Pet Retail Pet Supplies: AI Market Discovery Index

Benchmark Summary

Chewy led the Pet Retail Pet Supplies benchmark in September 2026 with a valid recommendation coverage of 31.1%, up from 20.9% in July 2026. The gap to the next brand was 0.9 percentage points, with PetSmart at 30.2% and Petco close behind at 29.3%.

No tracked brand showed movement beyond normal month-to-month variation in September 2026. Chewy posted the largest coverage increase across the full series, rising to 31.1% in September 2026 from 20.9% in July 2026, an increase of 10.2 percentage points. PetSmart rose to 30.2% in September 2026 from 22.5% in July 2026, Petco reached 29.3% from 24.0%, and Tractor Supply climbed to 18.6% from 11.6%. No tracked brand showed a significant decline in valid recommendation coverage this month.

All four significant risers moved beyond normal variation between July 2026 and September 2026. Chewy's gain was driven by a strong August 2026 advance of 9.8 points, followed by a smaller 0.4-point rise in September 2026. The other three risers rose in August 2026 and held most of those gains in September 2026. Hollywood Feed, Pet Supplies Plus, and Petsense remained within normal month-to-month variation across the series.

The benchmark began with 800 prompt-surface observations in each month and produced 570 qualified observations in September 2026 after qualification.

Current Benchmark at a Glance

Qualified surface breadth counts the number of canonical AI/search surface families with at least one qualified observation. The six families are ChatGPT, Copilot, Gemini, Perplexity, AI Overviews, and AI Mode. August 2026 also showed a breadth of six families, with an intermediate recommendation-shaped answer share of 27.9% and a valid recommendation shortlist share of 31.1%.

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

Research Scope and Qualification

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

Current Brand Standings

Brands are sorted by valid recommendation coverage for September 2026.

How to Read the Standings

• Presence rate: share of qualified observations where the brand appears in the AI response.
• Valid recommendation coverage: share of qualified observations where the brand appears in a valid recommendation shortlist.
• Top-three rate: share of qualified observations where the brand appears in the first three recommended positions.
• Rank-one rate: share of qualified observations where the brand is the single first recommendation.
• Net sentiment: positive minus negative sentiment over all brand mentions.

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

Hollywood Feed: Company Position

Hollywood Feed appeared in 11.8% of qualified observations in September 2026, converting into valid recommendation coverage of 5.3%, a top-three rate of 1.9%, and a rank-one rate of 0.5%. Net sentiment among Hollywood Feed mentions stood at 0.6, the highest of any tracked brand in the category, and coverage has moved only 0.8 points since July 2026 (4.5%), placing Hollywood Feed within the group of brands that showed no movement beyond normal month-to-month variation across the series.

Chewy records 31.1% on valid recommendation coverage, while Hollywood Feed stands at 5.3%. The more important issue is what that gap means for Hollywood Feed's recommendation position: PetSmart (30.2%) and Petco (29.3%) each hold coverage roughly five to six times higher than Hollywood Feed, and even Tractor Supply, at 18.6%, and Pet Supplies Plus, at 12.1%, sit well ahead. This is a material gap on the category's most commercially important metric, and it has persisted while the four largest brands expanded their coverage significantly between July and September 2026, widening rather than narrowing the distance to Hollywood Feed.

Highest-priority diagnostic: What is preventing Hollywood Feed's presence in AI responses (11.8%) from converting into valid recommendation coverage at a rate comparable to category peers?

Recommendation Coverage Movement

Largest Increase: Chewy

Chewy's valid recommendation coverage rose to 31.1% in September 2026 from 20.9% in July 2026, an increase of 10.2 percentage points, the largest gain among all tracked brands. Chewy rose in each of the two months since baseline, advancing 9.8 points in August 2026 and 0.4 points in September 2026. Chewy also led the field in top-three rate at 24.0% in September 2026, up from 16.3% in July 2026, and in rank-one rate at 19.5%, up from 13.8%.

Category Leader: Chewy

Chewy held the top position in valid recommendation coverage at 31.1% in September 2026, up from 20.9% in July 2026. This reverses the July 2026 standings, when Petco led at 24.0%. Petco and PetSmart sit close behind with coverage of 29.3% and 30.2%, respectively.

Recommendation Placement Snapshot

Coverage alone does not show how prominently a brand is recommended. The three leading brands by coverage show distinct placement profiles in September 2026.

Close coverage can still hide different first-position rates. Chewy's rank-one rate of 19.5% in September 2026 was more than four times higher than Petco's 4.6% and PetSmart's 4.4%, despite all three brands holding near-identical coverage levels.

Buyer-Intent Distribution

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

The current public series measures brand recommendation discovery only and does not yet contain qualified observations in the Pricing & Value or Multi-Brand Comparison classes.

Historical Measurement Record

Evidence and Source Layer

This 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 or attributable sales.
• Every possible AI response to a given query.
• Organic-search ranking positions.
• Social media mention volume.
• Private or sponsored channels.
• Causality from a metric movement alone.

About This Benchmark

The LLM Authority Index AI Market Discovery Index tracks how often and how prominently brands are surfaced and recommended across six major AI/search surface families. It is a neutral, directional industry benchmark focused on recommendation presence, placement, and sentiment.

• 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, revealing how a specific brand performs across individual surfaces, query types, and competitor comparisons.

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