Product Report: private label cat litter vs. national brands

Online shopping has drawn an increasingly larger share of shoppers in the cat litter market, according to a report from Packaged Facts, Rockville, Md., but brick-and-mortar stores such as Walmart and supercenters are still preferred options, where private label brands are holding their own.

The research firm recently published the second edition of its category report, “Pet Litter, Clean-Up, and Odor Control: U.S. Market Trends and Opportunities,” and shared exclusively with Store Brands how store brands are stacking up.

The company cited a consumer survey that showed 34% of litter-using households buying Nestlé Purina’s Tidy Cats, coming in as the most widely used brand, with 21% of those consumers saying they used the brand “exclusively.” Comparatively, Clorox’s Fresh Step brand saw 23% of consumers buying it regularly with 12% of those consumers saying they use it exclusively, and Arm & Hammer saw 20% of consumers using the brand with 11% using it exclusively.

As for private brands, the survey said 17% of litter-using households buy store brands and 11% of those consumers use store brands exclusively.

Taking a closer look at key demographic indicators around store brand litter buyers, the Packaged Facts report showed just under 22% of consumers in the survey to be from households with an income between $25,000-$49,000, and roughly 20% lived in the top 25 to 100 DMAs, had two kids in the house and rented.

Looking at retailers, Walmart topped the list as the most-shopped cat litter destination with 37% of consumers in the survey having purchased there in the past year. Nearly a quarter of cat owners also shopped at supercenters and mass merchants, and Petco and PetSmart saw 15% of consumers buying there.

An interesting trend though is 36% of cat owners said they are having cat litter delivered to their homes, with 13% doing it via online order and 13% doing it through an automatic subscription refill.