Another Traffic Drop for Chewy; PetSmart Up 6.4% for Quarter

Pets Retail & Services update for March: Chewy is down 1.3% for March, 1.7% for the quarter

Despite a considerable lead in total traffic, Chewy has been seeing its share of traffic drop for several months, down 2.2 points in March, according to Similarweb estimates for a set of competitors that includes PetSmart, Petco, Rover, Wag Walking, and Bark Box. Chewy still commands over 50% of this Pets Retail & Services market segment, however.

Meanwhile, PetSmart grew its share by 1.6 points to 17% of traffic. These figures are based on traffic from within the US.

Key takeaways

• Chewy’s traffic dropped 1.3% in March and 1.7% for the first quarter on a year-over-year basis.
• Rover grew its traffic by 13.9% in March and 20.9% for the quarter, year-over-year. The company provides dog walking, pet sitting, and other services to pet owners.
• PetSmart’s traffic was up 7% for March and 6.4% for the quarter, year-over-year.
• Petco’s traffic was up 7% for March but just 0.5% for the quarter, year-over-year.
• Traffic for Wag Walking was down 6.7% for March and the same amount for the quarter, year-over-year.
• Bark Box’s traffic saw the biggest decline, down 12.6% for March and 16.6% for the quarter.

Biggest year-over-year gain for PetSmart, the biggest loss for BarkBox

Here is how the market has shifted over the past year.

Traffic was up from February to March

Compared with February, PetSmart showed the biggest monthly gain in traffic, and Bark Box also showed signs of bouncing back.

Traffic share continues to shift away from Chewy

The year-over-year shift in the share of traffic, although incremental, shows the biggest loss for Chewy and almost as big of a gain for PetSmart.

Chewy still wins for scale

Chewy still attracts nearly two and a half times more traffic than its next largest competitor, Petco, and seven times as much as the fast-growing Rover.

On the other hand, Chewy’s share of traffic from among these competitors, at just over 50% as of March, represents a drop from 52% a year ago – reflecting its own loss of traffic as well as gains by competitors. However, a recent Motley Fool analysis found that although Chewy’s customer count has dropped, that may be a factor of necessary price increases that will improve profitability in the long run.

Companies mentioned in this report include Chewy (NYSE: CHWY), Petco (NASDAQ: WOOF), PetSmart (NASDAQ: PETM), Rover (NASDAQ: ROVR), Wag (NASDAQ: PET), and Bark Box (NASDAQ: BARK). The primary statistics cited in this report are for traffic from within the United States.

The Similarweb Insights & Communications team is available to pull additional or updated data on request for the news media (journalists are invited to write to press@similarweb.com). When citing our data, please reference Similarweb as the source and link back to the most relevant blog post or similarweb.com/blog/insights/.

Contact: For more information, please write to press@similarweb.com.

Report By: David F. Carr, Senior Insights Manager

Methodology

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by David F. Carr

David covers social media, digital advertising, and generative AI. With a background in web trends since the 1990s, he’s also the author of "Social Collaboration for Dummies".