Industry Data & Research
The numbers behind a $150 billion industry — and what they mean for your business decisions in 2026.
The US pet industry is one of the most resilient consumer spending categories in existence. It grew through the 2008 financial crisis, through the pandemic, and through post-pandemic inflation — each time emerging larger. Total US pet industry revenue reached approximately $150 billion in 2025, and analysts project it will surpass $200 billion by 2030.
Pet services — grooming, boarding, daycare, and training — represent roughly $12 billion of that total, growing at 6 to 8 percent annually. That growth rate outpaces most retail categories and reflects a long-running trend: pet owners are spending more on services, not just products.
Demand for pet services starts with ownership. As of the most recent APPA National Pet Owners Survey, 67 percent of US households own at least one pet — approximately 90.5 million households. Dogs remain the most popular pet, present in 65.1 million households. Cats follow at 46.5 million households.
Millennial and Gen Z pet owners are disproportionately driving service spending. These demographics treat pets as family members, are more likely to seek professional grooming, boarding, and training, and are more willing to pay for premium experiences. This generational shift is structural, not cyclical — it will sustain growth for the next two decades.
The average dog owner spends more than $1,400 per year on their pet across all categories. Cat owners average over $900 annually. These figures have climbed steadily, and premium service adoption has accelerated — up 34 percent since 2020 as owners gravitate toward grooming, professional boarding, enrichment daycare, and positive-reinforcement training.
For your business, this means clients are not just accepting price increases — they expect a higher quality of service to match. The operators who invest in better client communication, cleaner facilities, and modern software are capturing a larger share of this growing spend.
This is one of the most actionable statistics in the industry. The average no-show rate for pet grooming appointments without any automated reminder system is 18 to 22 percent. That means roughly 1 in 5 appointments simply does not show up.
With a well-structured automated SMS reminder workflow — typically a confirmation at booking, a 48-hour reminder, and a same-morning reminder — that rate drops to 4 to 6 percent. For a busy salon running 30 appointments per day, closing that gap recovers several thousand dollars in lost revenue every week.
Despite the industry's size and sophistication, software adoption among independent operators remains surprisingly low. Only about 31 percent of independent pet care businesses use purpose-built management software. The remaining 69 percent still operate on paper appointment books, spreadsheets, generic booking platforms not built for pet care, or a combination of all three.
This is both a problem and an opportunity. The problem: those operators are losing money to no-shows, manual errors, inefficient client communication, and time spent on administration instead of service delivery. The opportunity: any operator who adopts modern software today is gaining a meaningful competitive advantage over the majority of the market.
Retention is the most underestimated lever in pet care. It costs five times more to acquire a new client than to retain an existing one — and in pet care, a retained client books on predictable cycles, refers friends, and is significantly less price-sensitive than a first-time visitor.
Pet businesses that follow up with clients via SMS — appointment reminders, post-visit check-ins, birthday messages, rebooking prompts — retain 78 percent more clients annually than those with no systematic follow-up. Automated follow-up does not need to be sophisticated; it needs to be consistent.
Average grooming ticket prices have risen approximately 22 percent since 2020, driven by inflation, rising labor costs, and increasing consumer acceptance of premium pricing for quality service. The current range for a full-service groom is $55 to $85 for most mid-market salons, with premium salons and mobile groomers often charging $90 to $130.
Boarding nightly rates have similarly increased. Standard boarding now runs $45 to $85 per night at most facilities, with suite and premium options ranging higher. Owners who have not raised prices in two or more years are almost certainly undercharging relative to their actual cost structure.
Not all segments are growing at the same rate. Dog daycare is expanding at approximately 9 percent annually — driven by dual-income households with dogs who need structured enrichment during work hours. Mobile grooming is the fastest-growing segment at approximately 11 percent per year, fueled by convenience demand and low entry costs. Traditional boarding is growing at a steadier 7 percent annually.
For established boarding facilities, adding daycare is one of the highest-ROI expansions available — it uses existing infrastructure and staff during hours that would otherwise be idle.
The data on software impact is consistent across studies: pet businesses using dedicated scheduling and management software report 31 percent fewer no-shows and 24 percent faster checkout times on average. Both translate directly to revenue and labor savings.
Beyond the operational metrics, software-enabled businesses communicate better — automated reminders, digital intake forms, photo updates during boarding stays, and post-visit report cards all contribute to retention and referral rates that manual operations cannot match.
The statistics above point to a clear pattern: most of the biggest profit drains in a pet care business — no-shows, poor retention, manual checkout, missed follow-ups — are software-solvable problems. Animal Friends OS was built by an operator who ran a busy multi-service shop and experienced all of these problems firsthand.
No contracts. No per-user fees. No add-on modules for core features. Three plans — Starter $69, Professional $109, and Premium $169 a month, plus a one-time $49 activation fee — and none of them charge you per staff member.
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