In 2025, the pet products category maintained its status as a resilient consumer spending item in household budgets. At the same time, the structure of market growth became more “mature”: e-commerce growth slowed, offline retail accelerated, channel shares continued to redistribute, and competition for shelf space and repeat purchases intensified.
Pet Market Dynamics
In 2025, pet products remained a necessary budget item, even when consumers switched to cost-saving behavior. According to data from Nielsen (12-month dynamics through October 2025 compared with the same period a year earlier), the category accounted for 5% of the omnichannel FMCG market by value.
Growth in the segment outperformed the overall FMCG market:
- +15.7% in value terms (vs. 14.2% for FMCG overall)
- +6% in volume terms (packages) (vs. 2.5% for FMCG overall)
Even though 6 out of 10 surveyed consumers reported reducing everyday spending, pet products still ranked among the top five fastest-growing FMCG categories, both in value and in volume.
Between January and October 2025, approximately 180 new brands appeared on store shelves*. The main generator of new brands was the cat litter segment, which accounted for 52 new trademarks. This category traditionally allows for rapid product launches and frequent experimentation with pricing, raw materials, and positioning.
The pet food segment expanded with 46 new dog food brands and 40 new cat food brands. Considering that these are core product categories, such a number of new launches indicates increasing pressure on shelf space and intensified competition for repeat purchases.
The treats category added 38 new brands in 2025. This segment is particularly suitable for testing functional ingredients, flavors, and product formats, which explains the rapid pace of new product introductions.
Sales Channels and Regional Distribution
Online market. Growth remained in the double digits at 20.3%, although significantly lower than in 2024 (33.7%). The channel is approaching a growth normalization phase, as a substantial share of demand has already shifted to e-commerce. In 2025, real demand continued to drive online sales growth, but its contribution was almost twice as small as in the previous year.
Offline market. Offline sales growth accelerated to 10.5% in 2025, compared with 8.3% a year earlier. A significant part of this increase is inflation-driven, linked to price growth rather than higher purchase volumes. Nevertheless, the acceleration indicates that offline retail continues to retain stable, recurring demand and has not weakened in the face of e-commerce expansion.
At the same time, online sales continue to increase their share of the pet products market — from 13.2% in 2022 to 23.3% in 2025.
Pet specialty stores have been losing market share, declining from 26.8% to 19.3% over the past four years.
Meanwhile, non-specialized grocery retail has maintained almost the same share, decreasing only slightly from 57.7% in 2022 to 56.2% in 2025, and remains the primary sales channel for pet products.
|
|
2022 |
2023 |
2024 |
2025 |
|
Online Retail / E-commerce |
13,20% |
16,50% |
21,80% |
23,30% |
|
Pet Specialty Stores |
26,80% |
23,30% |
20% |
19,30% |
|
Non-Specialized Retail |
57,70% |
58,30% |
56,80% |
56,20% |
|
Traditional Retail |
2,30% |
1,90% |
1,40% |
1,20% |
The highest sales growth in value terms was recorded in the Volga region (14.3%) and the South (14%), while the lowest growth rates were observed in the Northwest (10.3%) and the Ural region (10.6%).
E-commerce remains the leading sales channel, while the main “loser” is traditional retail (small counter-service stores).
In the online channel, growth is driven almost entirely by real demand, with increases in both sales value and the number of purchases.
Supermarkets demonstrate solid growth in pet product sales; however, the ratio between value and volume growth suggests that part of the increase may be driven by price inflation.
Minimarkets recorded growth in sales value despite a decline in the number of purchases, indicating that price increases are likely the main driver.
Hypermarkets show very weak dynamics, suggesting that this format is losing sales volume in the pet products category.
Traditional retail demonstrates a significant decline in sales, clearly losing competitiveness to other retail formats.
Offline pet specialty stores show an increase in average basket value or a shift toward premium products, while the number of units sold is declining.
An interesting trend in the pet products market in 2025 was the growth of the category in food hard-discount retailers: +20.2% in value terms and +15.4% in volume terms. Surveys conducted by Nielsen indicate that 74% of customers in these stores are pet owners. This format therefore has a built-in audience of pet owners, giving discount retailers significant potential to scale the pet products category through competitive pricing and accessibility.
Share of Online Sales by Category
Online sales through pet specialty retailers are accelerating, with growth of 39% in value and 24.1% in units sold. In contrast, marketplaces are experiencing a noticeable slowdown, with sales increasing by 11.5% in value but only 0.4% in units.
The near-zero growth in volume combined with rising revenue signals declining consumer interest: marketplaces are maintaining sales mainly through price increases rather than through stronger demand.
Sales Structure and Assortment of Pet Specialty Stores
In 2025, product assortments in pet specialty stores expanded across nearly all categories. While sales in value terms increased, volume sales declined, with the exception of the treats category.
Cat food remains the core category in specialized retail, although its share of total sales slightly decreased last year—from 56.4% to 55.8% (–0.6 p.p.). The category showed moderate growth of 7.5% in value terms, while unit sales declined by 4.3%. As of October 2025, cat food assortments averaged up to 173.1 SKUs per store (+3% compared to the previous period).
In contrast, the share of dog food increased from 24.4% to 25.2% (+0.8 p.p.). The segment recorded 12.3% growth in revenue, while volume sales decreased by 2%. Dog food also demonstrated the most active assortment expansion in pet stores, reaching about 70.3 SKUs per outlet on average (+9%).
The share of cat litter declined slightly from 10% to 9.8% (–0.2 p.p.). The category posted 6.2% growth in value, while unit sales fell by 5%. On average, around 28.9 SKUs of litter products were available in each pet store (+6%).
Treats increased their share of sales by 0.2 p.p., from 9.1% to 9.3%. This was also the only category showing growth in both revenue and volume, with +10.5% in value and +2.7% in units. As of October 2025, pet stores carried an average of 80.7 SKUs in the treats category (+6%).
Key Trands in Pet Food
Functionality is becoming the new norm, particularly in cat food products. In 2025, such diets demonstrated a clear transition from a niche choice for advanced pet owners to a standard element of product assortments. This trend reflects not only product innovation but also changing owner expectations: 85% of pet owners believe that healthy nutrition and dietary supplements for pets are just as important as they are for themselves.
Cat Food
The share of functional diets has been growing for the third consecutive year: from 32.4% in 2023 to 33.3% in 2024, reaching 34.9% in 2025. The two-year increase of +2.5 percentage points represents a significant structural shift—nearly every third or fourth ruble spent in the category is now spent on functional products.
Dog Food
Growth in functionality is also present in dog food, though much more moderate: from 17.5% in 2023 to 17.9% in 2025—an increase of 0.4 percentage points over two years. In this segment, functional positioning is expanding gradually and largely by inertia, without a major breakthrough.
Treats Segment
In the treats segment, dog products continue to dominate, although their share has slightly declined—from 60.2% in 2024 to 59.2% in 2025 (–1 p.p.). Meanwhile, cat treats increased their share to 40.8% in 2025 (+1 p.p.).
The key trend within the category is functionalization combined with the emergence of new product formats.
In cat treats, “non-traditional” formats are gaining popularity. Purées and cream soups already account for more than 5% of cat treat sales. Products are increasingly positioned as “beneficial feeding” rather than simply rewards. At the same time, other formats are expanding, including sausages, fillet pieces, sticks, balls, pâtés, strips, jerky, and others. This diversification is not just about variety—it reflects attempts to create new consumption occasions and increase purchase frequency.
In dog treats, traditional formats remain stronger. Bones account for nearly 12% of dog treat sales and demonstrate stable growth in both value and unit terms. Simpler categories such as offal-based treats and biscuits appear less dynamic.
Specialized pet stores account for 52% of dog treat sales in value terms (of the total segment). The category remains strongly linked to the expert retail environment, where it is easier to sell a wider assortment and higher-priced products through consultation and specialized merchandising.
The pet products market continues to grow, and current dynamics suggest that this momentum will continue into 2026. In these conditions, the winners will be companies that can quickly translate market trends into concrete solutions—updating their assortments, responding more precisely to pet owners’ needs, improving service, and effectively leveraging all sales channels.
