Americans love to love on and protect their pets – and the proof is in their shopping behavior during key moments throughout the year. This, according to a new data analysis from Pattern (a global e-commerce company).

In honor of National Pet Day on April 11, the data science team at Pattern tracked consumer demand (or the number of people shopping for a given item during a given period) for pet products on Amazon during every day of 2020 to understand what pet owners shopped for the most in 2020, and to project when pet products might see the biggest lift in demand in 2021.

Here’s what they found:

·      Consumer demand for pet food on Amazon skyrocketed 128% during the onset of the pandemic, compared to the average the rest of the year. It’s unlikely a spike like this will occur again, unless the nation experiences another widespread pandemic shut down.

·      Demand for pet clothes/costumes spiked 340% ahead of Halloween. We expect to see a similar spike in demand this year ahead of Halloween.

·      Demand for pet toys was up 40% overall during the holiday season and up 96% two weeks before Christmas. We expect to see a similar spike in demand this year during the holiday season.

Our full analysis includes breakdowns in demand for pet products by pet type.