Carbon Beauty has grown to be one of the largest beauty retailers on Amazon today, selling 80+ clean beauty brands with a strategy that turns the third-party model on its head with their robust, customer-focused storefront. The business is pushing the envelope again, expanding into pet care.
Rowan is a pioneer in the pet care industry, offering a premium coat care line made from human-grade, naturally-derived ingredients for dogs with products free of sulfates, silicones, parabens, and dyes. Sally Clarke, Creative Director and Co-Founder of Rowan said, "to address the unique needs of dogs, we have partnered with a veterinary dermatologist to create products that beautifully maintain a dog's healthy coat and skin; our formulas use the latest clean skincare and hair care science because we believe that our furry friends deserve better, healthier products - just like we do." The brand will join clean beauty juggernauts Ilia, True Botanicals, and Innersense on Carbon Beauty's platform.
The humanization of a growing pet population and sales of premium products have contributed to the category's momentum. According to the American Pet Products Association data, the pet product industry surpassed $100 billion for the first time in 2020. US pet market revenue has increased every year in the last decade, growing from $50.96 billion in 2011 to an estimated $109.5 billion in 2021.
“In continuing to rethink the clean beauty space on Amazon, we recognized there was an unrealized opportunity to extend our product offerings to our customers' most cherished companions: their dogs," said Dan Sudman, Co-founder and CEO of Carbon Beauty. "Rowan's founders are incredibly passionate about creating a fully transparent brand with premium products that only use human-grade ingredients, and we knew this would strongly resonate with our clientele. This will be our first foray into the clean beauty pet space and we are beyond excited to be working with Rowan in this emerging category.”
Sudman continued, "Our mission at Carbon Beauty is to help brands navigate the unique set of challenges that come along with selling on Amazon and successfully scaling a business on the platform. Equally important is our commitment to preserving the brand image and integrity of our partners, which has redefined selling on Amazon in allowing premium brands to expand their reach while avoiding cannibalization and chaotic representation."
The intersection of pet care and beauty is not new. Beauty brand founders with fur babies have been exploring pet care for decades, but this time it feels different. Instead of a novelty, there appears to be a real category opportunity. Hot indie haircare Ouai launched ulti-mutt pet shampoo Fur Bebe, Aesop has an Animal Shampoo and New York-based luxury Julien Farel Salon launched a dog grooming brand Pride + Groom last summer.
“Our partnership with Carbon Beauty was as natural as the ingredients we use in our products," said Sally Clarke, Co-founder and Creative Director of Rowan. "The Carbon Beauty team truly understands our mission to clean up the products we use to keep our best fur friends clean, happy, and healthy. We can't wait to take our Amazon presence to the next level with their help.”
E-commerce sales in the household and pet care category are expected to increase by $56.4 billion globally by 2025, with Amazon set to lead the category growth ahead of the online pet specialists, according to data from Edge by Ascential. The report reveals that e-commerce currently accounts for 19.2% of household and pet care chain retail sales globally and will increase to 26.9% by 2025.
By 2025, Amazon sales in this category will increase by 11% to reach $27.2bn in sales. This is followed by Alibaba (+12.9% to $25.5bn) and JD.com (+13.8% to $13.7bn). Walmart is still expected to be the global market leader but will grow at a slower rate of 2.8% to reach $37.6bn. Dedicated pet care retailers PetSmart (+10.5% to $20bn) and Zooplus (+10% to $2.5bn) are also set to see strong growth between now and 2025, with PetSmart's online platform Chewy.com adding 1.6 million net active customers in Q1 2020.
