Selling pet products online is one of the most promising opportunities in e-commerce in Spain. The market continues to grow, customers shop frequently, and they are deeply committed to their pets. However, it is also a highly competitive sector, with large specialty chains and marketplaces that are squeezing profit margins.
In this guide, we walk you through, step by step, what a brand, manufacturer, or store needs to sell online successfully.
1. Understand the market and your customers
Spain has more than 15 million registered pets, and the pet food industry generates over 2.1 billion euros in revenue (you can find all the figures in the 2025 report on the pet food market in Spain). But behind every purchase, there are very different profiles: the first-time owner who needs advice, the expert looking for a specific brand, and the professional buying for their clinic or store.
Before designing the store, clearly define who your customers are: dogs, cats, or other animals? Food, accessories, grooming, or health products? End consumers, professional customers, or both?
2. Choose the right platform
There is no single platform that’s best for everyone. The choice depends on the size of your product catalog, ERP integrations, whether you sell in the B2B market, subscription models, and international expansion. At TRILOGI, we are technology-agnostic and evaluate each project based on eight criteria: time to deployment, features, integration, adaptability, security, SLA, dependencies, and total cost.
- Shopify or Shopify Plus for D2C brands that want to launch quickly.
- PrestaShop or WooCommerce for medium-sized catalogs with custom requirements.
- LogiCommerce for large catalogs, B2B and B2C on a single platform, and complex integrations.
If you'd like to learn more, here's our guide on how to create a professional online store.
3. Create a catalog to help with the selection process
In the pet industry, the product catalog is complex: species, breeds, sizes, ages, bag sizes, flavors, and special needs. A good online catalog needs:
- Filters by breed, age, size, and specific needs (neutered, sensitive, senior, grain-free, etc.).
- Complete product profiles: ingredients, nutritional information, recommended serving sizes, sizes, and actual photos.
- Well-organized options: formats and sizes listed on a single product page, not twenty separate products.
- Expert content that answers questions before customers even have them.
4. Attracts qualified traffic
- SEO: Content organized by species, breed, and need, and optimized product pages. It’s the most profitable channel in the medium term. Learn more about SEO for e-commerce.
- Google Shopping and Search to reach people who are already looking for your product. We'll take a look at this in Google Ads for e-commerce.
- Social Media and User-Generated Content (UGC): Pets are the most shared content on the internet. Take advantage of your customers and specialized content creators.
- Visibility in AI: More and more business owners are asking ChatGPT what I plan to choose. Optimizing your GEO helps you appear in those responses.
5. Convert and build loyalty: repeat business is everything
The sector's greatest asset is repeat business. A customer who returns every month for years is worth much more than any one-time sale. To achieve this:
- Subscriptions and restock reminders tailored to your pet. We explain this in our guide on how to sell pet food via online subscription, and you can try out the calculation using our pet food bag duration calculator.
- Automated emails and text messages: welcome messages, restocking reminders, pet birthdays, and life stage changes.
- Loyalty programs and benefits for our best customers.
- Immediate assistance from an AI-powered assistant that recommends products and answers questions at any time.
6. Decide on your marketplace strategy
Amazon and other marketplaces provide visibility and volume, but they also squeeze your margins and distance you from your customers. The best strategy is usually a combination of marketplaces to attract customers and your own store to build loyalty, with inventory, prices, and orders synchronized across all channels.
7. Don't forget the professional channel
If you’re a manufacturer or distributor, veterinary clinics, pet stores, and breeders also want to shop online, using their own pricing and order history. A B2B portal integrated with your ERP system significantly boosts sales efficiency. We discuss this in “B2B E-commerce in the Veterinary Sector.”
8. Complies with regulations
- Veterinary drugs may only be sold online if they are not prescription-only, and only by authorized pharmacies and establishments, in compliance with the requirements of Royal Decree 666/2023.
- Law 7/2023 on animal welfare changed the rules for pet stores: they can no longer sell dogs, cats, or ferrets, which increases the importance of pet food, accessories, and services.
- Labeling, consumer information, data protection, and terms of sale: the usual stuff in e-commerce, but done right.
Conclusion
Selling pet products online successfully requires more than just a nice-looking store: it requires a product catalog that helps customers make choices, qualified traffic, a solid repeat-purchase strategy, and all channels seamlessly integrated. Brands that achieve this build long-lasting relationships with their customers.
At TRILOGI, we're a marketing and e-commerce agency for the pet industry, and we've worked with brands such as Ownat, Kit Cat, VetNova, Cotecnica, Albet, and Freedog. If you want to grow your brand online, let's talk.
