Operator-Led Commercial Intelligence for Animal Health.
From signal to execution (daily signals to Monday-ready actions).
PETMETRIX exists to close the gap between market signals and commercial action. We track the realities of pet Rx channel conflict, and turn them into playbooks that teams can execute.
PETMETRIX is led by Richard Hayworth, an operator with 20+ years across animal health commercial leadership and frontline channel execution. We don’t guess. We use trusted data, real-world experience, and transparent methodology to deliver expert advice teams can action immediately.
Pet Rx moved online in two major waves. First it moved with e-retail, then with smartphones. Home delivery became the customer expectation. The industry still lacks daily visibility into the pricing and buy-box dynamics driving margin pressure and behaviour change. PETMETRIX exists to close that gap: from signal to execution.
PETMETRIX started, or rather, it was conceptualized, twenty-three years ago.
On Valentine’s Day 2003, I was hired at Novartis Animal Health. At the time, I’d never worked in animal health and I hadn’t spent much time inside veterinary clinics. But once I got into the field and started meeting veterinarians and their teams, one topic dominated call after call: 1800PETMEDS. Veterinary clinics had never seen competition like e-retail. The message was simple and aggressively marketed: your vet is overcharging you, get the prescription and order from us, we’ll save you money and deliver it to your home.
That message took off.
Pet owners loved the convenience. Veterinarians didn’t love seeing product sold outside the clinic. The priorities were in conflict. Clinics wanted to keep Rx revenue in-house, while pet owners increasingly expected delivery to the doorstep.
Even then, the conclusion was obvious: this wasn’t going away. It was legal, it was scalable, and pet owners were voting with their clicks. The industry would have to learn a new game, one where the “digital shelf” mattered as much as the physical one.
In 2003, many clinics had never faced a competitor that could:
The response was often reactive: frustration, uncertainty, and a lack of practical playbooks. I remember thinking, someone needs to explain how the game is played now, because it’s moving online.
Fast forward about a decade. By around 2012, I’d worked across roles that put me alongside executives at distributors, corporate groups, and the major e-retailers of the time: 1800PETMEDS, Chewy, and an early-stage Amazon presence in pet Rx, plus smaller players.
What became unmistakable was that online shopping wasn’t just growing, it was becoming the default behaviour. When smartphone technology finally matched point-of-purchase intent, the shift accelerated. Pet owners could think, “I want this now,” pick up a phone, order in seconds, and have it delivered days later.
Over time, that speed and convenience didn’t remain a preference, it became the baseline expectation. By 2026, home delivery is no longer a trend, it’s infrastructure.
Home delivery has real benefits, especially when it improves medication compliance and reduces friction for pet owners. We’ve studied this directly, including when I lead the 2024 Pet Medicine Home Delivery Study. But there’s also a commercial reality the market often underestimates:
And yet many teams still operate with tools built for a slower era: quarterly averages, backward-looking transaction data, and static reports that arrive after the market has already moved.
Quarterly averages hide Tuesday’s price war. That’s the gap PETMETRIX was built to close.
Twenty-three years ago, I believed veterinarians and industry teams needed someone to explain how the game was changing. At the time I didn’t know that “someone” would become me.
We do that by pairing daily market signals with Monday ready actions: practical playbooks, scripts, and execution workflows teams can run.
Subscribe to PETMETRIX PULSE and get the signal in the animal health noise—every Thursday.
