5 Pet Business Trends to Watch For in 2021

The old year is over and the new year has begun, thank goodness! As we start to dig into 2021, we’re still faced with a lot of uncertainty. The pandemic numbers are looking worse than ever and while the vaccine train has left the station, it’s got a lot of stops to make before we reach our final destination. Pet business owners are left reeling from a rough and unpredictable year. There’s still much we don’t know about how 2021 will look but there are some very clear pet business trends that have already started to mark this year and will continue to play a huge part over the next 12 months.

Here are the 5 top things to keep in mind as you maintain and grow your pet care business this year.

1.) You clients are still employed.

In the past year we’ve seen record levels of unemployment across the country. We sat and watched the news each day as the number of unemployment claims increased exponentially seemingly overnight. The thing is though, these weren’t your clients. Pet care, pet sitting and dog walking in particular, is a luxury. The target markets for pet care services are generally affluent, higher income, white collar workers. The major hit to unemployment has been blue collar workers in the service industry.

Our clients are still fully employed and what’s more, these people are still spending money, they’re just spending it in different ways. Internet sales skyrocketed in 2020 and the trend is continuing. People were forced to be home all the time so instead of spending their money on vacations and things they couldn’t control they turned to spending on the things they could. They started remodeling their houses, fixing up their yards, education and of course, pampering their pets!

They started working from home and consequently their pets, and all of their various needs, were now visible 100% of the time. It’s really hard to ignore those big sad doggy or kitty eyes without wanting to do something for them.

2.) People developed different problems.

Anyone who works with pets knows that we don’t provide dog walking or pet sitting or pet grooming. We provide peace of mind and we solve problems. When our target clients started spending more time at home their problems didn’t go away, they simply changed.

For example, now, instead of needing someone to let their dog out to potty midday, they need someone to come earlier in the morning to help run off their pup’s energy so that they’re not barking or bothering them during that mid-morning important zoom conference call with colleagues.

Or perhaps they feel uncomfortable having a pet sitter or dog walker enter their home and they need contactless dog walking. Or they feel uncomfortable bringing their dogs to the groomer themselves and need someone who will come to their house to groom their pets on site or pick them up and take them to the grooming salon and bring them back.

3.) There were record numbers of pets adopted in 2020

People thought, and rightly so, what better time to adopt a new furry family member since we’re home all the time to care for them. Puppy adoptions in particular have shot up. While it’s great that so many animals have found their forever homes, there’s another side to this. Many people have jumped into pet ownership without having a clear idea of how much work is actually involved. If they made it through the housetraining phase they’re now faced with dogs in their teenage years and they have immense amounts of energy.

And even if they fully anticipated the demands of pet ownership, they’re discovering now that walking the dog several times a day in sometimes harsh weather, picking up poop or scooping litter boxes on a regular basis is less than fun. They may have the time to do it being at home but they may not have the inclination to do it all themselves.

4.) Many smaller businesses didn’t make it.

This is a sad fact but the number of small businesses failing in the last year has been overwhelming and pet care businesses have been no exception. Very small business owners and solo-preneurs have been particularly hard hit. When the bottom dropped out of the pet care industry in March of last year many of them just didn’t have the volume of business needed to stay afloat.

While this is unfortunate, it does have an impact on those who are left standing. My own business suffered; I saw my pet sitting visit volume drop over 80% from March to April. I was one of the ones though that had enough clients to be able to hang on and pivot to offering services that more closely met the needs of my clients.

We’re now at the point where potential clients are looking for help because their previous pet care providers are no longer in business. The pandemic created a gap of qualified professional pet care companies and is continuing to widen that gap even now.

5.) People are sitting on the means and the desire to travel.

When the world stopped travelling everyone put plans on hold. The travel industry reacted by offering vouchers, waiving change fees and allowing people to hang onto their tickets for travel at a later date and use their deposits for trips in the future. Couple this with the entire nation being essentially “cooped up” for the past year and you have a huge number of people ready for a vacation! It’s not completely safe or advisable to travel now but this will change and, when it does, they’re going to need pet sitters and dog walkers.

All of these pet business trends have created and are continuing to create a tremendous opportunity for pet care providers. The key is you need to be ready to take advantage of it. In the next article we’ll discuss how to be ready now and continue to be ready throughout 2021 to step in to fill the gap. The industry is poised for an amazing 2021 for those who are ready for it. Don’t be caught off guard!

Other great pet business articles you might like:

3 Questions to Answer Before You Start a Pet Business

https://www.thepetbusinesscoach.dog/3-questions-to-answer/

The 5 Questions Every Entrepreneur Should Ask

https://www.thepetbusinesscoach.dog/the-5-questions-every-entrepreneur-should-ask/

About Eliza

Eliza is the owner of two successful pet related businesses; Preferred Pet Partners, a pet sitting and dog walking company, and The Pet Business Coach, offering coaching and resources to aspiring or current pet related business entrepreneurs. She maintains two awesome blogs. One for pet parents https://preferredpetpartners.com/blog/ and one for pet business owners https://thepetbusinesscoach.dog/blog-page/.  Eliza also supports various animal rescue and shelter organizations. Eliza and her husband have three furry family members. Visit her websites: www.preferredpetpartners.com or www.thepetbusinesscoach.dog.