Ljubljana - One of the mainstay segments of online shopping is pet food, shows data from the price comparison platform Ceneje.si, which is part of the Heureka group. Demand in the dog food category rose by 14% year-on-year and in the cat food category by 65%.

"Dog and cat owners have been buying food online during the pandemic as well, and we expect the trend to continue. This year we have seen a significant increase in demand for pet food in all markets of the Heureka group," said Michal Buzek, chief data officer at Heureka.

Consumers have not switched to cheaper products, even though the price of dog food, for example, has gone up by 7% year-on-year. On the contrary, they have remained loyal to major brands and have been buying in bulk.

Meanwhile, certain categories have been seeing a decline in demand, such as leashes (-7%), carriers (-13%) and dog houses (-9%). "If there is one thing we are trying to save money on when it comes to caring for our pets, it is definitely not food or yummy additions," Buzek said.

The largest demand recorded by Ceneje.si was for large packaging bags of around 12 kg, with an average price of the dog food purchase being EUR 56.5.

Cat owners also showed great demand for larger purchases that cost EUR 25.3 on average.

Interest in pet fish is on the rise as well, the platform said, as this year's demand for fish tanks has increased by as much as 138% year-on-year.

"Teraristics and aquaristics categories recorded growth of more than 200% at the group level this year compared to the same period last year. This trend is also driven by the growing number of specialised online shops," said Buzek.