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On the runway of Shanghai Pet Fashion Week, cute pets dressed in fashion walked alongside their owners; In the exotic pet experience store, customers interact with snakes and lizards; In pet supermarkets, there are a wide variety of clothing, smart devices, health products, and more... From "feeding necessities" to "emotional consumption", the pet economy is thriving and has become a new element of active urban consumption.

Building new consumption scenarios

Half Month Talk reporters saw numerous pet consumption scenes at Shanghai Pet Fashion Week, such as 15 "show and buy" pet fashion brand releases featuring pet runway shows, "Shanghai Pet Championship - Chasing Light and Cute Pet Run" featuring pet sports, "JD Supermarket's New Love Tail" featuring pet markets, "ANFFF and Harmony Public Welfare Art Exhibition" and "HappyPawPawPaw Pet Photography Exhibition" featuring pet art exhibitions, and so on.

Pet fashion fashion fashion show, photographed by Fang Zhe

Nowadays, the linkage between the pet economy and industries such as culture, tourism, and coffee is becoming increasingly close. Shanghai Pet Fashion Week collaborates with Coffee Culture Festival to launch a "Pet Friendly Coffee Party"; The Shanghai Museum held the "Qimiao Night" exhibition to attract cat carrying visitors to check in; New formats such as "cat cafes" are increasingly becoming popular consumption scenes among young people.

Data shows that there are over a hundred pet friendly shopping malls nationwide, and many cities have launched pet friendly spaces, including restaurants, hotels, commercial complexes, and other scenes, becoming important entrances for consumer traffic. In Shanghai, more than 40 pet friendly parks allow "furry children" to "play and discharge" in the entire area or designated areas, building a consumer ecology of "human pet integration". For example, Suhewan Wanda Plaza has created a pet business cluster, covering services such as foster care, grooming, photography, and customized catering.

The niche crawling pets and exotic pets are breaking the traditional pattern of the pet market dominated by cats and dogs, becoming the new favorites of young people. The "Shen Chu Gui Mo Interactive Pet Shop" located in Huangpu District, Shanghai, is a beneficiary of the exotic pet economy. Shop owner Cui Dejun has been selling climbing pets since 2016, and the store was originally only 6 square meters. In 2022, he added interactive pet grooming experience in the store and expanded the storefront to 160 square meters. At present, the store gathers various types of pets such as snakes, lizards, spiders, etc., which are loved by customers.

Generate new trends in consumption

The trend of "raising children" pets has become a driving force for a new trend in pet consumption. The White Paper on Pet Fashion Trends 2025, jointly released by Shanghai Pet Fashion Week and China's professional fashion information platform POP-FASHION, shows that from 2018 to 2023, the compound annual growth rate of pet supplies reached 13.6%. As the main force of pet ownership, people aged 25 to 34 account for 61.7% of pet owners, and their consumption decisions are mainly driven by emotions.

Dog food, snacks, clothes, toys, bathing, beauty treatments, health products... combined, the monthly expenses are considerable. "Holding a long haired dachshund in a blue hoodie, Ms. Li, a pet owner born in the 1980s, roughly calculated the expenses for the Half Moon Talk reporter. According to her introduction, the sausage dog breed is special and prone to spinal and bone problems. There are many health supplements needed in daily life, such as algae, joint care tablets, chondroitin sulfate, fish oil, etc. The average price of the products ranges from 100 to several hundred yuan.

There are still many "parents" like Ms. Li who specialize in raising pets. According to official data from Taobao, the sales of pet health products have experienced explosive growth. For example, sales of freeze-dried health products increased by over 8 times year-on-year, fish oil increased by over 9 times year-on-year, and lactoferrin increased by over 12 times year-on-year.

With the development of the economy and society, as well as the growth of citizens' consumption ability, the traditional logic of "guarding homes and nursing homes" for pet ownership is increasingly being overturned. Pets are given the status of "family members", and even basic necessities such as clothing, food, housing, and transportation are gradually becoming more refined. Pet owners' consumption needs are also shifting from "survival oriented" to "quality oriented".

In Shaoxing City Square, Ms. Mao, the post-90s generation, is socializing her pet corgi. For over a year, Ms. Mao has been arranging behavior guidance and socialization courses from professional pet trainers for her beloved pet almost every month.

During this year's Spring Festival, "00s generation" Zhu Han, who returned to her hometown in Hubei for the holiday, decided to leave her cat alone at home in Hangzhou because she was worried that her cat would be "too restless" during the Spring Festival travel rush. In order to take care of the kitten, not only do we have dedicated personnel come to provide feeding services, but we also install smart cameras at home to monitor the kitten's movements in real time.

Stimulate new consumption momentum

According to the report on the development of China's pet industry released by the Asia Pet Research Institute, it is estimated that by 2024, the number of pet dogs and cats in China will reach 187 million, and the size of the pet market will exceed 300 billion yuan. With the professionalization of pets, diversified service demands have begun to give rise to a "long tail market", driving the industry towards deeper development.

Pet fashion is no longer just limited to the clothing stage, but has also spawned pet collars, shoes, accessories, backpacks, and various smart wearable products. The development of related industries is gradually forming a complete ecological chain, "said Zhang Xin, General Manager of Shanghai International Fashion Center Park Management Co., Ltd. and Project Leader of Shanghai Pet Fashion Week." We have seized the opportunity of industry development and built a platform for participating brands.

For the pet economy, when pets become "family members" and their roles are restructured, there is still much market space to be explored. For example, with the rise of pet travel, while pet friendly businesses and hotels are increasing, many surveyed pet owning families also hope to provide more convenience.

Starting from April 8th, the railway department will pilot the high-speed rail pet transport service of "isolated transportation, separation of people and pets, and dedicated care" on some trains of the Beijing Shanghai high-speed railway; Railway 12306 has simultaneously launched the "pet check-in" function, allowing passengers to make online reservations at least 2 days in advance. After successful booking, one cat or dog pet that is domesticated and in good health, with a weight not exceeding 15 kilograms and a shoulder height not exceeding 40 centimeters, can be checked in with the vehicle.

Pet transport box for high-speed rail, photographed by Zhang Chenlin

The essence of the pet economy is' emotional infrastructure '. Industry insiders point out that when "furry children" become an important emotional support for urbanites, the blue ocean of pet economy goes far beyond the current upgrade of pet consumption. With the improvement of policies, technological empowerment, and business innovation, the pet economy will be directed towards a more humane social support system.