Source | Pet Business Insight (宠经说) A fact: China's pet consumption market is undergoing a structural transformation from "radical explosion" to "steady growth." According to the Tmall Double 11 best list, the brands that rank at the top are almost all head brands with high repurchase rates and long-term operations. On some short-video platforms, pet white-label products that once dominated the charts through low-price traffic investment have seen a noticeable decline in popularity, making it difficult to recreate the wealth-creation myth of "exploding for a few months and then disappearing." In simple terms, the demand for pet ownership is still growing rapidly, but money is increasingly flowing to brands that are "worth spending on"—those that truly understand nutrition, health, and the mindset of pet owners. Recently, the first brand ranking entirely based on actual consumer purchase behavior—the Global Brands China Online 500 (CBI500)—has provided a new "ruler" for the pet industry. This list, jointly released by the National School of Development at Peking University, the Institute of Digital Finance at Peking University, and the Business School at Sun Yat-sen University, shows that 12 pet brands made the list, 10 of which are domestic brands. Among them, Royal Canin ranked first in the pet brand category, while Myfoodie (麦富迪) led the domestic brands with an overall ranking of 80th and second in the pet industry. Emerging brands like Fregate (弗列加特) and Sunlan (鲜朗) have collectively risen, marking that "Chinese cats and dogs eat Chinese food" is becoming a reality, not just a slogan. Image/China Online Consumer Brand Index Report (Source: Official website of the National School of Development at Peking University) More importantly, when this list strips away factors such as market capitalization, capital stories, and "marketing buzz," and only quantifies multi-dimensional data like sales, pricing, search heat, positive review rates, and new customer growth, we find a commonality: the top-ranked pet brands are all "strong mind-share brands" that have long been deeply cultivating niche tracks and have established clear recognition in the minds of pet owners. This actually illustrates a harsh and clear conclusion: when the traffic tide recedes, pet owners truly choose "brand mind-share," not the "short-term illusion" built by traffic and subsidies. So, in the next three years, how should pet brands truly build a "brand mind-share with R&D and product strength"? And where can they find the soil for robust growth?
Traffic Recedes, "Brand Mind-Share" Takes Over
It is undeniable that in the early stages of China's online pet consumption, "traffic" was once the most critical weapon for brand breakthroughs. At that time, a few waves of heavy advertising on platforms, combined with short-video scripts like "recommended by veterinarians" or "No.1 in meat content across the internet," plus a few live-streaming sessions with top influencers, could push an unfamiliar pet staple food to the top of sales charts within a short period. Deeply binding with top influencers and spending money to occupy search terms were regarded by many companies as "core competitiveness." But problems followed—undeniably, in China's online pet consumption market, "traffic" once became the most critical factor for brand breakthroughs. At that time, with a barrage of "seeding posts," cute pet short-video placements, and a few top live-streaming sessions, an unfamiliar pet staple food could quickly rise to the top of sales charts. Deeply binding with top influencers and spending money to occupy search terms were seen by many companies as "core competitiveness." But at the same time, rising customer acquisition costs and frequent industry chaos such as "toxic food," false labeling, and substandard nutrition followed. It was precisely for this reason that when the dividend receded, the false prosperity built by traffic collapsed instantly, and products with poor quality were quickly abandoned by increasingly knowledgeable consumers. From this perspective, the reshuffling of Tmall Double 11 rankings in recent years has also helped the market look beyond traffic and price, finding a quantitative indicator that truly measures high-value, quality brands in the minds of consumers. Further analyzing the 2025 Tmall Double 11 results, we noticed that the brands on the list did not necessarily create overnight wealth miracles, but without exception, they built unique technical barriers and consumer recognition by analyzing pet ownership needs in niche areas. Conversely, the "white-label" brands that quickly rose and fell due to recommendation algorithms and traffic in the early days are rarely seen on the list. Data source: Tmall Double 11 list, chart by Pet Business Insight At the same time, from the performance on the CBI500 list, it can be found that the listed brands share a common feature: long-term continuous investment in formulas and processes, forming stable and verifiable technical barriers; through years of word-of-mouth and repurchase, they gradually plant a "clear label" in the minds of pet owners. In the staple food track, Royal has long been deeply cultivating a professional nutrition system around "different breeds, ages, and health issues," building a complete professional system from scientific research, formulas, to hospital channel coordination. Domestic brand Myfoodie, with high meat content, high palatability, and continuous process innovation, combined with years of accumulated online operational capabilities, has become one of the representatives of "domestic premium alternatives." Fregate, Sunlan, and others have precisely entered new process tracks such as baked food, freeze-dried food, and functional snacks, relying on differentiated positioning and stable repurchase. In contrast, those pet white-label brands that caught the traffic dividend around 2020 and relied on massive advertising and channel operations to achieve "monthly sales exceeding 100 million" either had messy product lines and vague positioning, or lacked long-term R&D and clear audience anchors, making it difficult to form "brand power" and "innovation power" that can survive cycles. Traffic overdraws not only consumer patience but also a brand's sustainable business value. This is also the fundamental reason why many pet brands "explode for three months and then go silent for three years."
Pet Brands Enter the "Alchemy Era"
Pet Business Insight once tracked the fate of a batch of pet white-label brands: ultimately, it was found that most of these low-price, volume-driven brands had a lifecycle of less than one year, and some even disappeared after a single "overturn" incident. A person in charge of a pet food brand admitted: "White-label brands are just a flash in the pan in a traffic-driven society. You can allow them to exist, but this model is hard to sustain because what is ultimately tested is the comprehensive brand value—pet owners will vote with their feet." Data also proves this. Jiuqian's Double 11 promotion analysis shows: against the backdrop of overall pet category growth across the three major e-commerce platforms, Tmall Pets maintained the top position with over 60% market share, while also maintaining double-digit high growth, with an explosion coefficient as high as 280%. "The market is lively, but what truly runs on Tmall are those brands that have already established clear brand mind-share." Another pet food brand head told Pet Business Insight that many industrial belt enterprises, through massive traffic investment in previous years, created a batch of low-price pet foods with considerable monthly sales. However, these white-label brands have extremely short lifecycles. In the traffic model, pet owners recognize "cheapness." Once prices rise or traffic investment stops, users immediately leave, and it is impossible to convert them into brand assets. Therefore, these companies are now also beginning to focus on exploring the process of brand building. A pet owner mentioned to Pet Business Insight: "Without a brand, we only recognize the category of 'dog food.' Whoever has a lower price or more gifts, I will go there. But if it's Royal, Acana, or Sunlan, we actively search for them." Perhaps it is for this reason that even though some white-label merchants have already explored a mature and replicable "hit product logic," they all, without exception, have written "brand building" into their phased goals. Undoubtedly, competition in the pet brand sector has entered a new "Alchemy Era," where "brand building" is the core, and formula innovation and process upgrades are the driving forces for growth. For mature brands, continuous and in-depth "brand building" can help them improve their product matrix. For example, NetEase Yanxuan, from early cost-effective bestsellers to the current "NetEase Tiancheng" series, is continuously building a high-end mind-share for the brand. For some emerging brands still in their infancy, "brand building" is an important driving force for strengthening market competitiveness and subsequent growth. For example, Lanshine (蓝氏), through its "hunting pigeon" big single-product strategy, quickly entered the top camp during Tmall Double 11, firmly imprinting a "functional hunting" mark in users' minds. Undoubtedly, using technology (such as fresh meat injection and freeze-dried freshness locking) and innovation to support growth has become a necessity for pet brands on the path of long-termism.
Where Do Good Brands That Can Cross Cycles Deeply Cultivate?
Brand growth anxiety does not only come from whether their own innovation is in place; changes in the platform environment are equally key variables. A founder of an emerging brand admitted: "On platforms that rely entirely on traffic investment for growth, it is difficult for brands to accumulate 'their own people.' The platform is more like a huge advertising space than a 'reservoir' for brand assets—once the budget stops, search and recommendation positions are immediately taken by others. Loyalty is out of the question, and repurchase is unstable." In fact, since 2024, major e-commerce platforms have been tightening the "extreme low price" gameplay, emphasizing that they no longer simply judge heroes by price. This round of "anti-low-price involution" is particularly evident in the pet industry: on one hand, the proportion of high-quality, high-unit-price products is rising; on the other hand, some white-label brands that only rely on low prices to climb the charts are finding it increasingly difficult to reproduce the "chart-topping myth" of the past. From this perspective, for merchants, the real pain point of brands has shifted from "whether there is traffic" to "whether they can accumulate brand assets in a reasonable environment." Here, a very interesting phenomenon is: among the pet brands on the CBI500 list, many have chosen Tmall as the "brand home field" for their online business— On one hand, Tmall's pet industry has maintained growth for many years, with annual transaction scale ranking first across multiple platforms, and annual purchasing users exceeding 100 million. It has both a large enough market and higher average order value and more mature brand mind-share. On the other hand, from 618 to Double 11, Tmall has released relatively clear "long-termism" signals for pet brands in terms of new product incentives, off-platform traffic introduction, and membership system operations. According to public reports, at the pet brand CEO private meeting before Asia Pet Fair, the head of Taobao Tmall Pets explicitly stated that the core driving force for platform growth comes from innovative tracks such as new process food, breed-specific food, smart supplies, pet medicine and health care, and small pets and exotic pets, and will regard "incubating brands and expanding the brand market" as a key direction for the next few years. It is worth mentioning that a cat litter brand head who operates on multiple platforms told Pet Business Insight that some interest-based e-commerce platforms are actually difficult to make money on, and can be said to be unprofitable. Those who can make money on short-video platforms are mostly brands with particularly poor product strength. In other words, for pet brands that hope to deeply cultivate long-term, the importance of platforms has shifted from "give me traffic" to "help me accumulate people and recognition." From a macro perspective, whether it is the pet brand landscape presented by CBI500 or the promotional results of Double 11 and 618 in the past two years, they all point to the same trend: high-quality, strong R&D, and highly innovative pet brands will increasingly have the opportunity to achieve long-term, snowballing growth. In this context, for pet brands to truly cross cycles, they need to do at least three things: 1. Make products that can withstand review. No longer satisfied with "good-looking formula sheets" or "easy-to-explain selling points," but able to stand firm in professional channels, test data, and long-term word-of-mouth, so that pet owners are willing to repurchase again and again, rather than being one-time seeded. 2. Turn R&D into a user-facing story. Translate raw material sources, process advantages, and nutritional mechanisms into language that pet owners can understand and remember—just like "whole wheat," "zero sugar," and "high protein" in human food—turning complex science into simple labels. At the same time, leverage industry authoritative media like Pet Business Insight (宠经说) to deconstruct technical connotations through high-quality in-depth reports, providing solid theoretical support for simple marketing labels and building a professional moat for the brand. 3. Find channel partners that can grow together. No longer treat platforms simply as "billboards" and "clearance channels," but choose partners who are willing to help brands accumulate assets and amplify mind-share through data insights, people operations, and brand activities. The future pet industry is destined to enter an "Alchemy Era" centered on brand value and driven by product innovation. Only those companies that can continuously understand the needs of pet owners, respond to these needs with innovative products, and slowly accumulate brand mind-share in appropriate channels will have the opportunity to stand firm in the next round of industry reshuffling and become truly "good brands." 【Moving Toward C-End】The 11th China FMCG Conference Time: March 16-18, 2026 Location: Chengdu, China