Chewy is expanding makers’ storefronts ahead of the holidays

Dive short:

• Chewy has signed up more than 600 makers for Chewy Storefronts, which launched last year as an extension of the pet food and supply company’s influencer program, according to details shared with Marketing Dive.
• Storefronts allow participating pet owners and influencers to curate collections from different brands and promote products that match their content, including factors such as pet breed, size and type. A dedicated dashboard allows creators to track performance, while consumers can shop via affiliate links.
• Heading into the holidays, Chewy is focused at the intersection of storytelling from makers and commerce buy gifts for pets has experienced steady growth. Under the program, creators also get access to a unique sales code that they can hand out to followers to encourage shopping.

Diving insight:

Chewy’s Storefronts program allows the brand to connect with a broad spectrum of consumers who may be fans of pet-centric content creators. Sixty-six percent of American households owning a pet, with Americans spending $136.8 billion on this category in 2022, highlighting the potential to tie pet-related content to commerce.

Storefronts currently has over 600 creators and continues to accept requests. Notable participants in the program include Cody Taurus (@cody.tauras), who is proud of it 1 million TikTok followers. Taurus’ Shiba Inu appears regularly in his content. Another member is Kat Braden (@girlandadoodle). Her dog Oliver is a key part of Braden’s TikTok account, which is over 2.6 million followers.

Affiliate marketing is expected to take this into account $215.86 billion in consumer spending by 2025, reaching $287.09 billion by 2028. Pet Influencers, or pet influencershave demonstrated significant brand equity in recent years. For example, Doug the pug, who did that 3.5 million Instagram followershas appeared in Geico commercials.

Other notable brands have rolled out creator networks powered by affiliate marketing. Beauty store Sephora, for example, has one My Sephora store program in September. Home improvement retailer Lowe’s also recently introduced a storefront maker network. Walmart introduced a similar one Walmart maker platform in 2022.