Investor Ryan Cohen founded Chewy Inc (NYSE:CHWY) back in 2011 as a play on the growing trend of pet supplies and pet health products. New data suggests Cohen may have been early to the trend, with spending on pet supplies and pet insurance seeing a large increase.

What Happened: Serving as CEO of Chewy from 2011 to 2018, Cohen put an emphasis on the wide variety of pet products offered to consumers online and providing strong customer service.

Cohen sold Chewy to PetSmart in 2017 for $3.35 billion in the largest e-commerce acquisition at the time.

The investor may have been early to seeing trends in the pet sector, as a recent Similarweb report shows the pet supply category growing 22% over the last 12 months.

Helping drive the trend are pet health products, as most consumers treat their pets like family members. This means they are willing to spend on necessary medication or food options for their pets.

Similarweb said the trend has also spilled over into premium categories like high-end pet spas, pet specific hotels, gourmet pet foods and health supplements.

The report shows dogs leading the way when it comes to pets, with a 24.7% year-over-year increase in the dog category. Many of the top keywords in the pet category in the report are specific to dogs.

Cats aren't far behind with a 23% year-over-year increase in category-related revenue, according to the report.

Read Also: Is Gamestop's Ryan Cohen Becoming The Millennial Generation's Warren Buffett?

Why It's Important: While Cohen may not benefit from the current trends in the pet sector, he was likely ahead of his time and a revolutionary entrepreneur for the industry. By focusing on specific products and enabling pet owners to have pet food, supplies, and health products shipped to their doors, he paved the way for the sector's growth.

One investor who could benefit from the pet sector growth is Chewy investor Keith Gill, aka Roaring Kitty. The noted meme stock investor has been a firm believer in Cohen as a past investor in video game retailer GameStop Corporation, where Cohen is the CEO.

While Chewy could stand out as the winner with the pet sector growing, there are several other pet related stocks that could benefit in the coming years, covering areas like e-commerce, pet insurance and more.

• Freshpet (NASDAQ:FRPT)
• Trupanion (NASDAQ:TRUP)
• Bark Inc (NYSE:BARK)
• Petco Health and Wellness Company (NASDAQ:WOOF)
• Lemonade Inc (NYSE:LMND)
• PetMed Express (NASDAQ:PETS)

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Photo: Courtesy of Bill Jerome on Flickr