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- We were just at Global Pet Expo, here’s what we saw
We were just at Global Pet Expo, here’s what we saw
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Trust Is the New Search
What Global Pet Expo 2026 Revealed About the Future of Pet Commerce
Global Pet Expo is still one of the biggest events on the pet industry calendar with thousands of brands, buyers, creators, retailers, and professionals all in one place for a few days that feel like an immersive version of everything happening in pet right now. And the noise has only gotten louder.
But underneath the noise, something is becoming clear: this industry is in the middle of a structural shift in how products get discovered, how trust gets built, and where brands actually grow. We were on the floor at GPE 2026 this year. Here’s what we saw.
The Market Is Growing and Pet Budgets Are the Last to Get Cut
$165B projected 2026 | According to American Pet Products Association, the U.S. pet industry hit $158 billion in 2025 and is on track for $165 billion in 2026 in an economic environment where consumers are cutting everything else first. |
Despite inflation and real economic anxiety, 50% of pet owners spent the same or more on their pets in 2025. Gen Z and Millennials reported actively cutting other personal expenses before touching their pet budget. The loyalty driving this market runs directly through the relationships pet parents have with the professionals who care for their animals, and that trust is where the real growth is happening.
Four Shifts That Were Impossible to Ignore at Global
01 Creator-led commerce is the most efficient channel in pet right now TikTok Shop pet supply sales surged 129% to $780 million in 2025. Brands adding three to five creator videos to product listings are seeing meaningful sales lifts and lower return rates. The creator-to-customer pipeline isn’t a future bet, it’s the most efficient acquisition channel in pet right now. The number of creators on the show floor this year was noticeably higher than before. Brands are paying attention. |
02 AI is eating traditional search and human trust is the last man standing AI shopping assistants (Google’s Gemini or Amazon’s Rufus) are bypassing traditional e-commerce search entirely and delivering direct product recommendations. For brands built around SEO, this is an existential problem. The most defensible distribution channel left is the one AI can’t replicate: a trusted human recommendation. A trainer who knows a specific dog’s allergies. A walker who knows what actually motivates that animal. That’s the edge no algorithm can build. |
03 The influencer energy felt different this year, because it is The volume of creators at GPE 2026 was meaningfully higher than in previous years, and they weren’t just there for content, they were there to do business. Global Petfluence Studio, produced by Pets on Q and DogTV, captured the scale in shooting startup videos, brand booth interviews, and podcast episodes in just a few days. What stood out was the direction of the relationship: brands weren’t just recruiting influencers. Influencers were coming to brands, actively looking for products to carry and partnerships to build. Brands that aren’t accessible to that community are leaving growth on the table. |
04 The trade show ROI equation has fundamentally changed 7+ years ago, you could walk into Global Pet Expo and leave with signed purchase orders. That dynamic is gone. Booths now run $50,000 to $100,000+ when everything is factored in, and the brands at this year’s show were unanimous: conversations on the floor are relationship starters, not closers. The ROI increasingly lives in the months before and after the event, in the digital infrastructure that keeps those relationships active year-round. |
The Question That Stopped a Room
At The Pet Summit, ShopDot Pet founder Michelle Huie opened her session with two questions:
“How many of you recommended a product to a pet parent this week?” Almost every hand went up. “Now, how many of you know where they bought it?” |
The silence that followed was the point. Pet professionals (trainers, walkers, sitters, and local retailers) are the most trusted recommendation source in a $158 billion industry. Pet parents ask them what to buy and they follow through. But between the recommendation and the transaction, there’s a gap. The professional makes the call. The pet parent buys somewhere else. The brand gets the sale. The professional gets nothing.
That gap costs the entire ecosystem. And it’s the problem ShopDot Pet was built to close.
What This Means for Brands
The four trends above point to the same conclusion: the most defensible growth channel in pet is human trust, and the most direct path to human trust runs through pet professionals. AI is reducing organic search visibility. Paid advertising costs are rising. Retail shelf space is margin-compressed.
“The only channel getting stronger? Human trust.” |
There are 190,000+ pet care businesses in the U.S. with direct, recurring, trusted relationships with pet parents. Those professionals are already recommending products, just not through a channel that connects back to the brand. Brands that build real partnerships with pet professionals aren’t just adding a distribution channel. They’re building a network of advocates with a stake in the relationship.
That’s what ShopDot Pet is built for. ShopDot Pet connects brands with the pet professionals already recommending their products through a storefront system that requires no inventory, no tech setup, and no change to how professionals work with their clients. 200+ brands are already on the platform. If your brand isn’t in that network yet, you’re relying on channels that are getting harder to compete in. |
What This Means for Pet Professionals
The challenge for pet professionals has never been motivation, it’s been access. Every e-commerce model that emerged over the last decade assumed time, a large following, technical skill, or upfront capital. Shopify required building a whole store. Affiliates required an audience. Wholesale required inventory. The result: pet professionals stayed outside the commerce ecosystem even as the brands they recommended grew around them.
The model that actually works is simpler. A branded storefront featuring brands they already trust, that lives wherever they communicate with clients: a booking confirmation, an email signature, a text after an appointment. No inventory. No tech setup. Just a way to earn from trust that’s already been built.
ShopDot Pet is that model. Pet professionals get a free, branded storefront curated from 200+ brands, that works wherever they already communicate with clients. Brands handle inventory and fulfillment on the back end, professionals just recommend, share, and earn. Setup takes minutes, and the storefront works whether you have 50 clients or 5,000 followers. |
The Window Is Now
Global Pet Expo 2026 confirmed what’s been building for a while: the old acquisition playbooks are running out of room. The brands and professionals who figure out how to connect trust to commerce, in a way that’s sustainable and actually works for how pet professionals operate, are the ones who will define the next decade of this industry.
The infrastructure to do that exists. The communities are ready. The question is whether you’re connected to them.