A $9.99 “lite plan” provides unlimited visits for wellness, sick and urgent exams and no exam fees. Owners who subscribe to this plan pay for vaccines and tests.

Records of all provided care are visible through an app that pet owners can download to their phones. That means that if pet owners plan to book stays at their local pet “resorts,” they can print or access vaccination records directly from their phones.

The technology that runs Chewy Vet Care can be used to send medicines that the clinics don’t carry directly to pet owners’ homes, Malhotra says. It’s available to traditional veterinarian practices as well, she adds.

Another reason Chewy is entering the vet care business, according to the investor blog The Motley Fool, is because it has the potential to deliver higher profit margins for the company and to increase its stock value over time.

In a March 23 blog entry, writer Timothy Green reported that the pet supply industry has receded since peaking in 2021, when the COVID-19 pandemic prompted households to adopt pets at a higher-than-normal rate.

Chewy’s stock price peaked at $120 a share in early 2021 and has since fallen below $20 a share. And while the company’s revenue increased by 4.2% in the fourth quarter of 2023 compared to a year earlier, its number of active customers fell from 20.7 million to 20.1 million year over year.

Chewy reported a net income of just 1.1% during the fourth quarter, largely due to interest income, while posting an operating loss for the quarter and the full year, the website reported.

But the vet clinics, if successful, can provide a higher-margin revenue source for the company, the blog post said, while adding new customers for its retail and pharmacy business.

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