Young people are already buying health products for pets this year

Zhu Zhicong, the world's online businessman

Edit Li Danchao

In 8 months, there were three more cats in Wu Min's life, some were friends, and some were stray cat rescue. These "hairy children" brought her a lot of trouble out of thin air, but also soothed her soul.

Cats are very warm and worn out: some cats love hair loss, and some urinary systems have problems. Wu Min "grasped the medicine according to the prescription" and moved back to a bag of cat food that looked quite "tall". They claim to add probiotics and immune protein to the main grain, which can provide pets and diuretic functions.

In the process of looking at the cat master, Wu Min later realized that he stepped into a new field called "functional pet food".

Strictly speaking, this is not a brand new concept, but with the improvement of pet grain research and development technology and the change of contemporary young people, from the unknown niche formula food to gradually entered the market vision, becoming a pet grain merchant A major trend recognition and sought after.

At present, the overall proportion of "functional pet food" in pet grains is still small, but the growth rate is amazing. In 2021, cross -border e -commerce Tmall International imported functional pet food sales increased by more than 100%, and individual categories even exceeded 200%.

A secret but clear trend is hidden behind countless young "cat slaves" like Wu Min.

When cat food becomes "health products"

As early as many years ago, the concept of functional pet food has been born.

In other words, it is a formula that was born with pet commodity grain and designed for a relatively small part of pet groups. As an example of the person in charge of Tmall International Pet Industry: Some pets are inherently prone to problems in the stomach, urinary, and skin, and pets with specific nutritional ingredients have emerged.

With the changes in the relationship between pets and pets, those who have received attention are no longer limited to health issues. Reducing tear marks and fresh tone has become a new selling point for functional pet food. For example, the book Xiaoya is currently a LiveClear (smooth) cat food that can neutralize the special allergen on the cat and reduce the allergic response to the cat. Very dazzling.

"It (functional pet food) is actually adding some nutrients to pet grains, or something that makes pets healthier, which can solve the problem of pets at a certain aspect of the pet." Shu Xiaoya said.

From the perspective of Robeam, the person in charge of "Instinct Fresh Instinct", the so -called functional pet food is not a new concept, but a "consistent, always existed" product line.

This American pet grain brand with a history of more than 20 years has recently launched a new RAW Longevity ("Fresh Parent") staple food frozen and dry series. According to Robeam, the series of staple foods are based on fresh frozen and dry, adding probiotics, taurine, and a variety of vitamins, which have specific effects on pet immunity, muscles, heart, gastrointestinal and hair. To a certain extent, "long fresh companion" can be regarded as a masterpiece that has been deeply cultivated on a functional pet food track for many years.

Consumers' pursuit of labels such as "high protein" and "no valley" in the early days, to the pursuit of specific nutritional indicators, and to explore specific functional, Robeam believes that this is from "novice Xiaobai" to "cat raising cat" to "cat raising cat" to "cat raising cat" to "cat raising cat" to "cat raising cat" to "cat raising cat" to "cat raising cat" to "cat raising cat" to "cat raising cat" to "cat raising cat" to "cat raising cats" to "cat raising cats" to "cat raising cats" to "cat -raising cats" to "cat raising cats" to "cat raising cats" to "cat raising cats" to "cat raising cats" to "cat raising cats" to "cat raising cats" to "cat raising cats" The cognitive advanced curve of "Talent" is consistent.

Open the Tmall International Pet Food Review Area, the comments on specific functions are occupying the mainstream: "Mao Zhen's becoming smooth" "The dog has no urine for half a month" "The symptoms of sneezing in the family and itchy skin are good. a lot of"……

Shu Xiaoya said with a smile that, like the previous trend of the beauty industry, a large group of "cat slaves" are becoming a "ingredient party".

"Family" and "Mao Child"

The popularity of functional pets is inseparable from human care and love for pets.

Out of care, you will consider the health needs of cats and dogs; out of love, you will bet on them more time and capital costs. The generation of generations led by the post -95s and post -00s played a particularly critical role in it.

"What does pets mean for young people?" Robeam was thinking. He led the team to do many market research, and the final conclusion was that the role of pets was diversified. "For some young women's pets, cats are sometimes girlfriends, sometimes boyfriends, and sometimes they become children."

Amber, general manager of Hangzhou Journal Technology, observed a more direct trend: young people are increasingly willing to invest in pets. 95%of the employees of this company are cats and dog enthusiasts. Amber said that some employees eat very casually, but they must feed cats and dogs with top rations. "They are very particular about the matching degree of economic strength."

Pets are also constantly generalized. As practitioners and observers, Amber and Robeam also loved pets. The former raised two dogs and one cat, and the latter was also the "life winner" of cats and dogs.

The value provided by pets to people is upgrading from simple "function" to unsubstituing "emotions". Robeam recalled that when he was a kid, he was only for the home nursing home. It was fed with leftovers and leftovers. Buying commodity grains was already a symbol of "coquettishness". Today, pet grains have developed from "natural food" to "functional food", and the professionalism cannot be the same as.

"From the perspective of pets, I can't accompany you for a lifetime, but I spent my life with you." Amber bluntly, "As the emotional consumption continues to iterate and upgrade, pets have gradually become 'family' and 'and' and ' Mao child '. "Driven by emotional value, the young pets show two distinct consumption habits: one is" vertical "-the demand for pet food functions is increasingly subdivided: oral, stomach, hair, all of them, all of which are all There must be corresponding added components; the second is "picky" -the no longer blindly pursuing "high protein", "parallelism", "no valley", and their quality requirements for pet food are becoming more and more fine and diverse.

"The" picky "here is a neutral word." Robeam explained that the generation of generations of generations "more selected products and widespread vision."

The nonesses

"Functional pet food" with a variety of tricks, it is inevitable that it has attracted some doubts: Is it an IQ tax to increase the premium for some additional additives?

Shu Xiaoya first mentioned the reason and rigor of this session of consumers. "An ordinary buyer can analyze the differences between the composition between the two pet food and whether the data published by the official website is very thorough." Robeam has also seen consumers horizontally compare Chinese and overseas official website, and observe the detailed order of observation. He was amazed, "Is it an IQ tax? I believe that consumers can judge by the actual effect after selling data and the actual effect after use."

For Robeam, behind "functional" is the solid support of "technology". Instinct and their parent companies have many close -up independent research institutions in Europe and the United States. Based on the deepening of pet food for decades, Robeam judges that "functional pet food" is not only the future direction, but also the natural diet structure of animals. return.

This track that has attracted the attention of both supply and demand is still in the stage of just looking up: in imported big -name pet food, functional pet food only accounts for a small part of the total sales, in Instinct, this data is about 20%, longing for desire , Aikaman, etc., accounts for a smaller proportion. Some practitioners said that Chinese consumers' awareness of functional pet food needs to be improved. According to the foreign market, this will be a blue ocean full of opportunities.

But the change also happened unconsciously. Many merchants have begun to realize the importance of this direction. As an agent dealer, Amber obviously felt that in recent years, a large number of foreign brands have taken the initiative to find themselves, hoping to bring some functional "star products" that become popular overseas overseas. China, Cross -border E -commerce Tmall International is the preferred platform for these brands to settle in China.

On the way to discover and promote this trend, Tmall International and merchants inspired each other and achieve each other. Robeam remembers that as early as 2021, functional pet food was one of the important topics discussed when Instinct and Tmall International Primary School met.

Young users who are happy to "raising hair" have become a must -have for this pet grain merchant. Tmall International's trend marketing IP "Tmall International Opening Day" has specially released the new trend of "high -energy formula pet food" and functional pet food, and gradually deeply rooted in the hearts of notes and grass videos.

Since 2022, brands such as InstinCT, Desire, and Aiken have been linked to Tmall International and the new brand IP of Tmall and the new brand of treasures. According to the merchants, in the past 30 days, the number of users who eager for canned new products increased by 150%, and the turnover of Baili low -sensitive cat food increased by about 200%.

According to Shu Xiaoya, since 2021, Tmall International's functional pet food has begun to appear more than 100%of overall growth, such as strengthening immunity and anti -allergic category, and even reached 200%. Many new products have begun to emphasize their "functionality". April to August this year, Tmall's international functional pet food sales had reached 400 million yuan, with an average of 80 million yuan a month. In the first half of 2022, "functional pet food" increased by more than 300%in the search IPV (detailed page views) of Shoutao.

Use rationality to measure and select products, and use care and love to drive consumption. The solid emotional links of Gen Z and "Mao Children" are becoming the next chance of the pet industry.

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