In recent years, buying pet food online has gone from a secondary option to a habit for many pet owners, leading to thousands of online stores popping up on various platforms. For pet shop owners and distributors, the real question isn’t whether or not to list on an platform, but rather what products can and cannot be sold through this channel, and where it fits into the overall revenue picture.
Online pet food sales are growing the fastest but are not yet the biggest channel.
Two key characteristics of the online channel need to be considered simultaneously, as separating them will lead to incorrect conclusions. First, it’s the fastest-growing channel in the industry: according to Mordor Intelligence, the compound annual growth rate of the online channel is approximately 9.33%, higher than the average for the pet food market. Second, its starting point is much smaller than that of brick-and-mortar stores, which still account for the majority of the industry’s revenue. Rapid growth on a smaller base is completely different from replacing the main channel. If only focusing on speed, retailers might pour all their resources into online sales and neglect physical stores, which generate cash flow. If only focusing on market share, retailers might miss out on where new customers are forming habits. The sensible approach is to treat online as a marginal growth channel: invest enough to establish a presence and attract new customers, but without sacrificing the ability to provide on-site service, which is the biggest advantage of a physical store.
Map of current pet e-commerce platforms
To succeed in any platform, you need to understand its structure. According to Metric data on the pet supplies industry across four platforms, Shopee accounts for approximately 65.4% of revenue and 79.3% of sales volume; TikTok Shop accounts for about 30.6% of revenue but only 18.5% of sales volume; and Lazada accounts for about 4% of revenue. Mentioning pet e-commerce platforms in Vietnam today almost exclusively refers to Shopee and TikTok Shop; the rest is too small to warrant allocating resources. It’s noteworthy that the two leading platforms are fundamentally different. Shopee is where buyers actively search for products they already know, while TikTok Shop is where demand is generated while viewing content. For retailers, the consequence is clear: if you only have resources for one channel, choose the one that best suits your customers’ decision-making process, rather than opening stores on all four platforms and then being unable to manage any of them effectively.
Why does TikTok Shop sell fewer orders but earn more money?
The difference between TikTok Shop’s 30.6% revenue and 18.5% volume is the most telling figure in the entire Metric data. It means that each order on this platform has a significantly higher average value than Shopee, where the volume share is larger than the revenue share. The reason lies in the sales method. Livestreaming pet sales and short videos allow sellers to explain ingredients, illustrate usage, compare different types of food, and address customer concerns while they are watching – essentially providing the kind of advice a static product page can’t. When customers are convinced, they are willing to buy larger packages or multiple items at once. The lesson for retailers isn’t to livestream every day, but to understand that order value increases through content and advice, not through discounts. This is precisely the capability that a pet shop with existing product knowledge can fully leverage in the digital environment.
The best-selling price segment reveals online shopping behavior.
According to Metric data, the best-selling price segment for pet supplies on e-commerce platforms is between 10,000 and 50,000 VND, mainly consisting of accessories and supplies. This figure accurately reflects the current online shopping behavior of pet owners: they go to e-commerce platforms to buy inexpensive, easily visualized items that require no consultation and have low risk of making the wrong choice. A collar, a litter box, or a small snack pack purchased by mistake doesn’t have significant consequences. This explains why, despite the large volume of orders on e-commerce platforms, the channel’s absolute revenue remains modest compared to traditional brick-and-mortar stores. For retailers, this is a clear guide to product selection: don’t bring your entire inventory to the platform. Start with a small, lightweight, standardized product group with an acceptable profit margin after platform fees and shipping costs, and then use that group as a gateway to new customers.
Why is it difficult to move large main food items onto the floor?
The biggest bottleneck in selling pet food online lies in the most crucial product category: large-sized bags of pet food. Ten-kilogram or fifteen-kilogram bags are both heavy and bulky, causing shipping costs to erode a large portion of profit margins, while customers are accustomed to the free shipping offered by online platforms. This product category also requires genuine consultation, as choices depend on the breed, age, weight, and digestive condition of each individual animal. The risk of returns is also significantly higher: if a pet doesn’t tolerate the food, customers want an immediate exchange, but once a bag is opened, it’s almost impossible to return it to the warehouse. Combining these three factors, the high-value revenue of the industry remains at the physical point of sale. Distributors should consider this a structural advantage rather than a temporary weakness and focus on keeping large-sized bags in the direct channel, where they can provide consultation, flexible returns, and home delivery within a short radius.
Combo deals are a way to increase the order value of online Pet Food products.
If the best-selling segment is only in the tens of thousands of VND range, then the online channel will remain a small revenue stream. However, data shows that the spending ceiling is not that low. According to Ms. Thuy Tran from Pety, consumers are willing to spend between 200,000 and 500,000 VND on a product combo. The gap between these two figures represents the potential of the online Pet Food channel, and the way to exploit it is through packaging, not discounts. A reasonable combo usually includes a main item with a good profit margin, one or two supplementary items such as snacks, shampoo, or small supplies, along with a clear reason for purchase according to the pet’s stage of development. This method both increases the order value so that shipping costs are not too high per unit of revenue, and helps buyers avoid having to choose from hundreds of options. Distributors should design a few fixed combos based on customer groups instead of listing each item separately and waiting for customers to assemble them themselves.
Thousands of sellers and an endless price war.
The most frustrating aspect of this channel is the fragmentation of the supply side. Metric data shows that the pet supplies industry has thousands of shops operating simultaneously, mostly selling identical items from the same suppliers. When products are identical and buyers can compare prices in three seconds, the only remaining competitive tool is price reduction. That’s why a newly launched item often drops in price very quickly, dragging the entire group of sellers into a price-cutting spiral to maintain their display ranking. The problem is that this spiral has no natural stopping point, as there are always sellers willing to sell at a lower price to clear inventory. Dealers need to understand this before participating: in a playing field where everyone sells the same thing, success doesn’t come from price, but from choosing a less overlapping category, building unique content, and creating reasons for customers to return to their business, not just to buy a specific item.
Why do dealers who engage in predatory pricing destroy their own profits?
Many retailers consider price dumping on e-commerce platforms the quickest way to get orders, but the full calculation often yields the opposite result. The retail price of a popular item is already compressed, while sellers also have to bear platform fees, payment processing fees, display advertising costs, shipping costs, and return rates. Lowering prices by a few percentage points to win orders means selling your hard work for sales. Worse, that low price immediately becomes a public benchmark, causing regular in-store customers to see it and demand it, ruining the already healthy profit margins of the direct channel. In other words, retailers who undercut prices on e-commerce platforms don’t steal customers from competitors but steal their own profits from other channels. The safe principle is to maintain a consistent price level between online and in-store, compete through combos, free gifts, or services, and prioritize working with suppliers that have price protection policies for their system.
Defining the right role for buying pet food online.
When piecing together the data, the logical role of the online channel becomes quite clear. It’s where awareness is built and new customers are attracted, not where profit on each order is maximized. A practical implementation for retailers involves four interconnected steps. First, select compact, easy-to-ship product lines that require minimal consultation to list online. Next, use content and livestreaming to showcase the store’s consulting capabilities instead of just highlighting prices. Then, create bundled packages to increase order value to areas where customers are already familiar with the store’s spending habits. Finally, include point-of-sale information, direct contact channels, and return policies in each order, so that repeat purchases are directed to channels where the retailer can control profit margins. Viewed in this way, online purchases of pet food by customers don’t compete with the store, but become the first step towards a long-term, repeat buying relationship.
How does Petkin view the trend of buying pet food online?
As an importer and distributor of pet food operating on a wholesale model rather than direct retail, Petkin observes the online channel with a specific concern: how to prevent the platform’s dynamism from disrupting the pricing structure of our retail network. We believe the trend of buying pet food online will continue to grow stronger with digital consumer habits, but the majority of the industry’s value still lies in the product categories that require repeat purchases and consultations—that is, in the hands of our distributors. Therefore, the role of the distributor is not to jump onto the online platform to compete with their own partners, but rather to maintain stable pricing policies, provide accurate product images and information for distributors to use in the digital channel, and maintain a consistent supply of goods. If you are a pet shop owner or distributor looking to leverage the online channel without significantly reducing your profit margins, now is the right time to standardize your product catalog and choose a long-term partner.