Pet Food Delivery Services: AI Market Discovery Index

Benchmark Summary

The Farmer's Dog led the September 2026 benchmark with valid recommendation coverage of 57.8%, down from 61.4% in August 2026. The gap to the next brand was 11.6 points, as Ollie held second place with 46.2% in September 2026, down from 49.3% in August 2026.

This was a quiet month at the category level. No tracked brand moved beyond normal month-to-month variation between August 2026 and September 2026. The largest coverage movement was a decline for Open Farm to 32.0% in September 2026 from 37.2% in August 2026, a movement of 5.2 points, which remained within normal variation.

Across the full July-to-September series, the vertical showed broad cumulative declines, with nine of the ten tracked brands declining beyond normal variation from baseline to current. The Farmer's Dog fell to 57.8% in September 2026 from 73.6% in July 2026, Ollie fell to 46.2% in September 2026 from 60.7% in July 2026, and Nom Nom fell to 22.4% in September 2026 from 35.4% in July 2026. Sundays for Dogs remained stable. The benchmark began with 800 prompt-surface observations in each month and produced 559 qualified observations in September 2026 after qualification.

Current Benchmark at a Glance

Qualified surface breadth counts the canonical AI/search surface families with at least one qualified observation: ChatGPT, Copilot, Gemini, Perplexity, AI Overviews, and AI Mode. All six families were represented in the current month. The intermediate August 2026 measurement stood at 521 qualified observations, with valid recommendation shortlist share at 67.3% in September 2026, down 17.9 points from 85.2% in July 2026.

For the strategic interpretation of this benchmark, read CiteWorks Studio's analysis of How AI Search Is Recommending Pet Food Delivery Services

Research Scope and Qualification

The public benchmark is narrower than the raw collection universe by design.

Brand-level percentages use the qualified observations as the public denominator, not the raw collection. See AI Market Discovery Methodology.

Current Brand Standings

How to Read the Standings

• Presence rate: Share of qualified observations where the brand is mentioned, regardless of recommendation status.
• Valid recommendation coverage: Share of qualified observations where the brand appears in a recommendation shortlist.
• Top-three rate: Share of qualified observations where the brand appears among the top three recommended options.
• Rank-one rate: Share of qualified observations where the brand is the first recommendation.
• Net sentiment: Positive minus negative mention tone, scaled to a 0 to 1 range.

For formulas and denominator rules, see AI Market Discovery Metric Definitions.

Recommendation Coverage Movement

Between August 2026 and September 2026, all brand movements remained within normal month-to-month variation. The steepest cumulative decline from baseline belonged to The Farmer's Dog, which declined in each of the two months since July 2026. JustFoodForDogs Vet Support also declined in each of the two months since baseline, while Spot & Tango and Sundays for Dogs each recorded small increases from August 2026 to September 2026 that did not reach significance.

Largest Decline: The Farmer's Dog

The Farmer's Dog recorded the largest cumulative coverage decline in the vertical, falling to 57.8% in September 2026 from 73.6% in July 2026, a drop of 15.8 points. The brand declined in each of the two months since baseline. The top-three rate fell to 38.8% in September 2026 from 56.9% in July 2026, and the rank-one rate fell to 27.0% in September 2026 from 44.2% in July 2026. The brand recorded 323 valid recommendations in September 2026, down from 418 in July 2026. Despite the decline, The Farmer's Dog remained the category leader.

Other Significant Declines

Ollie fell to 46.2% in September 2026 from 60.7% in July 2026, a drop of 14.5 points, with top-three rate down to 24.5% in September 2026 from 40.8% in July 2026. Open Farm fell to 32.0% in September 2026 from 45.6% in July 2026, a drop of 13.6 points, with presence rate down to 39.9% in September 2026 from 49.5% in July 2026. Nom Nom fell to 22.4% in September 2026 from 35.4% in July 2026, a drop of 13.0 points. JustFoodForDogs Vet Support fell to 32.9% in September 2026 from 42.8% in July 2026, a drop of 9.9 points. Spot & Tango fell to 28.4% in September 2026 from 37.9% in July 2026, a drop of 9.5 points. Chewy fell to 14.7% in September 2026 from 20.1% in July 2026, a drop of 5.4 points. Petco fell to 6.6% in September 2026 from 9.9% in July 2026, a drop of 3.3 points. PetFlow fell to 3.0% in September 2026 from 5.5% in July 2026, a drop of 2.5 points.

Stable Brands

Sundays for Dogs remained within normal month-to-month variation across the series, moving to 3.9% in September 2026 from 4.0% in July 2026. The brand's top-three rate also rose to 1.1% in September 2026 from 0.0% in July 2026.

Category Leader: The Farmer's Dog

The Farmer's Dog led the category in September 2026 with valid recommendation coverage of 57.8%, ahead of Ollie at 46.2%. The Farmer's Dog also led on rank-one rate at 27.0%, well ahead of the next closest brand.

Recommendation Placement Snapshot

Coverage alone does not show how prominently a brand is recommended. The leading brands show notably different placement profiles.

The Farmer's Dog converted a substantial share of its coverage into the first position, while Ollie had a much lower rank-one rate of just 2.5% despite meaningful top-three presence. Similar coverage can still hide very different first-position rates.

Buyer-Intent Distribution

All qualified observations in both months fell into the Brand Recommendation class.

The current public series measures brand recommendation discovery and does not yet contain qualified observations in the pricing and value or multi-brand comparison classes.

Historical Measurement Record

This is an evergreen benchmark URL. New measurements are added to the same report.

Evidence and Source Layer

The benchmark is built from prompt-level observations that retain the query, AI/search surface, answer, brand outcome, recommendation placement, sentiment, and, where exposed, citations or attributable evidence sources. Source presence is evidence about the information environment. It is not automatically proof that the source caused the recommendation.

Scope Boundaries

This public benchmark does not measure market share, attributable sales, every possible AI response, organic-search ranking, social mention volume, or private or sponsored channels. A metric movement alone does not establish causality.

About This Benchmark

The LLM Authority Index AI Market Discovery Index tracks how brands appear and are recommended across major AI and search surfaces. It provides a neutral, repeatable measure of AI-driven discovery for industry-level benchmarking.

• AI Market Discovery Methodology
• AI Market Discovery Metric Definitions
• AI Market Discovery Research Standards
• Modeled AI Authority Value

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The public industry benchmark shows category-level standings. A company-level Authority Index can go deeper. The public percentage cannot identify the prompts, competitors, or sources causing the result.

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