Imagine this: You're a busy professional, leaving home early and returning late, constantly worrying about your dog home alone. The market is flooded with pet tech products—from smart feeders to health monitors—all promising to ease your anxiety. But do you really need to pay for all those flashy features you'll never use?
A new survey of European pet owners suggests the answer is no. In an era of rapid technological advancement, where feature overload has become industry standard, European pet owners are voting with their wallets: simplicity and reliability reign supreme.
Specialized Beats Comprehensive
Tech company Weenect recently surveyed 1,929 cat and dog owners across France, Germany, Spain, Italy, the UK, and the Netherlands about their preferences for pet technology. The results were striking: 79.3% of respondents favored simple, reliable GPS trackers over multifunctional "all-in-one" devices. This preference was nearly identical between dog owners (78.5%) and cat owners (80.1%). Even more telling, 75.3% said they preferred single-function devices due to concerns about multiple potential failure points in complex systems.
These findings serve as a wake-up call for the pet tech industry. In the race for innovation and differentiation, companies might need to reconsider what pet owners truly value: flashy features or practical solutions.
Feature Preferences: A Tale of Two Species
When it comes to specific functions, GPS tracking emerged as the clear winner, with 98.7% of respondents prioritizing this capability. Activity tracking (67.5%) and recall training (65.1%) followed, but notable differences appeared between pet types.
Recall training and activity monitoring proved significantly more popular among dog owners (8.8 and 4.9 percentage points higher respectively), likely reflecting dogs' greater need for outdoor exercise and training. Cat owners, meanwhile, showed stronger preference for home automation features (10.1 points higher) and connected litter boxes (5.9 points higher), emphasizing their focus on indoor living conditions.
Transparency and Trust: The Data Privacy Dilemma
Beyond functionality, data transparency emerged as a major concern. While 59% of respondents considered understanding what data gets collected crucial, trust in these technologies remains low: only 48.8% reported partial trust, 25.3% full trust, and 25.2% no trust at all.
These concerns aren't unfounded—59.5% worried about potential misdiagnoses from pet tech, while 39% feared inadequate data protection. The findings highlight pet owners' growing awareness about digital privacy.
Is Technology Going Too Far?
More than half of respondents (54.1%) believe pet tech may be overdeveloped, with 23.6% asserting this has already occurred. Only 22.3% saw clear advantages, though younger respondents were more optimistic.
Health monitoring features like activity tracking and vital signs measurement found limited appeal—just 42.5% considered them useful when addressing specific needs. Notably, 24-34-year-olds showed greater trust in veterinary expertise than those over 55, while 25.7% deemed such features excessive and 20.8% viewed them as marketing gimmicks.
Price Sensitivity: Paying for Value
Nearly 60% of owners refuse to pay extra for additional features. Only 14.8% would consider premium pricing for genuinely valuable functions, primarily among younger urbanites. Budget consciousness prevailed among older owners (55+) and rural/suburban residents.
Generational Divides
The study revealed stark age-based differences: 70% of 18-24-year-olds demanded complete data transparency, while under-35s showed greater willingness to consider premium features. Older respondents demonstrated more price sensitivity, technological caution, and skepticism toward connected health products.
Adrien Hamel, Weenect's co-founder and CMO, predicts future pet tech will become more "explanatory" than routine, with AI playing a key role in delivering personalized insights rather than replacing traditional care.
As the pet tech industry evolves, these findings suggest a clear mandate: prioritize genuine utility over technological spectacle. In an increasingly crowded market, the winners will likely be those who listen closest to what pet owners—and their animals—actually need.