Pet industry decision-makers have long worked with one hand tied behind their backs: by the time market data reaches them, the consumer behavior it describes has often already shifted. A new initiative from the World Pet Association wants to close that gap for good.
The World Pet Association (WPA) announced the launch of petLENS, a new market intelligence platform developed in partnership with BSM Partners. Unveiled at SUPERZOO 2026 in Las Vegas, petLENS is designed to give pet industry professionals continuous, year-round access to consumer research, category insights, and expert analysis, rather than the periodic, quickly outdated snapshots the industry has traditionally relied on.
The Problem petLENS Is Built to Solve
Many of the industry’s biggest decisions — from inventory planning and product assortment to channel strategy and where to invest next — are still being made using data that’s months out of date by the time it reaches decision-makers. Consumer behavior, meanwhile, can shift well before that information gap closes, leaving businesses reacting to trends after the fact rather than anticipating them in advance.
“The pet industry doesn’t lack expertise. It lacks the ability to see around corners,” said Mike Karsting, Senior Vice President at WPA. “Retailers, brands, distributors — every part of this industry is making decisions today based on where the market was months ago, not where it’s actually headed. petLENS gives this industry that forecasting ability year-round.”
What Powers petLENS
At the core of the platform sits what WPA describes as the largest continuous consumer research initiative in the pet industry, built on ongoing tracking and surveying of more than 75,000 pet owners. That data is paired with interpretation from a team spanning data scientists, researchers, veterinarians, and product scientists with deep pet industry experience.
Notably, the research isn’t limited to dogs and cats. It also covers birds, reptiles, small mammals, and aquatic pets — species categories that have historically been underrepresented in mainstream pet industry research, despite representing meaningful segments of pet ownership worldwide.
Two Distinct Layers of Insight
petLENS is structured around two complementary offerings, each serving a different kind of decision-making need.
petLENS Pulse functions as a monthly index report built around five core pillars: Sentiment and Ownership, Spending and Shopping Behavior, Category and Product, Discovery and Loyalty, and Health and Wellness. It’s designed to help retailers, brands, and other stakeholders spot emerging trends, flag risks early, and guide practical action — whether that means adjusting a purchase order, resetting a store shelf, or catching a market shift before it shows up in sales figures. The first Pulse report is set to launch in September.
petLENS Spotlight, meanwhile, offers deeper, more focused analysis. Each quarter brings a new set of studies examining a specific product category or broader industry trend through consumer research, trend data, and expert insight. Spotlight is built to translate big-picture perspective into actionable growth strategy — helping a manufacturer decide what to develop next, or a retailer understand exactly what’s drawing shoppers into a category and into their stores specifically.
Continuous Measurement Over One-Time Snapshots
Michael Johnson, Principal of Marketing, Insights and Innovation at BSM Partners, framed the platform’s core philosophy around a fundamental shift in how pet industry research typically works. “Most research in this industry is a snapshot: a survey at one point, a sales report at another,” Johnson said. “petLENS never stops measuring because the consumer never stops evolving. We continuously study and track pet owners to understand their behaviors, needs, concerns and how we in the industry can better support their journeys. To do that, we need to know what’s happening now, not what happened years ago.”
Backed by Decades of Industry Infrastructure
The launch builds on WPA’s long-standing role in the pet industry. Founded in 1950, WPA is the sector’s oldest nonprofit organization, known for connecting pet professionals through its flagship trade shows SUPERZOO and GROOM’D. Through its Good Works program, proceeds from these events flow back into industry organizations and nonprofits including the World Alliance of Grooming Associations, the National Animal Interest Alliance, USARK, HABRI, the Pet Advocacy Network, and Pet Care Trust/Pets in the Classroom, among others.
BSM Partners, the firm behind petLENS’s research infrastructure, positions itself as the pet industry’s largest full-service strategy-to-shelf innovation firm, working across formulation, sourcing, claims, and consumer insight to help clients bring thousands of new products to market each year.
What This Means for the Industry Going Forward
For an industry where timing can make the difference between catching a trend early and missing it entirely, petLENS represents a meaningful shift toward continuous, always-on market intelligence. As the first petLENS Pulse report prepares to launch in September, pet industry stakeholders — from major retailers to emerging brands — will get their first real test of whether this kind of ongoing research can genuinely help them anticipate market shifts rather than simply react to them after the fact.
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