How people really behave in the petcare aisle (and what it means for your shopper strategies)
Petcare is one of the most purposeful categories in grocery. Shoppers arrive with specific missions - caring for a puppy, managing health concerns, rewarding behaviour, supporting an ageing pet. They navigate with intent, and they expect the aisle to make sense.
It's also highly planned, with 83% of shoppers saying pet food purchases are completely or mostly planned (VST Value Tracker, Feb 2025). Yet around 45% still make switches in-aisle. That gap between planning and switching defines the category. Missions are clear, but if the fixture doesn't match how shoppers think, small friction points redirect decisions.
The reality is that petcare has evolved faster than shelf space can keep up. Life stage, function, quality tiers, formats, treat occasions, emerging subcategories - all competing for the same physical space. Even well-designed fixtures struggle to reflect the full range of shopper missions.
Add in cost of living pressure - 71% cite it as a top concern, 75% say price/value drives where they shop (VST Value Tracker, Sept 2025) - and the stakes get higher. Shoppers are emotionally invested in their pet, but they're scanning for value and deciding fast.
This review brings together the key behavioural patterns we consistently see across petcare. Here's what matters most when you're designing or evolving the aisle.
1. Shoppers Navigate by Mission First, Brand Second
Brand equity is strong in petcare, but it's not what drives initial navigation. Shoppers move by mission first.
Typical missions look like:
- "I need something for my puppy"
- "I need dental care"
- "I want a treat for training"
- "I'm looking for something more premium"
- "I need to solve a health issue"
When these missions aren't clearly reflected in the fixture, shoppers slow down, misinterpret structure, and confidence drops.
This matters because shoppers often arrive with a plan, but not always certainty. 80% use a shopping list at least sometimes (VST Value Tracker, Sept 2025), meaning many trips are planned at mission level ("get puppy food"), but not brand or SKU level. The fixture needs to convert that mission into the right product choice.
When the fixture matches shopper logic, findability increases, misdirected searches fall, and exploration becomes deeper and more deliberate.
One thing worth noting is that improving mission visibility often increases engagement by shifting behaviour within the category rather than growing it. Understanding category-level effects matters before you reshape space.
There's no single "correct" structure for petcare, but there's always a structure that best fits the dominant missions in your retailer environment.
2. The Adult Block is Your Navigational Anchor
Across testing, one behaviour appears repeatedly - the core adult block acts as the navigational anchor for the entire aisle. It carries the highest-frequency missions, sets shopper expectations, and helps orient the journey.
When the visibility, position, or allocation of the adult block changes, effects ripple into surrounding sections. The direction and scale depend on retailer context, even small adjustments shift shopper flow.
This doesn't mean the adult block should never change. It means it's structurally influential, and any change is worth testing before you recommend it to retailers.
3. Innovation Needs More Shelf Support Than Other Categories
Petcare has become a hotbed of innovation, with supplements, alternative formats, functional claims, premium propositions, hybrid treat-nutrition concepts. The problem is that shoppers don't have built-in mental models for most of these.
Innovation faces two challenges:
Petcare is already cognitively loaded
Shoppers are balancing suitability, price, nutrition, claims, pack size, and emotional considerations.
New subcategories don't map cleanly to existing missions
A supplement could sit with dental, treats, or accessories. Without context, shoppers interpret purpose on the fly.
The value backdrop still matters, but petcare behaves differently to most grocery categories. While 47% of shoppers say they start their grocery decisions by looking for the cheapest option, petcare has historically been more resilient to downtrading. Shoppers are more cautious: the perceived risk of “getting it wrong” is higher.
At the same time, 56% say they’re willing to spend more for better quality (VST Value Tracker, Feb 2025). This creates a distinctive tension in petcare, not between price and quality, but between value reassurance and emotional responsibility.
That’s why innovation can’t rely on shelf presence alone. New propositions need to quickly signal why they’re worth choosing, in terms of benefit, suitability, and outcome, before shoppers are willing to trade up.
4. Treats Behave Completely Differently
Treats sit at the intersection of emotional reward, impulse, habitual purchasing, functional benefits, and training missions. This makes them the most behaviourally elastic part of petcare.
Treats respond strongly to changes in aisle position, segmentation, visibility, adjacency, entrance vs mid-aisle placement, and signposting. This elasticity is why treats often unlock the biggest performance shifts in the category.
Another nuance that shows up often: singles, multipacks, functional treats, and indulgent treats don't behave interchangeably. Different missions drive different responses to structure. This is why treat-led tests often deliver outsized commercial clarity.
5. The Three Most Common Pitfalls in Petcare Resets
Three issues show up repeatedly, not because of poor decisions, but because petcare is unusually sensitive:
Overcomplicating the aisle
Too much segmentation or visual drama slows shoppers down. Clarity beats theatricality.
Fragmenting new ranges
Breaking up a mission or range across multiple parts of the aisle reduces clarity. Blocked placement can drive higher engagement than dispersal.
Changing structure without updating navigation cues
If the fixture evolves but communication doesn't, shoppers miss improvements or misinterpret the new logic. Simple navigation cues typically improve findability, even in already well-organised aisles.
These pitfalls flatten category value and stall innovation adoption. Testing exposes friction before it hits the shelf.
6. What Drives Category Performance in Petcare
Six behavioural forces consistently influence performance:
1. Mission-first structure - shoppers move more confidently when the aisle mirrors how they think
2. A stable adult anchor - the core range acts as the reference point for the category
3. Coherent treatment of innovation - new products succeed when shoppers understand purpose and placement
4. Treat-driven impulse and exploration - structural changes in treats unlock disproportionate gains
5. Simple, functional segmentation - clarity outperforms complexity, especially in dense categories
6. Education for emerging segments - shelf cues orient shoppers, education pushes them through the decision
In petcare studies, removing or relocating certain SKUs shifts category comprehension - some products function as navigational anchors.
7. What to Test Next
Teams typically explore:
Life-stage strategy- how does reallocating space influence navigation? At what point does life stage complement or fragment the aisle?
Innovation placement- where do shoppers expect new formats? What level of explanation supports trial?
Premium strategy- how do shoppers interpret premium tiers in this retailer's existing flow?
Treats optimisation- which segmentation cues improve confidence? How do structural changes affect impulse and exploration?
Range optimisation- which SKUs function as navigational signposts? Where can choice be simplified with minimal risk?
Testing these scenarios gives you a retailer-ready story grounded in behavioural evidence, not assumption.
How Behavioural Shelf Testing Strengthens Retail Sell-In
Retailers expect data-backed reasoning for changes to a category as important as petcare. Shoppers are scrutiny-led, with 73% always on the lookout for promotions, 69% shopping around for best prices (VST Value Tracker, Sept 2025). In petcare, where emotional commitment is high, value signals and clarity need to coexist.
Behavioural testing lets you demonstrate how shoppers actually move through the aisle, how structure influences conversion and confidence, where opportunities and risks lie, how recommendations strengthen (rather than destabilise) category performance, and what the category gains from change, and what must remain stable.
Behavioural evidence turns recommendations into confident retail conversations and in-store implementation.
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