.
Pet beds or pet furniture
As pets are now part of the family, it’s only normal that their humans would want them only the best and dog beds are among the best selling products in a pet store. There are so many different beds available, from fluffy and orthopedic to stylish and sci-fi theme beds. You can test them out and see which ones perform better in your area.
Pet clothes
This is also an increasingly popular category of the pet niche. There is a huge audience that’s always looking for shirts, cute outfits, and accessories designed for their dogs and cats. What is amazing about this pet clothing category is that there is still a lot of room for new online stores, as fashionable pet parents buy new clothes for their dogs, for example, for every season just like they do for themselves.
Pet grooming products
Cat and dog grooming are other great pet products to start dropshipping or adding to your online pet store. You can choose to sell products for fur and coat, such as brushes or combs, scissors and electric trimmers. Or you can choose to sell pet grooming accessories, such as ties, clips or bows and ribbons. We recommend selling both grooming products for fur and coat and accessories.
Now in terms of specific pet products to sell, here are the ones that are trending now according to Google Trends and Semrush.
– Pet food: even if this pet category is quite competitive, we still believe is still room for new dropshippers as these products are almost as diverse as the food for humans. So, try to niche down and offer either premium pet food or organic and special diet pet food.
– Dog beds: just to make sure you understand how strong is this pet subcategory, the US pet furniture market was estimated to be $218 million and it’s forested to reach $307.6 million in 2025. And as you can see below, these products trend great on Google Trends and Semrush.
– Cat houses: part of the same pet category as the above product, cat houses are also some of the best products you can sell in your online pet store.
– Dog raincoats: as said above, clothes for pets are great to sell and dropship, and among the most trending of this category are the dog raincoats. We recommend finding a supplier that can offer these raincoats in different styles, sizes and colors.
– Dog toys or cat toys: if you decide to sell pet toys, then we recommend going for toys for dogs and cats as these are trending the most these days, as you can see below.
– Pet hair remover: this is another great product you can add to your pet store as cats and dogs shed a lot which means their hair is everywhere, on the ground, sofa, bed sheet and clothes. So, these products are always searched for.
As always, these are just some of the most popular pet items that are trending in the last couple of years, but there are many more. The best way to go forward is just to start with the ones recommended above, check if they are also trending in your region and see where this takes you.
The moment you made your decision, start testing a few pet products to see which ones work better in your area.
Now that you’ve decided on which products to sell, it’s time to find high-quality products and reliable suppliers.
How to find the best pet suppliers?
As with all top niches, the pet industry it’s also a highly competitive one. That’s why, as a dropshipper, it’s a must to find the best suppliers that can help you build and grow a great pet store.
Now, when would be a great moment to start looking for suppliers? Well, you can do that as soon as you know what type of pet products you want to sell. But if you want to sell products from a dropshipping platform, you also need to have an online store ready before you can use such a platform.
The best way to find the right dropshipping suppliers or platform is to google it, read the reviews and test each of them out. What we can recommend is to work with more than one supplier as this gives you the chance to offer more options to your customers. Also, having multiple suppliers to source your products from means that you have backup options in case one of these suppliers runs out of stock or closes down.
Some other important facts you need to keep in mind when you choose a supplier:
- They should offer premium and high-quality products
- Are reliable
- Are close to the location of your customers
- They can ship ultra-fast their products
- They can handle your returns fast and smooth
You can find these suppliers on a marketplace like Amazon or eBay or dropshipping platforms like AppScenic.
On AppScenic you have over 4000 high-quality pet products, all coming from reliable and top suppliers that can ship to USA, CAN, EU, AUS, UK and beyond. You can find all kinds of pet products, from beds and apparel for dogs to toys and grooming products for cats.
How to start advertising for the pet niche?
As soon as your dropshipping pet store is up and running, you’re can start working on gaining traffic, brand awareness, and customers.
Before you start advertising, be sure to optimize your online store for Google and start a blog too, if you have time to write articles and come up with solutions to your customers’ problems.
Once you’ve finished with SEO and blogging, social media is the channel to get in front of your audience. Facebook, Instagram or TikTok has a huge pet owner community you can start engaging with.
We recommend building 1 or 2 social media pages and starting advertising on those to build an audience. On top of this, make sure you have some budget for Google Shopping Ads too.
How much budget should you have for advertising? We think that $500-$1,000 is enough to start with.
How much money do you need to start a dropshipping store in the pet niche?
This is a highly competitive niche, which means you will need to have a proper budget. So, if you start with $1500-2000 then that will probably be enough to build a user-friendly online pet store, source and test a few products, and still have some budget for advertising.
Why dropship pet products from AppScenic?
AppScenic is a great dropshipping platform to start with. Our platform does everything for you, from giving you access to suppliers that sell unique, high-quality pet products all over the world to automating everything, such as importing and syncing products, orders, payments, tracking numbers and more.
Choosing a platform like AppScenic means you will have more time for other important activities like building your online store and starting selling.
Here’s everything you need to know about AppScenic
Ready to dropship pet products?
Dropshipping pet supplies like pet food or pet toys is definitely a great idea as this niche continues to grow and doesn’t seem to stop.
So, we hope that this guide answered all your questions about the pet industry and helped you understand if this niche is for you or not.
As always, we are going to give a rate to this top niche based on how popular it is and how easy it’s to get started (on top of our own experience with it).
The pet niche has a rating of 9/10 as it’s not only highly trending at the moment but it’s also easy to start and dropship pet products.
Want to read more of our Top Niches Series articles? Then go check them out now.
