Ever tried re-ordering Fido’s kibble one-handed while the dog pulls on the lead? Zooplus built its funnel for exactly that moment.
Click here to read our latest pet supplies market report.
If you need proof that good UX converts, look at the numbers coming out of Zooplus.
While total organic visibility across the UK pet-supplies market flat-lined at 0 % year-on-year, Zooplus grew its traffic 52 % and barged into the top three, jumping Pet Drugs Online on the way.
That traction didn’t arrive by throwing money at PPC. It came from rebuilding every filter, breadcrumb and predictive-search prompt around human habit.
And the stakes are only getting bigger. UK pet-care e-commerce was worth just under USD 6 billion in 2023 and is forecast to top USD 8.9 billion by 2030, a 6 % CAGR.
Covid-era pet ownership pushed the addressable base even wider – 3.2 million UK households took in a “pandemic pet”, according to PFMA’s 2024 population update.
There are more pets, more baskets, but also more rival sites. In a sector where 0.63 % of searchers venture to page two, ranking and retaining now decide revenue.
This deep dive shows how Zooplus turned flawless UX into a growth engine – and which levers the rest of the market can still pull.
Market context – traffic up, wallets mobile
A static SERP, a growing wallet
Salience data paints a clear picture: despite the pet-care boom, organic market share barely moved, implying fierce zero-sum skirmishes for every keyword.
Yet consumer spending is rising. Owners dropped an extra £350 each on pets last year. The implication is blunt – you must steal clicks, not wait for the pie to grow.
Screens in the dog park
Mobile now owns 73% of pet-care e-commerce revenue, with desktop down at 26%.
Brands that “shrink” desktop designs instead of crafting touch-first journeys are leaving three-quarters of orders on the pavement.
Action jump-off: benchmark your mobile revenue share against that 73 %. If you’re double-digit points behind, you have a UX tax problem.
Brand numbers – who’s sprinting, who’s limping
Raw-number snapshot
| Rank | Brand | YoY traffic change |
| 1 | petsvilla.co.uk | +140% |
| 2 | shop.thepethealthclub.co.uk | +100% |
| 3 | hyperdrug.co.uk | +84% |
| 4 | pet-supermarket.co.uk | +81% |
| 5 | poochandmutt.co.uk | +78% |
Pets at Home still rules absolute traffic volume at 1.4 million monthly visits but slid 10 % YoY, evidence that domain authority alone won’t shore up leaks in product experience.
On the other hand, perfect-fit.co.uk has a 36% haemorrhage, proving that ignoring core-web-vital scores is not a victimless crime.
Seasonality strategy – surf the calm, dodge the troughs
Salience keyword modelling flags calming treats (+23%) and interactive cat toys (+7%) as breakout queries. Receding interest around traditional “dog bowls” (-24%) and “grain-free dog food” (-18%) suggests rangetidy opportunities: prune low-intent SKUs, reinvest copy and schema into rising topics.
Action jump-off: build content calendars around “renal diet for dogs” and “fresh cat food” before volume peaks – both already >30% YoY up.
Tactics in action – why Zooplus converts where others bounce
UX that rewards repeat behaviour
Re-order buttons fixed in the header. Subscribe & Save is framed as a default, not an add-on. ZooPoints turning £1 into dopamine: small gestures, colossal impact on LTV and CAC.
Search that autocorrects revenue loss.
Type “Roial Kamin”, autocomplete rescues you. Misspellers are check-out-ready – letting them 404 is rookie SEO.
Mobile feature parity, never sacrifice.
Every nutrition tab, gallery zoom, and loyalty CTA renders natively on <360 px. Zooplus rebuilt; it didn’t shrink. Result: no conversion dip, no trust dip, no session-time dip.
Merchandising that converts price sensitivity
Promo carousels surface on category pages, not buried in email. Strike-through logic exposes “Subscribe & Save” delta at a glance – a nudge worth more than any banner.
PDPs that read like CRO textbooks
Photo zoom, delivery ETA, FAQ accordions, bundled add-ons – all above the fold, yet the screen breathes. Depth without overwhelm.
Spot the sloppy SEO: Rivals still paginate filter tags into orphan URLs and wonder why the crawl budget tanks. Clean up your parameter handling before the next core update bites.
Engagement → conversion – the funnel maths
- Discovery – predictive search + autocomplete shaves average query time by 1.6 s (Zooplus internal figure).
- Consideration: Dynamic nutrition tables answer 80 % of “is it safe?” micro-questions without leaving the PDP.
- Decision – The loyalty point preview shows the reward before adding to the basket, lifting AOV by 7 %.
- Retention – re-order shortcut in sticky nav equals 14 % higher second-purchase rate (benchmarked against sector median).
Insert suggested visual: funnel graphic overlaying the four stages with measured lifts.
Key takeaways
- Zooplus proves that UX is SEO – fix intent friction before chasing links.
- Mobile now drives 73 % of sector revenue; treat desktop as a second screen, not a template.
- Keywords don’t die; they evolve – swap “grain-free” copy for “renal” and “fresh” before the next season.
- Loyalty mechanics beat coupon blasts – points, bundles and subscription tiering outlast one-off discounts.
- Measure against humans, not vanity metrics – bounce risk and micro-interaction lag predict churn faster than rankings.
Conclusion
The pet-supplies SERP is a kennel of heavyweights, but Zooplus shows there’s still room to run circles around slower dogs.
By attaching SEO to behaviour-led design – not tacking it on afterwards – the brand turned a flat market into a 52 % traffic surge and a top-three berth. Do the same and you’ll feel the lead slacken, too.
P.P.S We’re a specialist ecommerce agency with 15+ years of experience.