“The pet product market is rapidly swelling due to a recent increase in the older-generation households who adopted pets to overcome the empty nest syndrome as their children leave them. The older-generation consumers spend much more than that of other age groups in high-end pet food, pet furniture and pet fashion products, and quickly emerge as big spenders in the market.” (image: Greg McMullen/ Flickr)
SEOUL, Aug. 13 (Korea Bizwire) — A recent study shows that the retired “baby boomers” are rapidly turning into “pet boomers.”
According to a study conducted by Auction, Korea’s online auction and e-commerce company, on the sales of pet products on its website, the sales from buyers who are in the age group of 50s and 60s rose 30 percent over the previous year, which was double that of the growth for the overall sales of pet products over the same period.
The number of purchases from these age groups accounted for 64.4 percent of total sales of pet products. The proportion of the sales from the groups was 24.5 percent for cat products, and for other pet animals, it was 11.1 percent.
Especially as there has been an increase in the number of retired baby boomers who adopted cats, the sales of feline products surged by 50 percent compared to that of last year’s, and that of canine products increased by 25 percent as well.
The animal products for which baby boomers purchased particularly more in this year compared to last year were: premium dog foods (690%), automatic pet feeding machine (345%), pet nutritional supplements (300%), pet snacks (290%), and pet shampoo and rinse (275%).
The baby boomers were shown to be willing to open up their wallets for premium products and accessories for their pets, as the study showed that pet hair accessories (220%), pet furniture (215%) and handmade pet snacks (190%) are ranked within the top-ten products that witnessed high increase in sales from these consumers over the last year.
An official at Auction said, “The pet product market is rapidly swelling due to a recent increase in the older-generation households who adopted pets to overcome the empty nest syndrome as their children leave them. The older-generation consumers spend much more than that of other age groups in high-end pet food, pet furniture and pet fashion products, and quickly emerge as big spenders in the market.”
To make the best of such trend, the online retailer currently offers discount coupons for popular pet products and plans to host various promotional events for the consumers.
By J. H. Kim (jhkim@koreabizwire.com)
