Four Paws Are Better than None : Negative Life Events and Loneliness Increase Spending on Pets

While pet ownership has increased +5% between 2019 and 2022, total spending on pets has grown five times more. With 70% of U.S. households owning a pet, understanding what drives increases in pet spending is paramount for managers in the $171 billion pet care industry. We advance the hypothesis that higher levels of loneliness increase pet spending as a form of compensation for a loss of sociality. Combining panel data on pet spending from U.S. households experiencing divorce or loss of a partner with experimental methods and a social media advertising campaign, we demonstrate that loneliness increases pet spending, but only for specific types of pets. Our findings provide important contributions to the literature on compensatory consumption and human-animal interactions. Importantly, our findings assist marketing managers in the growing pet care industry by providing guidance on segmentation and targeting based on life events, psychological states and type of pet, and the use of copy text in pet-related marketing communications