Pet parents are voting with their wallets, and increasingly, they’re voting for retailers over veterinarians. According to Vetsource’s 2026 white paper analyzing data from over 6,500 practices, veterinary visits declined 3.1% per practice in 2025, including a 3.8% drop in wellness visits. Meanwhile, major retailers are capturing market share by solving the exact pain points that keep pet owners away from veterinary clinics.

Here’s what these retail giants understand about today’s consumer that the veterinary profession might be missing—and what clinics can do about it.

Unpredictable costs and sticker shock drive pet owners away

Vetsource’s latest analysis shows that prices are continuing to rise faster than practice revenue, suggesting that higher visit charges are masking an ongoing decline in patient volume. And for many pet owners, uncertainty is just as much of a problem as the total cost. They walk into a clinic not knowing if they’ll pay $200 or $2,000, and that unpredictability keeps them from booking appointments at all.

Retailers have recognized this pain point and responded. Costco, for example, competes on price transparency through its Member Prescription Program, which lets pet owners search prices for medications such as Apoquel, Rimadyl, Heartgard and Vetmedin before filling a prescription. Discounts vary by medication, with savings of up to 40% available on some pet prescriptions. Costco says it negotiates directly with suppliers and manufacturers and passes the savings directly to members.

Transparency and affordability in pricing are key to securing consumer loyalty, according to an analysis of consumer behavior from global management consulting firm BCG. And Harvard Business School research confirms that cost transparency builds trust, which in turn increases purchase intent.

Veterinary practices don’t need to match Costco’s prices to compete, but they can focus on being transparent. Forward-thinking practices could publish price ranges for common services on their website or offer estimate calculators for routine procedures. At the minimum, they should be providing written estimates before any service. When clients know what to expect, price sensitivity decreases and trust increases.

The 9-to-5 clinic in a 24/7 world

According to PetDesk’s 2025 Pet Parent Research Report, half of pet owners report problems booking veterinary appointments. In addition:

• 33% say they can’t book while the clinic is closed
• 24% cite an inability to book online
• 78% consider the ability to book at any time and on any device important
• 31% say they’re likely to switch veterinary clinics, rising to 40% among younger owners and 42% among urban owners.

In response to these types of pet owner frustrations, Walmart has expanded its pet care offerings with an emphasis on flexibility. Walmart+ gives members 24/7 virtual access to Pawp’s team of veterinary professionals through unlimited text and video consultations.

Veterinary practices may not be able to staff their clinics 24/7, but they can become more accessible by overcoming their resistance to telehealth. While Walmart embraces virtual care as a competitive advantage, much of the veterinary profession has been anti-telemedicine, often citing concerns about quality of care or regulatory constraints.

Yet pet owners increasingly expect virtual options for triage, medication refills and follow-up checks. Practices that insist on in-person visits for every interaction risk losing clients to retailers (or other vet clinics) who accommodate their needs and wants.

The “never run out” message: When convenience drives compliance

Vetsource’s data reveals that product purchases at veterinary clinics have dropped 7% year-over-year, and wellness visits (where preventive medications and ongoing prescriptions are typically discussed) are declining faster than sick visits. Pet owners struggle with medication compliance not because they don’t care, but because their pets’ medication needs compete with a thousand other demands.

Chewy has built an empire on solving this exact problem. The company reports that its Autoship program now represents 84% of total sales, rising 11% year-over-year and significantly outpacing overall revenue growth.

Chewy CEO Sumit Singh has explained that for healthcare products specifically, “humans are bad at feeding humans medication. We forget to feed our pets. So if you have the option of putting that on recurring delivery, combined with an ongoing engaged program and the notification engine put behind it, it fuels even stronger compliance rates.”

Amazon’s Subscribe & Save program operates on the same principle, with messaging that emphasizes convenience over discounts: “Never run out again” and “Delivered automatically” often outperform price-focused hooks because busy pet owners value time savings over marginal cost reductions.

To compete, veterinarians can implement automated refill and reminder systems that function more like subscriptions. Many practice management systems can flag patients due for preventive medications and automatically generate reminders via text or email. Better yet, clinics can offer to preauthorize recurring prescriptions with automatic notifications when it’s time to pick up.

Partnering with online pharmacies rather than competing with them can maintain the relationship. If, for example, clients prefer Chewy’s convenience, clinics can make it easy for them to use Chewy while keeping the practice in the loop for medical oversight. The goal is to own the relationship even if the practice doesn’t own the transaction.

Every click counts: The friction tax on client experience

Modern consumers have been trained by Amazon, Uber and DoorDash to expect seamless, intuitive experiences. Veterinary practices, meanwhile, often require phone calls during business hours to book appointments, paper forms to be filled out, and unclear communication about what happens next.

For better or worse, the pandemic changed consumer behavior permanently. McKinsey research shows that over a third of Americans have made omnichannel features, such as buying online and picking up in store or curbside, part of their regular shopping routine since COVID-19, and nearly two-thirds plan to continue. The expectation is for seamless switching between channels.

Chewy is also moving more heavily into veterinary care itself. In April 2026, the company announced plans to acquire Modern Animal, a technology-forward veterinary platform with 30 clinics and 24/7 virtual care. The acquisition expands Chewy’s owned veterinary footprint from 18 to 47 locations and further integrate clinical care, pharmacy, e-commerce and membership services.

Many overworked veterinary teams can’t take one second out of their jam-packed days to figure out how to reduce friction in their client experience. But they don’t have to. Existing technology can often be better leveraged to reduce the burden on both staff and clients. Practice management software with client portals, online appointment booking, and automated reminders can eliminate the cycle of phone tag, data entry, and manual follow-up calls.

When clients can book appointments online at midnight or access their pets’ records through a portal, it frees up the team to focus on actual patient care rather than administrative tasks. Small pain points compound for everyone. The clinics that thrive will be those that leverage technology to make the experience easier for everyone.

One-size-fits-all when pet owners expect personalization

Pet owners increasingly view their pets as family members with unique needs, yet many still receive the same standardized wellness protocols regardless of lifestyle, breed-specific concerns, or their own budget constraints.

Chewy has invested heavily in AI-driven personalization that tailors product recommendations and marketing messages based on pet profiles like breed, age and preferences. It’s about relevance. When a Labrador owner logs in, they see joint supplements and large-breed food. When a cat owner with a diabetic pet visits, they see relevant products and content.

Personalization in veterinary medicine should be the profession’s competitive advantage, not a retailer’s. Veterinarians have the medical expertise and the patient data, and using it strategically is key. Practices can segment client communications by life stage (puppy/kitten, adult, senior), breed-specific concerns, or known conditions. A bulldog owner needs different information than a border collie owner. A diabetic cat’s family needs different touchpoints than a family with a healthy young cat.

Using practice management software to flag these segments and tailor outreach accordingly (much of which can be automated) demonstrates that the practice knows each of its patients as an individual. And no retailer can match that.

The path forward: Competing on what retailers can’t match

Here’s the reality: Veterinary practices can’t out-Amazon Amazon or out-Costco Costco on price and convenience. But they can learn from their playbook about what modern consumers expect: transparency, accessibility, convenience, seamless experiences and personalization. And they can apply those principles to the one thing retailers absolutely cannot provide: veterinary medical expertise and the doctor-client-patient relationship.

Consumers will likely continue to raise the bar, expecting speed to become table stakes while adding low cost, reliability and ease of transacting to their expectations. The veterinary practices that thrive won’t be those trying to compete with retail on retail’s terms. They’ll be the ones that remove the barriers keeping pet owners away while doubling down on medical excellence.

The question is: What friction points are practices inadvertently creating that make it easier for pet owners to choose retail convenience over veterinary care? If veterinarians (and the companies that serve them) start there, they can start winning back the pet parents who are quietly slipping away.