5 Signals From Asia That Show the Future of U.S. Pet Care

Issue #237

September 3, 2025

Quick Hits:

👏 Buffalo Bills receiver, Khalil Shakir, saved 19 dogs from euthanasia

❤️‍🔥 This dog extinguishes an explosive with her teeth that was thrown into her home

🏢 Real estate group, Terravet, nabs Okadale vet practice for $6M

🧦 Incredible hack to protect your pets leg and paws when necessary

💼 Lakefied Vet Group makes the Inc. 5000 list

🎯 Stella & Chewy’s makes its’ debut at Target

Asia has long been the world's trend laboratory. From mobile payments to social commerce, what starts in Shanghai, Seoul, or Tokyo often lands in San Francisco, LA and New York a few years later.

The pet industry is no exception.

While American pet parents are still debating whether dogs belong inside restaurants, Asian markets are building multi-story pet malls, running pet-only bullet trains, and turning pet insurance companies into public health agencies for animals.

This isn't just cultural curiosity, it's competitive intelligence.

Asia's pet industry innovations are riding massive demographic shifts. China's urban pet population exceeded 120M in 2024, and younger consumers there treat pets as children (much like we see in the US), not property.

These markets are testing formats that blend content, community, and commerce at scales the U.S. hasn't reached. The question isn't whether these trends will arrive here (although they make not look exactly the same in the states), but how fast you can adapt them before your competitors do.

We analyzed 2023-2025 data from industry reports, company filings, and local news across China, Japan, and South Korea to identify five breakout trends with quantifiable proof of Asia's lead.

For each, we'll show you how these concepts are already starting to emerge in the U.S. market - because the future is already here, just unevenly distributed.

1. Live Commerce: Where Pet Shopping Meets Entertainment

In China, pet owners don't just browse, they watch.

Live-streaming commerce on platforms like Douyin (TikTok's Chinese counterpart) hit ¥2.2 trillion RMB (~$340B) in 2023, with 88% coming from live streams and shoppable videos.

Pet products are riding this wave, with groomers broadcasting "doggie makeovers" while viewers buy the featured shampoo with one click.

The scale gap is staggering. Live commerce represents 60% of all Chinese e-commerce sales versus about 5% in the U.S.

By 2021, pet live-streams on Douyin were already outselling static posts.

How It's Emerging in the U.S.:

TikTok Shop & Live are gaining serious traction with pet products, though we're still in early innings.

More interesting is Whatnot, the live shopping app that's created a surprising pet product niche. Some sellers are moving serious volume. One creator recently sold out an entire shipment of exotic pet supplies in minutes during a chaotic live stream that looked more like unorthodox entertainment than commerce.

The difference?

American sellers are learning to blend spectacle with sales. They're not just demonstrating products; they're creating appointment viewing. Think QVC meets reality TV meets your local pet store.

Early adopters are seeing conversion rates that traditional e-commerce can't touch because live creates urgency and community simultaneously.

Don’t be surprised if pet retailers start hiring "stream hosts" in a year or so as a new job category. The ones who figure out the entertainment-commerce balance first will capture a generation of shoppers who find static product pages boring.

2. Pet Aftercare: Meeting Families in Their Darkest Moments

It feels uncomfortable discussing business alongside the loss of a beloved pet, but here's the reality…the current system for pet aftercare in America is fragmented and often fails families when they need support most.

Pet parents navigating one of the darkest moments of their lives frequently encounter cold logistics, confusing options, and minimal emotional support. The businesses worth discussing are those bringing empathy, dignity, and genuine care to an experience that's currently more painful than it needs to be.

In Japan, Hong Kong, and elsewhere, pet aftercare has evolved into a comprehensive memorial industry.

Tokyo's Setagaya Pet Saijō performs 50-60 full services monthly, where a priest conducts ceremonies, pets are cremated individually, and families receive ashes in decorative urns. But it doesn't end there, grieving owners return on symbolic dates (49 days after death, one-year anniversaries) for joint memorials where priests read deceased pets' names aloud. Companies offer pet ossuaries, subscription-based memorial tablets, and even "yukan" rituals (ceremonial bathing of the pet's body).

The infrastructure difference is striking. Japan has a pet funeral association with 130 member companies setting industry standards.

An estimated 40% of Japanese pet owners report deep grief after loss, with 30% saying formal funerals helped them feel some form of closure. Some temples now allow owners to eventually be buried with their pets' ashes - a level of integration that reflects how comprehensively they've addressed this need.

Compare this to the U.S., where pet cremation exists but often as an ad-hoc extension of vet clinics or human crematories. Most American pet owners face limited, fragmented options: usually cremation handled by their vet's outsourced partner, perhaps an urn or paw print mold. While 97% of Americans see their pets as family, the services available don't reflect this sentiment.

The Cremation Association of North America notes pet cremation is "one of the fastest growing death care markets," but it’s nowhere near as visible as in Asia.

How It's Emerging in the U.S.:

The U.S. market gap in pet bereavement care is widely known and some are making inroads to address it.

Love Baxter recently launched as the largest pet end-of-life platform. Through thousands of expert-written articles, a vetted directory of pet end-of-life professionals, online grief support plans, and a memorial store stocked with carefully curated keepsakes. They’ve built a compassionate hub, helping owners prepare, grieve, and remember with dignity and connection.

The shift is philosophical. American companies are finally recognizing that pet grief is real grief. We're seeing traditional human funeral homes add pet services, standalone pet funeral homes in major cities, and a proliferation of memorial products that would have seemed excessive five years ago.

The opportunity isn't just in death services, it's in the entire lifecycle of grief support.

Companies that can navigate the sensitivity while providing genuine comfort will find a market that's both emotionally and economically significant. This shift in afterlife care will continue to shift dramatically as our pets continue to become deeply ingrained into our families.

3. Pet Travel: From Accommodation to Amenity

Japan's JR Central railway ran a "Wan Wan Express" Shinkansen where an entire bullet train car was reserved for uncaged dogs. The train even had photo ops with dogs in conductor hats and professional trainers giving lectures.

China's Beijing-Shanghai high-speed rail launched pet consignment services with ventilated carriers and video monitoring. Hainan Airlines flew 10,000+ pets in-cabin across 27 major cities from 2018-2024.

How It's Emerging in the U.S.:

The U.S. is taking a different approach: if existing airlines won't accommodate pets properly, create new ones.

BarkAir, K9Jets, and Retrievair have all launched as pet-dedicated airlines. These aren't cargo services, they're luxury travel experiences where dogs are the primary passengers and humans are the plus-ones. I’m not even going to comment on our train system here in the states, but yeah there’s ample opportunity for improvements.

Meanwhile, services like Paws Abroad are emerging as platforms to handle everything from documentation to checklists and pet travel concierges for international travel. They're solving the complexity problem that keeps many pet owners from traveling with their animals.

The real innovation isn't in the transportation itself - it's in removing friction from pet travel. Every regulatory hurdle, every logistics challenge, every document, every moment of uncertainty is a business opportunity. The companies succeeding are those that make pet travel feel as simple as booking a regular ticket, even if the backend complexity is enormous.

4. Insurance as Health Authority

Japan's largest pet insurer, Anicom, publishes an annual "White Paper on Household Animals", essentially a CDC report for pets. Using 4+ million insurance claims annually, they identify breed-specific diseases, track lifespans (dogs now average 14.62 years in Japan), and even launched genetically-tailored pet foods based on their data.

With 106 veterinarians on staff plus geneticists and data scientists, they've positioned themselves as preventive health authorities, not just claim processors. They also run clinics and offer gut microbiome testing to +660K policy holders.

How It's Emerging in the U.S.:

U.S. insurers are starting to recognize the value of their data, though we're nowhere near Asia's integration level. Embrace releases quarterly claims highlights discussing trends like parasite spikes. Some insurers offer wellness add-ons, though these are reimbursement plans rather than integrated health services.

The real innovation is happening outside insurance. Companies like Embark partner with AnimalBiome for gut-health testing, while Hill's Pet Nutrition showcases microbiome-based products. The pieces exist, they're just not integrated under one roof like in Japan.

Academic efforts like the Dog Aging Project are filling some gaps, examining lifetime prevalence of conditions across breeds. But these are research initiatives, not commercial offerings.

The company that can combine insurance data, preventive services, and health products under one brand will have a massive competitive advantage. Insurance, clinics, and pharmacy all aligned around keeping pets healthy rather than just treating them when sick.

5. One-Stop Pet Destinations

Shanghai's MixC World mall dedicates an entire floor to 50+ pet businesses. From grooming spas and pet bakeries to photo studios and birthday party planners, complete with stroller rentals and hourly sitting. Guangzhou's BIBU Pet Store spans two stories with veterinary clinics, training spaces, and pet cafés under one architecturally stunning roof.

These aren't warehouses - they're destinations.

According to a white paper published in China, 40% of pet owners bought food from a vet hospital and 30% chose a vet hospital for grooming (up threefold since 2020), showing how service boundaries are dissolving.

How It's Emerging in the U.S.:

We don't have pet malls yet, but we're seeing interesting parallels in other sectors that could translate.

Pop Up Grocer curates emerging CPG brands in temporary retail experiences, creating discovery destinations for better-for-you products. Imagine that model applied to pets. A rotating showcase of innovative pet brands combined with services like grooming, training demos, and a coffee bar for humans.

The U.S. version won't be a permanent 50-store pet mall - it'll be more flexible and experiential. Think pet-focused popup markets in urban areas, combining product discovery with services and community. The winners will create spaces that feel less like shopping and more like pet community centers that happen to sell things.

Some traditional retailers are experimenting with this. Petco's addition of vet clinics is a step toward the integrated model, but they're still thinking transactionally rather than experientially. The breakthrough will come from someone who understands that modern pet parents want their pet errands to feel like lifestyle choices, not chores.

The Opportunity Landscape

These trends reveal three macro opportunities for U.S. pet businesses:

1. Data as Competitive Advantage Every business sits on data that could become content, products, or services. The question is whether you'll use it or let someone else fill that gap. Start treating your customer insights as assets, not afterthoughts.

2. Experience Over Transaction Asian markets prove pet parents will pay premium prices for elevated experiences. Every touchpoint, from live shopping to memorial services can be reimagined as meaningful rather than purely functional.

3. Integration Creates Value The artificial boundaries between pet retail, services, and healthcare are dissolving. Companies that can thoughtfully combine multiple touch points will capture more wallet share and build stronger relationships with pet parents.

The pets in Beijing, Tokyo, and Seoul are living in tomorrow's pet industry today. The smart money isn't on copying these models exactly (cultural differences and all) it's on understanding the underlying consumer needs they address and finding distinctly American ways to meet them. The race is on, and the early movers are already placing their bets.

Looks like “best car for dogs” has quietly been a sleeper topic and then exploded this year.

For the past five years, it floated between 8K–12K searches per month steady, niche interest from practical pet parents.

But in 2025, the curve spiked hard, topping 20K monthly searches with a 40% YoY lift. It’s a shift in how people are approaching dog ownership as part of their lifestyle.

Cars aren’t just transportation - they’re an extension of pet wellness, safety, and comfort. Owners want space for crates, easy-clean interiors, climate control, and crash-tested restraints baked into their buying decision.

This signals a major adjacency: auto brands are creeping into the pet economy.

Subaru, Volvo, Lexus, and Honda have already run “dog-friendly” campaigns, but the renewed demand suggests there’s white space for accessories, dealership tie-ins, and even aftermarket bundles (seat covers, ramps, restraints, crates) marketed as part of the car buying process.

Pet retailers could easily partner with auto dealers and makers, while DTC brands can lean into content like “top cars for large breeds” or “SUV hacks for road-trip dogs.”

Pet ownership is increasingly dictating big-ticket consumer choices.

See you Friday!