The pandemic pet boom
Greater isolation, less time outside and the general stress of the pandemic took its toll over the last 2+ years. For many of us, we found comfort in the company of pets.
Indeed, data from Google shows how searches for "puppies for sale", "adopt a dog" and "kittens" all spiked dramatically in March 2020, and stayed elevated for much of 2021, as America searched for its next family pet — to the benefit of the pet industry.
Pet-food-as-a-service
It may not have quite "done a Zoom", but for Chewy the pandemic was a boom time. The online pet food and pet supply company was already growing quickly, but it found itself on the right side of two trends at the same time: e-commerce and pets.
That translated into an acceleration in sales growth, with revenue jumping almost 50% in a year (2020 vs. 2019), and the company's share price more than tripling. At its peak that gave Chewy a cool $49 billion valuation, more than adidas, Honda, Lululemon or Chipotle are worth today.
