Record High Card Spending on Pets... Women and Singles Are Major Spenders

Annual Average Spending of 350,000 Won Per Person

As people increasingly treat pets such as dogs and cats like family members, the so-called 'pet economy' (pet+economy) has rapidly emerged, with last year's card spending on pets reaching approximately 350,000 KRW per person.

[Photo by Asia Economy DB]

According to an analysis by Shinhan Card Big Data Research Institute on the amounts spent by its customers from 2019 to 2022 at animal hospitals, pet hotels, pet cafes, and pet grooming franchise stores, the average annual spending per person was 353,000 KRW last year, an increase of 91,000 KRW compared to 262,000 KRW in 2019.

Spending related to pets has steadily increased each year, with 283,000 KRW in 2020 and 313,000 KRW in 2021. For a family of four owning one dog or cat, this amounts to an average annual card expenditure of about 1.41 million KRW on pets.

Additionally, the number of card transactions in the pet market surged by 21% last year compared to 2019.

Each year, the amount spent on pets per household is rising. Among customers who made card payments related to pets last year, 28% spent more than 300,000 KRW annually. This is a 3 percentage point increase from 25% the previous year, with 22% in 2019 and 23% in 2020.

The majority of customers were women. As of the end of February, 62% of card spending related to pets was by women, significantly higher than men at 38%.

Among customers who spent on pets with cards, singles accounted for 34.2% of the total. Newlyweds made up only 4.4%, while customers with adolescent children and adult children accounted for 30.4% and 18.2%, respectively.

[Photo by Asia Economy DB]

This reflects the trend of increasing numbers of women who remain unmarried or marry later, raising the tendency to raise dogs or cats alone.

As the number of consumers increased, pet-related stores also rapidly grew. The growth rate of new pet-related franchise stores last year was 48% higher than in 2019. In particular, pet hotels and pet training increased by 211% and 275%, respectively, while pet bathing and pet cafes surged by 144% and 50%, respectively.

It is estimated that the pet-owning population in Korea reached 15 million last year. The pet market size, which was 1.9 trillion KRW in 2015, grew to 3.4 trillion KRW in 2020, an increase of 1.8 times. The Korea Rural Economic Institute forecasts that it will exceed 6 trillion KRW by 2027.

Shinhan Card stated, “A pet family (pet+family) has emerged that does not hesitate to make large expenditures for their pets. Interest in pets is increasing, with online viewers becoming 'virtual pet owners' who watch pets raised by others through the internet.” They added, “Compared to animal hospitals, which have traditionally played a role in the pet market, many franchise stores specializing only in areas such as pet hotels and pet grooming have appeared.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.