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How to Start an Online Cat Business + Cat Business Ideas [2024]

GemPages Team
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Updated:
12 minutes read
How to Start an Online Cat Business + Cat Business Ideas [2024]

Cat parents treat their cats just like their family members.

They want to do everything possible to take proper care of their cats — from their need for healthy food to grooming to healthcare and wellness. 

By starting a cat business, you can help them give quality care with convenience.  Especially if you’re a cat lover yourself, you can build a business around something you love to do.

In this blog article, we’ll explore cat business ideas, the potential of cat businesses, and the complete guide on how to start an online cat business.

Is the cat business profitable?

Cats are hugely popular as pets as they are not only adorable but also independent, smart, and loyal to humans.

That said, when starting any new business, it’s understandable to have questions regarding its profitability. You may have questions like — 

  • Is the cat niche profitable?
  • Which cat business is right for me?

First, let’s address what’s the potential of cat businesses. The short answer is — Yes, running a cat business could be a profitable venture.

According to the 2023-2024 APPA National Pet Owners Survey Statistics, 46.5 million US households own cat(s). Just imagine how huge the cat business market is and it’s only expected to grow further.

Statistics showing the US households with pet(s)

When looking at the pet industry by animal type, cats contribute the second largest component with a $43 billion market share. 

Cats represent 30% of the total market share of the pet industry, i.e., $145 billion — and this number is expected to grow even more in the coming years.

All these statistics clearly suggest the opportunity and expected growth for cat businesses. All you need to do is brand and market your business with a unique, creative, and strategic approach.

Now, which cat business is right for you? We’ll review this aspect in the next section where we’ll go into the details of different cat business ideas.

Online Business Ideas for Starting a Cat Business

1. Cat Food & Treats Business

When we look at the overall US market for pet food & treats, it's valued at $66.9 billion in 2024 — which is the highest share in all categories.

  • Pet Food & Treats: $66.9 billion
  • Supplies, Live Animals & OTC Medicine: $32 billion
  • Vet Care & Product Sales: $39.1 billion
  • Other Services: $12.6 billion

Now, since we already know cats contribute the second largest component in the market, it goes without saying — the cat food & treats business is likely to have the biggest opportunity among all of the cat business ideas.

CAT'S LOVE is a great example of a cat food brand that offers various types of food items including wet food, dry food, and snacks.

Homepage of CAT'S LOVE

Pro tip: You can start a subscription-based food supply business for cat owners. Obviously, cat food is required on a recurring basis and that’s why you can create an enticing subscription model. This will also help you increase customer loyalty and the customer lifetime value (CLV).

2. Cat Toys Business

Cats are very playful by nature and toys can keep them entertained. Thus, cat toys are considered important for keeping them healthy and happy.

No wonder the cat toys market was valued at nearly US$1,015 million in 2023 and it's estimated to reach US$ 1,840 million by 2033.

Guestposts shared an inspiring story of Jim Boelke which gives us an idea about the potential of the cat toys business. Jim invented “Cat Dancer” during his college days and went on to build a million-dollar business selling the cat toy.

Guideposts’ article on Jim Boelke’s million-dollar cat business

3. Cat Accessories & Furniture

There are many cat accessories that you could sell online such as cat sofa beds, hair trimmers, wash gloves, food bowls, scratchers, and so on. You can start a cat accessories business through a dropshipping business model as well.

Let’s take an example of one of the products — “Cat tree”. You can search this keyword on Google Trends to evaluate its search interest over the years. As you can see here, it’s in high demand during the year-end (holiday season). But even during the other months, it has reasonably good search interest around the 40s.

Google Trends showing the search interest for cat trees

Happy & Polly is an amazing brand selling various types of products for cats. Here’s one of the cat tree products on Happy & Polly’s store which is being sold as a high-ticket product.

Product page for four leaf clover cat tree on Happy & Polly

4. Niche Blog for Cat

Are you a writer and qualified expert who has experience in taking care of cats? If yes, you can start a niche blog where you can write all things about taking care of cats.

For inspiration, you can take a look at cats.com. Cats.com's mission is to share knowledge to enhance the quality of life for cats. It has veterinarian-written guides on topics related to cat health and medications.

Homepage of Cats.com

Initially, you can start writing the blog content with your own expertise and knowledge. And then, as the blog grows and starts generating good revenue, you can also start hiring freelance or full-time writers to help you write content.

You can monetize your blog in multiple different ways. Here are some of the popular methods to monetize your blog:

  • Paid ads: Display ad networks like Google AdSense, Mediavine, media.net, and Ezoic let you monetize your blog by displaying ads on your website/blog.
  • Direct sponsorships: Promote sponsorship slots for displaying ads on your website or write sponsored content on your blog.
  • Affiliate commissions: Join the affiliate programs of the brands that are selling cat products. Then, when writing your blog content, you can place affiliate links. When visitors use the affiliate link to make a purchase, you get a certain percentage of commission as committed by the brands.

Pro tip: Once your blog gains traction and popularity, you can even launch your own product line. For example, you can start selling toys and accessories on your website. You don’t necessarily need to manufacture these items on your own. Instead, you can partner with an established manufacturer or supplier to sell these items with a dropshipping business model.

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Hybrid (Online + Offline) Cat Business Ideas

5. Cat Health & Wellness Services

Health is important not just for us humans but also for animals.

Apart from taking care of healthy food and environment, cat owners must also take care of all the required preventive care, veterinary check-ups, dental check-ups, and fitness exercises for their cats.

The recent statistics published by APPA show that cat owners spend around $201 for “Surgical Vet Visits” and $178 for “Routine Vet” every year.

Survey statistics about expenses for pet owners

Now, it goes without saying that this business idea is only for qualified health experts or veterinarians who can provide the required health and wellness services. Also, starting a health and wellness business for cats would require qualification certifications and other necessary credentials. 

6. Cat Events Business

Imagine how cool and wholesome it would be to organize events where cat lovers can gather with their cats. It’d be like a socialization event but for cats — and their parents, of course.

Apart from socialization events, you could also offer event management for parties to celebrate the cat's birthday and other special milestones. For some inspiration, take a look at this example of a similar business — Paw Parties — that offers services for dog lovers.

Homepage of Paw Parties’ website

As listed on the website, the business offers its services for three different types of events:

  1. Corporation
  2. Nonprofit
  3. Personal & Family

Types of services listed on Paw Parties’ website

You could enhance this idea as a hybrid business model by combining the physical event with an advanced online platform. Meaning, you can build a platform to connect cat owners and they can pay and apply online to participate in events.

To increase your revenue, you could also include other products such as:

  • Offering snacks for cats and cat parents at the event
  • Selling cat accessories and toys
  • Offering a paid membership program

7. Cat Boarding Business

Cat boarding facility helps cat owners by taking care of their cats when they need to go out for a short time. Cat owners can remain stress-free as the facility provides a safe, healthy, and comfortable environment for their cats.

This business requires a lot of management aspects such as:

  • Booking the time slots
  • Check-in and check-out processes
  • Skilled staff members

Let’s take a look at the Whiskers’s website which is a luxury cat boarding facility.

Website homepage of Whiskers Luxury Cat Boarding

The website has a reservation page where customers can log in to the customer portal as well as check the boarding availability.

Reservation page for cat boarding

Physical Store Business Ideas for a Cat Business

Note: Although these businesses are mainly operated through a physical space, you may create your website to increase brand awareness and credibility.

8. Cat Café Business

Some people are coffee lovers, some are cat lovers — and then comes the people who love coffee as well as cats. Starting a cat café could be a great idea to attract such customers.

A cat café is a special theme café where customers can enjoy coffee while watching cats or playing with them.

Brand your business with a special theme for cat lovers and stand apart from regular cafés.

It’s important to note here that since this business requires a physical space, it requires a higher investment considering the rent and other maintenance costs of the physical space.

9. Cat Grooming Service Business

Cat parents would want to take care of their grooming too. And that’s why they are looking for professional cat grooming services.

You basically have two options or business ideas within this business line:

  • On-location cat grooming saloon
  • Mobile cat grooming van

Make sure to research about the licensing requirements based on your region/country and get the required license or certification for the cat grooming business.

Smoochie Pooch is an Indiana-based business that offers cat grooming services along with many other services. The brand offers two different packages: 1. Basic Cat Grooming Package and 2. Complete Cat Grooming Package.

Cat grooming service page on Smoochie Pooch’s website

This brand’s website is an excellent example on many levels. The services page describes its services in detail with real-life images.

Cat grooming services page on Smoochie Pooch’s website

Also, the services page has listed the profiles of all the pet specialists working at this business.

Profile of a pet specialist on Smoochie Pooch’s website

10. Cat Photography Business

Just like any other service, cat parents want photography done by professionals. Thus, you may start offering professional photoshoot services for cat parents.

Some cat owners want to share these pictures on social media or some just simply want to save memories — and they’re ready to pay a fair amount for professional services.

Learn more: Top Product Photography Ideas to Level up Your eCommerce Website (Tips & Examples) 

An Important Consideration to Start a Cat Business

When it comes to business ideas, possibilities are endless.

However, one critical aspect that every business owner must consider is that the business must be appropriate on ethical grounds.

We can't emphasize this enough.

Every life is important. Whatever cat product or service you plan to sell must be ethical and harmless for cats or any animal for that matter. Make sure to perform in-depth research on this before finalizing any business idea.

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How to Start an Online Cat Business

Well, as we already know there are multiple online cat businesses. Each one of them has unique elements, and thus, processes may vary from business to business. However, we’re going to cover a general process that applies to almost any online cat business.

Step 1: Research and Finalize Your Business Idea

We briefly covered multiple online business ideas but you need to further research and go into the precise details of those ideas.

Apart from research, brainstorm on different aspects of the idea to find out its true potential. For example, you can prepare a SWOT analysis and brainstorm on each aspect of SWOT, i.e., Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats.

Figure out which business idea is most suitable for you, aligns with your expertise, and fits into your budget. And then, finalize the idea. For example, if you already have experience writing in the cat niche, you can start your own blog to leverage that expertise.

If you’re planning to sell cat products, decide on the business model. For example, if you’re planning to sell cat toys and accessories, decide whether you’d dropship the products or manufacture them on your own.

Step 2: Plan Your Budget & Strategy

Prepare the budget for all the expected costs depending on your business model. For example, if you’re going for a dropshipping model, you don’t need to worry about the inventory management cost. However, if you’re manufacturing the items on your own, you need to consider inventory costs along with many other costs.

You may need to figure out and adopt a business strategy depending on your budget. For example, once you launch the store, how you’re going to market your business depends on the budget you could allocate for marketing or advertisements.

Step 3: Obtain the Necessary Licenses and Permits

Certain cat businesses may require a license or permit from a government body. So, you need to make sure that you’re fulfilling those requirements before starting your business and get the required legal documents.

For example, when starting a cat food business or health and wellness business, you must research about the all eligibility criteria and requirements. If you’re starting an animal food business in the US, you should check this resource from the US Food & Drug Administration.

This step is not only required for legal purposes but also from an ethical standpoint.

Also, keep in mind that the licenses and permits required by the government may vary depending on your country/state/region. It’s advisable to seek professional help or legal consultation if you’re not sure about your obligations.

Step 4: Choose Your eCommerce Platform

If you’re planning to sell cat products online, without a doubt—Shopify is one of the best eCommerce platforms in the world. It has an advanced infrastructure, yet is fairly easy to use, and provides great flexibility with its ecosystem of themes and apps.

Side note: If you’re just planning to start a blog, you can go with WordPress as it’s a much more affordable option.

Whether you want to dropship cat furniture and accessories or start a subscription-based cat food business — Shopify has all the advanced features and capabilities you need in your eCommerce platform.

Millions of entrepreneurs across the globe use Shopify including the cat toy brand — Kittio.

Kittio’s about page

Learn more: Shopify Features and Benefits with Simple Explanation

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Step 5: Design Your Online Store

Designing your store with Shopify and GemPages gives you great functions, flexibility, and stunning design elements. Most importantly, it will help you enhance your store’s conversions.

GemPages is one of the most loved page builder apps on Shopify with over 4,000 five-star reviews. You can design your entire store with GemPages using templates, a drag-and-drop visual editor, and the AI-powered image-to-layout feature.

For example, here’s the template for a “pet food and supplies” store.

GemPages’ template for a pet store

You can simply customize this template using the visual drag-and-drop editor or create an entirely new page from scratch. Either way, it’s going to be a seamless experience even if you don’t have any prior website design experience.

Pro tip: Branding is one of the most crucial aspects in designing your store. Make sure to brand your store based on your target customers, i.e., cat lovers. Your brand’s logo, color scheme, tagline, and overall tone of voice play an important role in expressing your brand’s style and personality.

Step 6: Configure All Your Settings

When setting up your Shopify store, you need to configure all the settings to ensure your store functions properly.

Here are some of the important settings you should pay special attention to:

  • Payment setting
  • Shipping and delivery
  • Taxes and duties
  • Notifications
  • Policies

Depending on where you’re planning to sell your product, you need to set shipping settings. Also, shipping could be a crucial part of your marketing strategy as well. For example, you can set up a free shipping offer on certain orders to entice customers to complete a purchase.

Step 7: List Your Products and Collections

Creating your product pages is a crucial step in setting up your eCommerce store. The way you design and craft your product pages can have a huge impact on your store’s conversion rate.

Make sure to write compelling copy that speaks to the cat-lover audience. Use appealing product images and videos. Lifestyle images — the ones that show your product in action or in a real-life situation — can bring your product to life.

Product page inside Shopify admin

After creating your products, if you’re selling items in multiple categories, you need to categorize them with different collections. This will make it easy for your customers to quickly find the products from the relevant collection.

Step 8: Market Your Business & Products

Once you’ve launched your store, it’s imperative to work on every possible way to raise your brand awareness and promote your products.

You can use cost-effective strategies such as —

  • Social media marketing
  • Content marketing — blog content, video content
  • Email marketing
  • Search engine optimization (SEO)

While these marketing methods are affordable for small businesses, you should keep in mind that these methods may take some time to generate results. In the meantime, you may try paid advertising on Facebook, Instagram, and Google — or whichever platform is most relevant for your target customers.

Pro tip: Build your brand’s community around cat lovers. Encourage your customers to join your community and share their cat stories and pictures. It will help you build a strong bond with your customers and build brand loyalty over time.

Start Your Cat Business Like a Pro!

Cats are adorable and so are the cat businesses. If you build a cat business with the right branding and marketing strategies, you can turn a small business into a big business with time.

Join GemPages Facebook community to learn and share your experiences with fellow entrepreneurs. Also, you can leverage tips and guidance from the GemPages team to design stunning store pages and landing pages to grow and scale your business.

Not ready to commit but still want to kick the tires?
No problem! Get started with GemPages' free plan. Explore wonderful features that can do wonders for your store.

FAQs about Cat Business

What is a cat business?
A cat business is a business specifically focused on the cat niche. There are multiple types of cat businesses, e.g., selling products for cats like food items, toys, etc. Or service businesses such as cat grooming, cat boarding, etc.
What are the biggest expenses of owning a cat?
The major expenses of owning a cat include food costs, necessary preventive medications, routine medical expenses, litter, pet insurance, etc.
How to start a cat business from home?
There are various types of cat businesses that you can start from home with either an eCommerce website or physical space. For an online business, you could build an eCommerce website to sell products such as cat food, accessories, and toys. Or if you want to start from a physical location, you can start offering services such as cat grooming, boarding, or event management — depending on your expertise.
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