The $500 item is hot-selling, and sellers have created a vertical "Hermes"

"Furry kids" bring endless business opportunities.

With the improvement of people's economic level and the change of their thinking, pets have become an indispensable member and emotional sustenance for many families; at the same time, the aging, single and DINK groups continue to grow, and they especially hope to get warmth and companionship from pets. Influenced by this, the pet economy wave is rapidly spreading from Europe and the United States, the largest pet consumption market, to the world.

The pet industry covers a wide range of areas, including pet food, medical treatment, training, breeding, supplies, beauty, insurance and other sub-sectors. Companies in the industry pointed out that pet supplies have many categories and specifications, and the degree of standardization is low, covering the various needs of pets in "living, clothing, travel, and playing". The categories include bedding, climbing frames, clothing, toys, traction travel, cleaning utensils and eating utensils, etc., which have become the main track for many pet businesses to develop.

The pet products category is mature and highly developed, and in recent years, smart products have opened up a new market. Such products can provide pet owners with a more convenient and clean raising experience, and make the lives of pets more hygienic and healthy, so the demand is high. For example, in the United States over the past year, the search popularity of "automatic pet feeder" and "self-cleaning cat litter box" remained high.

Merchants who seize this opportunity are rising rapidly. This article will start with the leading smart pet product brands Litter Robot and Petkit, and analyze their product advantages, traffic channels, and marketing strategies, etc., for overseas merchants to learn from.

Litter Robot creates the "Hermes of cat litter boxes"

Pet lovers are investing more and more in their pets, hoping to provide them with a higher quality of life. In the United States, the world's largest and most mature pet consumer market, smart pet furniture has always had a stable search volume. Among them, automatic cat litter boxes can replace pet owners to complete the "poop shoveling" work. The search popularity has increased significantly in the past year. Litter Robot is the leading brand in this category.

Many years ago, Brad Baxter had two cats. After seeing the mess in traditional litter boxes, he was eager to find a way to clean up the cat litter. In 1999, Brad founded Litter Robot in the United States and designed the first fully automatic cat litter box. For more than 20 years, Litter Robot has been focusing on the cat litter box category. Its smart cat litter box products have been upgraded to the fourth generation, becoming the most highly rated and effective automatic litter scooper on the market, with over one million users.

Litter Robot pioneered the space capsule litter box. After the cat has finished defecating in the litter box, the timer will start counting down. When the cat litter clumps, the drum will rotate to separate the clumped cat litter from the clean cat litter through a screening process. The clumped cat litter will then be poured into the garbage drawer below, leaving the clean cat litter bed. At the same time, the attached carbon filter will absorb odors.

( Photo source / Litter Robot )

The strong product power has brought Litter Robot a super high premium. Its cat litter box starts at $499, and its other two products, Litter-Robot 3 Connect, are priced at $549, and Litter-Robot 4 is priced at $699, about RMB 5,000. The average customer price is extremely high, but the product still has considerable sales and numerous good reviews. Some Hollywood stars have also spontaneously endorsed it. One user commented on the product: "It is very easy to install, and my cat liked it right away. There is no smell at all, and I like not having to clean the cat litter all the time."

Litter Robot's main sales channel is the independent website, which ranks 66th in the industry. From January to March 2024, the total number of visits to its website reached 3.975 million, with the mobile terminal taking the lead, contributing 76.32% of the traffic, and the desktop terminal traffic accounting for 23.68%. In terms of details, the website has an average monthly visit volume of 1.325 million, with approximately 866,000 monthly independent visitors, an average stay time of 2 minutes, 3.17 pages visited each time by users, and a bounce rate of 64.46%. The website's estimated monthly sales are approximately US$3.03 million.

In terms of traffic source countries, the top three countries are the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom, accounting for 79.95%, 3.44% and 3.26% of the visits respectively. This is attributed to Litter Robot's main target market positioning and the distribution of the pet market. The United States and Europe are the world's first and second largest pet consumer markets respectively.

According to the analysis of traffic channels, natural search, direct traffic and paid search each contribute nearly 30% of the traffic. Natural search traffic accounts for a high proportion, and brand search accounts for 63%, proving that its brand influence is strong and user loyalty is high. Many users have a certain preference and trust in the brand and will actively look for brand-related information. This is also a manifestation of successful brand marketing, indicating that the previous marketing activities have played a positive role in enhancing brand awareness and attracting users. At the same time, the high ranking in natural search shows that the brand has done a good job in search engine optimization.

  In terms of user composition, Litter Robot's users are mainly female, accounting for 55.11%, while male users are slightly less, accounting for 44.89%. In terms of age distribution, its products cover a wide range of consumers, with many users from 18 to 64 years old, with the majority being between 25 and 34 years old, followed by those between 35 and 44 years old.

From the perspective of audience positioning, the brand's target users are consumers with certain purchasing power who pay attention to quality of life and pet health. Its products are mainly aimed at cat-raising families, especially those who raise expensive cat breeds. Therefore, its products are called "Hermes of cat litter boxes."

Social media platforms are important channels for brand promotion. Litter Robot has also made multi-channel traffic layout, including Facebook, TikTok, Pinterest, Bing, Google ads, Google analytics, Google tag manager, etc. The posts mainly revolve around the cute performance of cats sitting in the smart litter box, or the interaction with the owner next to the litter box.

FB is the main source of social media traffic for Litter Robot, accounting for 75%. Currently, the FB account has accumulated 170,000 followers, posts 2 to 3 times a day, and the group is active. Its FB ads are mostly shot with cats using litter boxes, and the ads are lively and interesting. Cats go in and out of the litter box freely, showing their adaptation and love for the smart litter box.

The advertisement also highlights the various functions of the smart litter box, such as automatic poop shoveling, cleanliness, and ease of use, so that the audience can intuitively feel the convenience it brings. Through the cute cat image, the distance between the advertisement and consumers is further shortened, making people feel that using this smart litter box is a way of caring and protecting cats; at the same time, the advertisement conveys the concept of living in harmony with pets, which resonates with cat lovers and stimulates their interest in and desire to buy smart litter boxes.

On other social media platforms, Litter Robot's Instagram account has 180,000 followers and posts 2 to 3 times a week. It has nearly 30,000 followers on YouTube and maintains in-depth cooperation with allaboutcats, the largest YouTube KOL in the cats category, to increase brand exposure and reach. Every time a new sample is released, the KOL will be invited to evaluate it.

The brand also reaches more potential users through search engine optimization and paid search. In terms of display advertising alliances, Litter Robot cooperates with alliance platforms such as Google Display Network, Pepperjam, and Skimlinks, which account for 62.32%, 22.72%, and 11.77% of desktop advertising respectively.

In addition, Litter Robot has also cooperated with several popular external link websites, such as hello.whisker.com, thesprucepets.com, force.com, exhibitors.ces.tech, canva.com, etc. Potential users can learn about its smart cat litter box through these external link websites. This move helps to enhance the reputation and status of the product in the industry and make consumers feel that "this is a trustworthy product."

In addition to the above marketing channels, the Litter Robot website also has more marketing methods.

When the brand's website is opened, a pop-up window will appear, prompting customers to save $200, and a banner ad will also prompt customers to save $50, retaining users and promoting transactions. At the same time, the brand conducts differentiated pricing marketing, including setting different prices for products of different colors or warranty periods. For example, white products do not require a price increase, while other colors require a price increase of $50, to meet the needs and psychology of different consumers, thereby achieving better sales and profits.

Another important method is bundling marketing. For example, the 4th generation smart cat litter box can be sold in bundles with mats, cat litter, carpet trays, etc.; the smart automatic pet feeder can provide pets with food at regular intervals and quantitative quantities, and the real-time monitoring function allows owners to understand the pet's eating status. This product can be sold in bundles with pet food mats, cat litter, food bowls, etc., and multiple products can be sold in one order.

In the field of smart pet products, China has also produced leading brands.

PETKIT polishes its overseas business card by running on Amazon and independent websites

In 2013, people were very fond of wearable technology. The Guo brothers, who were hardware engineers at the time, began to reflect on how to use it to bring welfare to animals. Mr. Guo said: "I have raised pets and I have discovered some pain points of raising pets. For example, in the summer when there is no air conditioning, whether to leave the pet alone at home makes many pet parents entangled; for example, how to take care of the pet when traveling or on business trips has also become a problem."

Soon after, the PETKIT team was established. "In order to solve these specific problems, we not only invented the world's first air-conditioned pet house, smart feeder, and smart water dispenser, but also maintained the rhythm of defining a new product and usage scenario every year."

All these entry points are highly favored by capital, and financing news has been coming in one after another. In 2014, Xiaopei was officially established and received angel round financing, the following year received A round financing, 80 million yuan in B round financing in 2017, 100 million yuan in C round financing in 2019, 100 million yuan in C+ round financing in 2020, and 50 million US dollars in D round financing in 2021, becoming a good story in the industry.

At present, Xiaopei Pet's business segments include pet smart hardware , pet stores, pet hospitals, and pet food. Among them, smart products include smart water dispensers, smart feeders, smart cat toilets, and Origin fish tanks. The sales network covers more than 30 countries around the world. In 2021, its smart cat litter box debuted on Indiegogo and achieved sales of more than one million US dollars, gaining a wave of loyal users overseas.

A few months ago, the head of PETKIT's overseas business said in an interview that Xiaopei is already the top 1 in the smart pet industry in China; in terms of cross-border e-commerce business, in North America, Xiaopei's smart fully automatic cat toilet market share may be second only to Litter Robot.

In cross-border business, PETKIT has made progress in both Amazon and independent website channels. In the detailed category list of Amazon US website, PETKIT's smart feeder and smart cat litter box are ranked at the top, and the number of reviews for a pet water dispenser exceeds 10,000. PETKIT's independent website focuses on building brand image and providing excellent user experience.

From January to March this year , the total number of visits to the PETKIT website reached 466,000, of which 79.58% were from mobile devices and 20.42% from desktop devices. In terms of breakdown, PETKIT has about 155,000 visits per month, 80,944 unique visitors per month, an average visit time of 2 minutes and 9 seconds, 3.17 pages per visit, and a bounce rate of 48.20%. The estimated monthly sales are about US$730,000.

From the analysis of traffic source countries, the United States ranks first with a traffic share of 30.21%. As the world's largest pet consumption market, the United States has a household pet ownership rate of 66%, which means that about 86.9 million households have pets. In 2022, the size of the U.S. pet market reached 136.8 billion U.S. dollars, and is expected to reach 206.7 billion yuan in 2027, with a compound annual growth rate of 8.61%.

The countries following the United States are France, Romania and Italy, with visit shares of 30.21%, 9.73%, 8.85% and 8.71% respectively.

This is not surprising. Europe is the world's second largest pet consumption market, and its purchasing power should not be underestimated. According to data released by FEDIAF (European Federation of the Pet Food Industry), pet consumption in the European market will reach 53.6 billion euros in 2022, of which the market size of pet products and services will be 24.5 billion euros. Cats and dogs are the most popular pets. The number of pet cats in Europe is 127.161 million, and the number of pet dogs is 104.348 million. The top three countries in Europe with the most cats are Russia, Germany, and France, and the top three countries with the most dogs are Russia, the United Kingdom, and Germany.

From the perspective of traffic sources, organic search accounts for a large proportion, up to 42.36%. In terms of brand and non-brand, brand search accounts for 82%. This shows that PETKIT has a strong brand influence and high user loyalty. A considerable number of users actively find PETKIT through organic search, which shows that the brand has a certain degree of popularity and recognition in the market. At the same time, the brand also has a high ranking in organic search, and the marketing effect is also good.

In addition to natural search, PETKIT has the highest direct search traffic, reaching 30.19%, followed by paid search, which is 14.82%; social traffic accounts for 9.66%. On the desktop side, paid search accounts for 9.88% of the website traffic, and the search terms are mostly brand terms.

Like Litter Robot, PETKIT has a larger proportion of female users, at 56.13%, and a slightly smaller proportion of male users, at 43.87%. These users are widely distributed in various age groups, with users aged 25 to 34 accounting for the largest proportion, accounting for 42.07%.

In terms of social traffic composition, Facebook contributed 49.56% of the traffic, accounting for nearly half; YouTube channel traffic accounted for 22.39%, followed by Instagram and Reddit, accounting for 9.68% and 7.80% respectively.

PETKIT's promotion on social media channels is detailed and brief. Its FB account has accumulated 48,000 followers and posts 2 to 3 times a day; it has 153,000 followers on Instagram and posts frequently, maintaining 2 to 3 posts a day. In addition, it has 8.5k subscribers on YouTube and posts once a month, 3k followers on Twitter, 2.3k followers on TikTok, and posts twice a month. Perhaps due to fewer followers, the posting frequency on these platforms is relatively low.

The brand's social media promotion materials focus on cats, and the selected pictures show kittens in various cute postures, such as acting cute, playing naughty, etc. Among these posting materials, there are scenes of kittens using smart litter boxes, showing the intelligence and practicality of the product; there are also many interactions between kittens and their owners, such as owners celebrating the birthdays of cats, etc., the pictures are warm and appealing. PETKIT's Facebook ads also revolve around cute pet pictures, videos and interesting copywriting to attract users' attention and increase ad click-through rates.

In terms of display advertising alliances, PETKIT cooperates with Skimlinks and Google Display Network, and their desktop contributions are 88.36% and 11.64% respectively.

In addition, PETKIT also cooperates with several popular external link websites, including urlopener.net , thesprucepets.com , petkit.cn , findniche.com , and app.afterlib.com , to promote products to potential users.

From the perspective of product line analysis, PETKIT's products are much richer than Litter Robot. There are two automatic cleaning cat litter boxes on sale on the PETKIT website. The PETKIT PURAMAX is priced at $469. The cat litter box is equipped with space suitable for multiple cats, triple deodorization, and five cleaning modes. At the same time, the product has safety mechanisms such as infrared sensors and weight sensors to avoid "cats getting stuck". Users can also track the cat's weight and usage times through the APP. The product functions are relatively complete. In addition, the website also sells pet dryers, pet feeders, etc., which can solve pet needs in one stop.

In terms of website marketing methods, PETKIT uses interest-free installments to lower the purchase threshold, allowing more consumers to afford the product; at the same time, it conducts bundled sales, and users can add multiple products to the shopping cart with one click, which is quick and convenient and conducive to expanding overall sales.

The pet market will reach 550 billion US dollars, and businesses are scrambling to make a layout

According to the latest research report from Global Market Insights, the pet market size will reach US$280 billion in 2022, and the compound annual growth rate is expected to exceed 7% from 2023 to 2032. By 2032, the pet market size is expected to reach US$550 billion. With the improvement of pet status and the increasing anthropomorphic sentiment in pet consumption, the demand for subcategories in the pet products industry continues to expand, and the markets for eating tools, clothing accessories, etc. are growing rapidly, attracting more businesses to accelerate their layout.

Nowadays, it is a general trend for domestic enterprises to develop overseas business, but it is not easy to emulate excellent brands such as Litter Robot and Petkit , quickly break the ice and become a leader in the overseas market. Merchants must not only have excellent products, but also have insight into overseas market demand and the latest consumer habits, and carry out marketing and sales according to local conditions. This is a huge challenge for merchants who mainly focus on the domestic market or cross-border merchants who are accustomed to leveraging e-commerce platforms.

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