Sales of pet products in China’s third-tier cities and rural areas increased by 429%

Alibaba’s e-commerce platform Tmall released a report on the consumption of pet products on July 16, 2020. The five regions with the highest total sales of pet products in China are Guangdong, Shanghai, Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Beijing, according to the report. However, it is worth noting that the growth rate of pet products consumption in third-tier cities and rural areas is as high as 429%.

It is reported that in the past two years, as the distribution speed of Chinese e-commerce platforms in urban areas has gradually reduced to half a day or a few hours, this has significantly changed people’s habit of buying pet products offline.

A courier in charge of Huajia District in Beijing said in an interview: “TMall basically achieves free door-to-door delivery and the products can be delivered in less than 1 hour.” So people who own cats and dogs don’t bother to go to the store and like to buy dozens of kilograms of pet food at one time. “

As Chinese e-commerce platforms usually waive the delivery fee after the price of no order reaches a certain amount, sales of some non-essential pet products have also begun to rise in order to match the requirement in a single order, such as catmint, pet snacks, small toys and sanitary napkins for female dogs.

The sales rate of pet snacks on Tmall is 20 times faster than that of human snacks, Song Yiming, a researcher of the report, said in an interview. The average price of pet bath, skin care and hair care products is also 50% higher than that of human products.

It is worth noting that the pet economy is becoming popular in China’s third-tier cities and rural areas. According to the report, the growth rate of pet products consumption by elderly consumers in third-tier cities and rural areas is as high as 450%, while that of young consumers in these areas is also as high as 289%, resulting a total increase of 429%.

In the past, China’s third-tier cities and rural areas generally had the habit of keeping cats and dogs. But their owners often regard it not as a pet, but as a functional animal-just as chickens are used to eat meat, dogs are used to protect families, and cats are used to catch mice and drive sparrows.

Under this habit, pet owners in China’s third-tier cities and rural areas often do not buy pet food for cats and dogs, but feed them with human meals.

Therefore, the changes in the consumption habits of pet products in these areas show the changes in people’s lifestyle and work patterns.

According to another report, as of August 2019, the total number of pet cats and dogs in China was 99.15 million, an annual increase of 8.4%. Pets in third-tier cities and rural areas accounted for about 30% of the total.

In addition, sales of cat food surpassed dog food by 2% in the report released by Tmall.