The Digital Paw-Print: E-commerce and Tech’s Impact on Petfood Delivery
Petfood logistics are evolving fast, driven by technology, data, and the growing demand for faster, fresher, and more trusted deliveries.
On October 15, 2025
Petfood logistics are evolving fast, driven by technology, data, and the growing demand for faster, fresher, and more trusted deliveries.
On October 15, 2025
We love our pets, and we love to feed them well — and behind every bowl lies the unseen world of petfood logistics.
The global petfood industry is healthy and growing. According to a 2023 report by Grand View Research, the global market, estimated in 2023 to be US$103.3 billion, is predicted to rise in value to $139.3 billion by 2030.
And within that overall market, an exciting segment is developing: pet care e-commerce, of which petfood is a significant part. From a value of about US$23 billion in 2022, it has been projected by Zion Market Research to grow to about $45.6 billion by 2030.
The petfood industry is primarily a subset of the fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) sector, as most petfood is manufactured by mixing and processing commodities such as meat, grains, and specialty ingredients formulated to give pets the nutrition they need.
Petfood logistics involves getting the raw materials to the right places in the right quantities at the right time, and then, for the e-commerce channel, transporting the end product, often in temperature-controlled conditions, to distribution centres and then to the end-users who have ordered the food.
As the raw materials that go into petfood are primarily agricultural commodities, they are subject to changes in production yield and also fluctuating prices. To help minimise these issues, sellers of petfood need to entrust their products to no-nonsense logistics providers who can get their products quickly and efficiently to market.
If you own pets, we know what you want when it comes to feeding them. Once you’ve found the right food for them, you want to be able to buy that food when you need it.
And all your pet wants is to be fed its favourite food, on time.
If you get your petfood via e-commerce, you want to be confident that delivery will be swift. You don’t want to have to run down to the supermarket to buy some petfood (that your pet probably won’t even like) because you don’t know when the food will come.
This calls for speed…
One of the big selling points of e-commerce, whatever the product, is the convenience of not having to leave your house to buy the product. Or the simplicity of clicking and collecting.
If you can get petfood delivered to your home regularly, that’s one less thing you have to worry about on your shopping list. No stress for you or your pet.
The petfood sector has its own characteristics that need to be understood in detail to ensure the success of the logistics that serves it.
This is where data analytics comes in.
Every point in the supply chain – every click, every order, every movement of a pallet of petfood, and every delivery – represents data that can be analysed to seek efficiencies in a complex network.
The end result? The smooth and efficient movement of both raw materials and finished products, from manufacturer to distributor to end-user. Happy owners. Happy pets.
When artificial intelligence is trained on vast amounts of data, it can detect patterns and find solutions that no human could ever see or manage on such a large scale. Individual delivery routes are optimised, peaks in demand can be predicted before they occur, and customer experiences can be tailored, even to the needs of individual owners and their pets.
AI is proving useful at every point in the petfood supply chain. In production and development, specialised software such as BESTMIX® (“Feeding the Future”) provides automation, innovation, and ease of formulation and documentation. And throughout the supply chain, AI can improve logistics and flag preventive maintenance to ensure that all the machinery and vehicles used in delivering your pet its food are operating at peak performance.
Pets are creatures of habit. They are predictable. If you could ask them what they want, a dog would say, “To be played with, to be taken for my daily walk, and to be fed my favourite food.” A cat would say, “To be left alone, and to be fed my favourite food.”
The challenge for the petfood sector is to ensure that your pet’s favourite food is always available, whether at the supermarket or ready to be delivered to your home. Some foods have shelf lives to manage, and the demand for some types is subject to seasonal fluctuations.
Too much petfood in the wrong place helps nobody. Not enough stock to satisfy demand results in upset pets and anxious owners.
It’s a fussy market. Luckily, the industry is well served by petfood logistics providers with the tools that enable them to stay ahead of the market.
Petfood logistics ensures that the right amount of petfood is available to satisfy the current demand, all within the constraints of shelf life. Modern technology enables petfood suppliers, distributors, and logistics providers to manage multiple inventories almost to perfection, with minimal wastage.
More detail on that fussy petfood market.
There is far more to petfood than dry biscuits. Petfood makers, in the drive to differentiate themselves and win new markets, also provide fresh and raw options and many different specialised foods to cater to the various dietary and health needs of pets.
This means that some petfoods need to be transported, warehoused, and delivered in temperature-controlled environments, whether chilled or frozen, to preserve the foods and extend their shelf life.
Various packaging techniques such as vacuum packing and multi-layer films with advanced barrier properties are also employed to control quality, prevent oxidation or contamination, and preserve petfood until the moment the seal is broken and the food is tipped into the bowl of a happy pet.
Purchasing products from a digital platform for the first time can seem a little risky. E-commerce brings with it real and perceived issues that create hurdles relating to trust.
But trust is becoming an asset to providers who can demonstrate to consumers that the integrity of their systems can always be relied upon.
Take the example of Mars, “the world’s first petfood company to commit to meeting the Global Dialogue on Seafood Traceability Standard (GDST).” Mars is acting on that commitment by partnering “with Wholechain, a blockchain-based system, to establish robust, end-to-end traceability across its seafood supply chains”.
The blockchain is a system that provides transparency traceability, confidence in authenticity, and security against tampering. It is a “trustless” system, meaning that it has been designed so that users don’t have to trust others or rely on third parties. No doubt, blockchain technology will begin to appear in more and more parts of the overall petfood supply chain.
The best petfood logistics providers are innovators in their field and experts in both FMCG and retail. They know the needs of the makers and the needs of the eaters, and they know that the success of their work is measured by happy, healthy pets and their happy owners.
Put your petfood distribution in the hands of a logistics provider that prides itself in understanding the expectations of its markets and then exceeding them.
FM Logistic: keeping your pet’s bowl supplied, day in, day out.
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