Pet Retail: AI Market Discovery Index

For the strategic interpretation of this benchmark, read CiteWorks Studio's analysis of how AI search is recommending Pet Supplies

This report analyzes the AI Market Discovery Index for the pet retail category across two measured months: July 2026 and August 2026. Seven tracked retailers — Chewy, Hollywood Feed, Pet Supplies Plus, Petco, Petsense, PetSmart, and Tractor Supply — were measured across six AI platforms (ChatGPT, Copilot, Gemini, Google AI Mode, Google AI Overviews, and Perplexity). The August 2026 benchmark draws from 1,061 observations, compared against the July 2026 baseline of 280 observations. The primary metric is valid recommendation coverage, which measures how often each brand appears in AI recommendation shortlists.

Executive Summary

Chewy remains the category leader in August 2026, with valid recommendation coverage of 35.4%, a position the series gate classifies as stable against its July 2026 figure of 38.6%. Two national retailers, Petco and PetSmart, are the only brands classified as significant decliners this month: Petco's coverage moved from 40.0% to 29.9%, and PetSmart's moved from 38.2% to 29.7%. The remaining five brands — Hollywood Feed, Pet Supplies Plus, Petsense, and Tractor Supply — are all classified as stable, with movements inside the normal range of month-to-month variation.

Across the two measured months, Chewy has held the top position in both July and August. The distance between the top-tier national retailers and the smaller challenger brands narrowed in August: the gap between Petco and Tractor Supply moved from 29.6 points to 17.5 points, and the gap between PetSmart and Tractor Supply moved from 27.8 points to 17.3 points. Tractor Supply itself remains classified as stable rather than a significant riser, even though the gap separating it from the two decliners is now smaller.

Benchmark Snapshot

What Changed This Month

The August 2026 benchmark recorded a significant move for two national pet retailers. Petco's valid recommendation coverage moved from 40.0% in July 2026 to 29.9% in August 2026, a change the series gate marks as beyond normal month-to-month variation. PetSmart's coverage moved from 38.2% to 29.7% over the same period, also marked as significant. These are the only two brands the benchmark classifies as significant movers this month.

The five remaining brands are classified as stable. Chewy's coverage moved from 38.6% to 35.4%, Hollywood Feed moved from 2.9% to 2.7%, Pet Supplies Plus moved from 11.4% to 7.5%, and Petsense moved from 2.5% to 1.3% — all within the expected range of month-to-month variation. Tractor Supply was the only brand to move upward, from 10.4% to 12.4% coverage, and it recorded its first rank-one recommendation rate of 0.8% in August 2026, though this movement also falls within normal variation.

Trend Table

Key Findings

Petco

Petco's valid recommendation coverage moved from 40.0% in July 2026 to 29.9% in August 2026, a movement the series gate classifies as significant. Raw mention presence moved from 95.0% to 81.6%, and the rank-one recommendation rate moved from 7.1% to 2.5%. Both supporting measures moved in the same direction as the primary metric. Petco's modeled AI Authority Value moved from $280,124.4 in July 2026 to $244,200.0 in August 2026.

PetSmart

PetSmart's valid recommendation coverage moved from 38.2% in July 2026 to 29.7% in August 2026, also classified as significant. Raw mention presence moved from 94.6% to 80.6%. The rank-one recommendation rate moved from 5.4% to 4.0%, a change that falls within normal range on its own even though the primary metric moved beyond it. PetSmart's modeled AI Authority Value moved from $280,013.8 in July 2026 to $209,587.9 in August 2026.

Stable Brands

Five brands are classified as stable in August 2026. Chewy retains category leadership at 35.4% coverage, down from 38.6% but within the expected range. Tractor Supply recorded the category's only upward move, from 10.4% to 12.4%, and recorded its first rank-one recommendation rate of 0.8%. Hollywood Feed held at 2.7% coverage, Pet Supplies Plus moved to 7.5%, and Petsense moved to 1.3%.

What This Means for the Category

The August 2026 benchmark shows a pet retail AI landscape where the leader position held steady while two previously high-coverage national chains recorded significant movement. Tractor Supply's stable but upward-leaning position, moving from a lower base, is worth continued tracking even though the series gate does not classify it as a significant riser this month.

The distance between the top national chains and the smaller challenger brands narrowed across the two measured months. The Petco–Tractor Supply gap moved from 29.6 points to 17.5 points, and the PetSmart–Tractor Supply gap moved from 27.8 points to 17.3 points. The Hollywood Feed–Petco gap also narrowed, from 37.1 points to 27.2 points. In each case, the absolute distance between the compared brands is smaller in August 2026 than it was in July 2026.

For brands in this category, the August data indicates that AI recommendation visibility is not static month to month. The significant movement recorded for two previously high-coverage national retailers, alongside a stable leader and a stable-but-narrowing challenger gap, underscores the value of continuous monitoring across measurement periods.

Visibility Versus Recommendation

Presence rate measures how often a brand appears anywhere in an AI response. Valid recommendation coverage measures how often a brand appears specifically within a structured recommendation shortlist. These are different signals: a brand can be mentioned frequently without being placed in a shortlist.

In August 2026, Petco (81.6% presence) and PetSmart (80.6% presence) both recorded higher presence rates than Chewy (78.1% presence), yet Chewy holds the higher valid recommendation coverage (35.4% versus 29.9% for Petco and 29.7% for PetSmart). This distinction between raw mention frequency and shortlist placement is the benchmark's primary signal of AI recommendation strength, and it is why valid recommendation coverage, rather than presence, is the primary tracked metric in this report.

Company Analysis

The August 2026 benchmark shows a three-tier structure in AI recommendation visibility. Chewy leads the category with 35.4% valid recommendation coverage. Petco and PetSmart sit in a second tier at 29.9% and 29.7% respectively, both classified as significant decliners from their July 2026 levels. The remaining brands occupy a third tier: Tractor Supply at 12.4%, Pet Supplies Plus at 7.5%, Hollywood Feed at 2.7%, and Petsense at 1.3%.

Net sentiment scores show a mixed pattern across the category. Chewy's score was approximately 0.5 in both July 2026 and August 2026. Hollywood Feed's score moved from 0.4 to 0.6, Tractor Supply's moved from 0.3 to 0.4, and Pet Supplies Plus moved from 0.3 to 0.4. Petco and PetSmart both held at 0.4, while Petsense moved from 0.3 to 0.2. These sentiment scores describe the framing of benchmark responses, not customer satisfaction.

Company Comparison

Modeled AI Authority Value trajectories varied across the category. Chewy's modeled value moved from $357,627.5 in July 2026 to $390,592.3 in August 2026. Tractor Supply's modeled value moved from $4,431.3 to $67,186.5, though it remains well below the top tier. PetSmart's modeled value moved from $280,013.8 to $209,587.9, and Pet Supplies Plus moved from $45,949.4 to $19,473.9. The total modeled monthly opportunity for the category moved from $2,652,225 in July 2026 to $2,330,310 in August 2026. These figures are modeled benchmark estimates, not revenue or sales figures.

Recommendation-shaped answers accounted for 42.1% of all responses in August 2026, up from 36.4% in July 2026, and valid recommendation shortlists represented 50.6% of all responses in August 2026 compared with 41.1% in July 2026. Median query volume moved from 20 in July 2026 to 30 in August 2026, and zero-volume prompts accounted for 31.8% of the July prompt set compared with 19.8% of the August prompt set. This variability in underlying query volume should be kept in mind when interpreting modeled AI Authority Value figures, which are sensitive to the volume inputs behind each prompt.

What This Public Benchmark Does Not Include

This benchmark does not include private AI assistant usage, internal enterprise AI deployments, or AI recommendations delivered through paid advertising channels.

This measurement captures public-facing AI platform responses only and does not reflect organic search rankings, social media presence, or traditional media mentions.

The modeled AI Authority Values represent estimated opportunity based on public AI responses and do not constitute actual revenue figures or sales data.

This benchmark does not capture AI recommendations made through voice assistants, smart home devices, or embedded AI chat interfaces within third-party applications.

Brand sentiment and recommendation measurements are based on the text of AI responses and do not assess product quality, customer satisfaction, or in-store experience.

The analysis excludes AI outputs in languages other than English and does not account for regional or international variations in AI platform behavior.

This benchmark does not measure the accuracy or helpfulness of AI recommendations, only the frequency and positioning of brand mentions.

This analysis is limited to the seven brands tracked and does not include emerging pet retail startups, regional chains, or direct-to-consumer brands not in the measurement set.

Methodology and Disclaimers

1. Data was collected from six public AI platforms — ChatGPT, Copilot, Gemini, Google AI Mode, Google AI Overviews, and Perplexity — across 1,061 observations in August 2026 and 280 observations in July 2026.

2. The primary metric is valid recommendation coverage, defined as the percentage of AI responses in which a brand appears in recommendation shortlists, across all prompts in the measurement set.

3. Seven brands were tracked: Chewy, Hollywood Feed, Pet Supplies Plus, Petco, Petsense, PetSmart, and Tractor Supply.

4. The measurement period for this benchmark is August 2026, with July 2026 serving as the baseline for comparison.

5. Modeled AI Authority Values are estimated from AI recommendation frequency and positioning, applied to a total modeled category opportunity value of $2,330,310 for August 2026 and $2,652,225 for July 2026.

6. Recommendations were classified across three buyer stages: discovery and consideration, comparison, and pricing and cost.

7. Net sentiment scores are calculated from the language used in AI responses, ranging from negative to positive, with no negative sentiment detected for Chewy, Hollywood Feed, Pet Supplies Plus, or Petsense in August 2026.

8. Presence rates measure the percentage of AI responses in which a brand is mentioned at all, while valid recommendation coverage measures mentions within recommendation shortlists specifically.

9. The observation count moved from 280 in July 2026 to 1,061 in August 2026, reflecting expanded prompt coverage across the measurement set. Median query volume moved from 20 to 30 across the same period, with zero-volume prompts accounting for 31.8% of the July set and 19.8% of the August set.

10. Month-to-month changes in AI recommendation coverage naturally fluctuate; movements within the expected variation range are interpreted as stable, while larger movements indicate a significant shift in how AI platforms represent the category in that month.

Commercial Takeaway

Brands in this category should prioritize recommendation-stage visibility — placement within AI-generated shortlists — over raw mention frequency. Petco and PetSmart both recorded high presence rates in August 2026 (81.6% and 80.6%) that exceeded Chewy's presence rate (78.1%), yet Chewy converts more of its mentions into valid recommendation coverage and top-three placement. This gap between being mentioned and being recommended is the commercial opportunity this benchmark is built to surface.

The modeled AI Authority Value figures in this report are modeled benchmark estimates derived from recommendation frequency, positioning, and query volume — not revenue or confirmed sales. Petco and PetSmart's declines in modeled value, from $280,124.4 to $244,200.0 and from $280,013.8 to $209,587.9 respectively, track their coverage declines this month, while Tractor Supply's modeled value grew from a small base ($4,431.3 to $67,186.5) alongside its stable-but-improving coverage position.

For category participants, the actionable signal is that recommendation-shaped and shortlist-eligible answers grew as a share of all responses in this category (42.1% of responses in August 2026, up from 36.4% in July 2026), meaning more of the category's AI answer volume is now structured in a way that rewards shortlist presence specifically.

See Where Your Brand Stands in AI Recommendations

This report tracks category-level movement across seven pet retail brands. A company-specific Authority Index report can go further — showing which prompts your brand wins or loses, which platforms drive your presence, which source layers AI systems draw from, and where your brand stands relative to shortlist eligibility on a prompt-by-prompt basis. Request the full analysis for your organization to see this detail applied to your brand specifically.

Benchmark Source

This comparison is based on the July 2026 and August 2026 AI Discovery Index benchmarks for Pet Retail, published by LLM Authority Index, covering ChatGPT, Copilot, Gemini, Google AI Mode, Google AI Overviews, and Perplexity across 280 and 1,061 observations respectively.