Report: Vet Clinics Expand in Retail Stores

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Press release: Packaged Facts

As one of the most noteworthy pet industry drivers currently in force, veterinary clinics continue to expand in retail stores nationwide, reports market research firm Packaged Facts in the new report “Veterinary Services in the U.S.: Competing for the Pet Care Customer, 2nd Edition.”

“Today’s pet industry is an ‘omnimarket’ where pet industry players aren’t simply competing across brick-and-mortar channels and the internet,” says David Sprinkle, research director for Packaged Facts.

Omnimarket describes a new era of multiple-front competition that simultaneously crosses former business operations borders between medical vs. non-medical, products vs. services, food vs. non-food products and pet owner demographics. This notably includes veterinary expansion into retail stores.

This new era of multiple-front competition has been fueled by booming e-commerce in pet products, but as importantly is being shaped by the competitive reactions of traditional pet product manufacturers and retailers. Pet superstores are responding to — and mass-market big boxes are exploiting — the internet’s erosion of the brick-and-mortar distinction between pet specialty and mass market by in turn collapsing the distinction between retail store and vet clinic/pet care salon, specifically because hands-on pet care is the Achilles’ heel of the internet as a pet care provider and pet industry competitor.

Packaged Facts expects hands-on pet care will remain the calling card of the veterinary sector — but selectively and progressively expanded in scope, and supplemented by internet and digital technologies and communications, notes Sprinkle.

Among recent examples of the pet industry’s omnimarket shift:

• Petco has added Thrive (in-store) and PetCoach (freestanding) clinics. It’s a strategy that echoes PetSmart’s longstanding affiliation with Banfield Pet Hospitals
• PetIQ is partnering with Walmart to open vet clinics in as many as 1,000 stores by the end of 2023, and subsequently is partnering with Meijer
• Tractor Supply Co. offers pop-up veterinary clinics at its locations.

Not only do these in-store clinics offer consumers increased access to veterinary care and pet medications, their presence promotes the overall concept of pet wellness, reminding pet owners of the importance of caring for their pets’ health and making it more convenient to do so. Even so, such expansion presents challenges to the business success of many traditional, independent vets and to the autonomy of the veterinarian profession, by shifting the balance of power in favor of larger consumer market players and forces.

About the Report

“Veterinary Services in the U.S.: Competing for the Pet Care Customer, 2nd Edition” is a dog and cat report from U.S. pet market research leader Packaged Facts provides a comprehensive and in-depth look at the competitive dynamics surrounding the veterinary care customer:

• Veterinary sector sales and growth trends in the context of the overall pet services and products industry, including projections through 2023
• Veterinary care customer usage patterns, priorities and opinions, including use of alternative vet service formats and therapies
• Veterinary care usage rates and demographics
• Challenges and opportunities in intersecting markets: pet medications, pet supplements, pet food and pet insurance
• Comprehensive perspective with historical trending on pet ownership rates and demographics, multiple-pet ownership, new pet adoption and projected pet population through 2023