In this post:
- The typical day, week, and year for pet services
- The top days for pet services across the country
- The cities and states where people spend the most on their pets
- For local pet service businesses: How do you stack up?
To celebrate National Pet Day, which is coming up on April 11th, we decided to do a deep dive into the small businesses and local services dedicated to pets of all shapes and sizes.
From veterinarians to groomers, from pet stores to shelters — there’s no question that our pets have a significant impact on a wide variety of local businesses across the country. So we analyzed 5,900 local pet service businesses across multiple categories to learn more about when and where Americans spend the most on their pets.
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The average day, week, and month for pet services
The average day for a local pet service or business can vary widely depending on the type of business. You’d expect to be spending more per visit at a local veterinarian, for example, than your neighborhood groomer. But just how different does the average day look at different pet service businesses?
We started by analyzing the average day at four major types of pet service businesses: Veterinarians, pet stores, pet grooming businesses, and pet boarding businesses. We looked at the average number of daily transactions, the average daily revenue, and the average price paid per customer transaction (ticket) at each of these categories across the country.
Here’s what we found:
As you might expect, veterinarians on average brought in the most revenue per day throughout the year. Pet stores saw the most foot traffic with 25 transactions on a given day, but with customers spending less per-transaction than at any other pet-related business.
Most surprising, perhaps, was that an average trip to a local boarding place cost pet owners slightly more than an average trip to the vet.
Which days of the week are the busiest for veterinarians, pet stores, groomers, and boarding places?
Next we looked at which days of the week brought the most business for each pet service business.
Veterinarians are busiest on Mondays through Fridays
Veterinarians did 88% of their business during Mondays through Fridays, with very little day-to-day fluctuation between weekdays. Only 17% of veterinarians were open on Sundays, making it by far the slowest day of the week.
When customers make a vet visit on a Sunday, however, they spent an average of $190 per transaction — 34% more than the weekly average.
Fridays and Saturdays are big for pet stores
Fridays and Saturdays represented the biggest days of the week for local pet stores. Weekdays saw a perfectly even split of 14% each. Sundays, with 33% of local pet stores staying closed for the day, came in as the slowest day of the week.
Groomers are busiest on Fridays and Saturdays
Saturdays and Fridays were also the biggest days of the week for grooming businesses. Sundays once more proved to be a slow day for pet services, with 65% of groomers taking the day off. Interestingly, 27% of grooming businesses remained closed on Mondays as well, making it the second slowest day of the week.
Pet boarding businesses do most business on Mondays
With most transactions taking place after picking up the family pet after weekend away, Mondays were the biggest days of the week for pet boarding businesses.
Which months are biggest for local pet service businesses?
Next we broke down the average daily revenue for each month of the year to see which months represented the most profitable time of year for local pet service businesses.
Summertime is busiest for veterinarians
As you can see in the chart above, veterinarians start the year slow, but make a steady climb each month as the weather gets warmer outside. June and July mark the busiest months of the year for vets, averaging over $2,600 per day in revenue in the dog days of summer.
The holidays are big for local pet stores
Pet stores also experience their slowest month in January, but things even out through spring and summertime. The holiday season clearly brings big business for pet stores, with stores bringing in over $100 more per day than the annual average throughout the month.
Pet grooming businesses have animals looking good over the summer and for the holidays
Pet grooming businesses continue the slow January trend, but for the most part revenue stays fairly consistent from month to month. July, November, and December come in as the top revenue-producing months, suggesting pets get a fresh summer haircut, and spruced up again for family photos over the holidays.
Summer vacation is big for pet boarding businesses
Pet boarding businesses experience the most dramatic seasonal shifts. An 85% increase in average daily revenue between the slowest month (February) and the busiest (July) suggests that summer vacation means your local pet boarding business is likely just as booked as your local hotels and lodges.
When are the biggest single days of the year for local pet service businesses?
Now that we’ve seen which months bring the biggest average days overall, let’s take a look at the single-day high points for local pet service businesses.
4th of July festivities coincide with big business for veterinarians
Summertime is clearly the busy season for veterinarians, and no days were more consistently busy than those surrounding popular summer holidays.
Three of the top five days of the year for veterinarians fall within a week of the 4th of July. The day after Labor Day was the 6th busiest day of the year, and the day after Memorial Day was the 7th busiest.
Last minute Christmas and Easter shopping are huge for pet stores
Christmas and Easter dominated the top five days of the year for local pet stores, with most shoppers saving the pet store for their last-minute shopping needs.
Fridays and Saturdays were big for pet stores across the board. Of the top 50 days of the year, only the day before Thanksgiving (35th) fell on a day other than Friday or Saturday.
Pet owners like their pets looking nice for Thanksgiving and Christmas
Four of the top five days for groomers come in the days before the biggest family holidays of the year. Clearly, pets across the country are showing up to Thanksgiving dinner and family Christmas parties looking their very best.
Major holidays represent the biggest days for pet boarding businesses
As you might expect, major holiday weekends represented the biggest days for pet boarding places. Particularly the day immediately following major holidays and high-travel long weekend holidays like Labor Day and Memorial Day.
Adopting a pet is a popular Valentine’s Day gift
While we didn’t analyze local shelters in the same manner we did other pet services, we decided to look at which days were the busiest for shelters across the country.
Our analysis shows that it’s clear that adopting a furry friend is one of the most popular romantic gestures around. The weekend before the holiday were the 1st and 9th busiest days of the year, while the weekend after were the 3rd and 4th.
Where do people spend the most on their pets?
The final portion of our National Pet Day analysis brings us looking at which cities spend the most on their pets.
We started by looking at pet stores to see where we might find the most spoiled pets in the country.
Finally, we looked at the cities where people spend the most on taking their pets to the vet.
With all but one of the top cities for veterinarians located outside of the Golden State, Californians are serious comes to spending money at the vet to keep their pets healthy.
Own or manage a pet service business? How does your business stack up?
Do you own or manage a pet service business of any kind? If so, how does your business compare to some of the trends we outlined above? Are you outpacing your local competition? Or are you falling behind?
Staying on top of local trends and keeping an eye on the competition are two of the most important insights any business owner should know. And Womply’s reputation management software makes it easier than ever to do all that and more.
Womply’s business insights tool can help you stop guessing and start knowing exactly how your business is performing. Learn more, plus get free reputation monitoring and customer insights when you sign up for Womply Free!
Whether you own a small grooming shop, a big animal hospital, or anything between, we here at Womply want you to celebrate this National Pet Day by making 2019 your most successful year yet!