Pet-health services helped Chewy grow sales in its fiscal Q1 2026, as the retailer continued to deploy artificial intelligence (AI) across its enterprise.
In its fiscal Q1, which ended May 3, Chewy net sales grew 7.7% year over year. Despite the sales growth, CEO Sumit Singh said consumers “are growing more discerning, driven in part by elevated fuel prices and broader macroeconomic pressures.” He said Chewy’s updated guidance for the year “reflects a more appropriately conservative view of the consumer environment.”
Singh also said Chewy has embedded AI in customer service, pharmacy operations, fulfillment and marketing flows.
“We continue to see meaningful opportunities to structurally lower cost to serve while simultaneously improving speed, efficiency and service quality,” Singh said. “Based on our current road map and implementation progress, we continue to expect AI-driven efficiencies to contribute a low tens of millions of dollars benefit in fiscal 2026 with a more meaningful ramp expected into 2027 and beyond.
Chewy is No. 10 in the Top 2000 Database. The database tracks North America’s largest online retailers, ranking them by annual ecommerce sales and more. Digital Commerce 360 categorizes Chewy as a Specialty retailer.
Chewy sales in Q1 2026
In its fiscal Q1 2026, Chewy sales grew to about $3.36 billion. That was up from about $3.12 billion the year before.
Sales from Autoship customers during Q1 increase 10% year over year and accounted for 84.4% of total net sales in the quarter. That was about $2.83 billion in Q1. Autoship refers to Chewy’s subscription program.
Net sales per active customer (NSPAC) also increased in the quarter, to $597. That was 4.6% year-over-year growth. Meanwhile, chief financial officer Chris Deppe said, Chewy grew its number of active customers 3.6% year over year to reach 21.5 million.
Chewy also closed its acquisition of SmartPak Equine in Q1. Deppe said the contribution from the business was in line with Chewy’s expectations. SmartEquine rebranded from SmartPak in July 2025. It provides equine health products. Chewy had entered a definitive agreement in October 2025 to acquire the company.
“We believe the primary source of share gain in the pet industry are still within large ecommerce players such as ourselves,” Singh said. “And furthermore, when you look at our customer behavior, we continue to see lower churn, healthier reactivation rates as well as healthy yet modestly worse-than-expected new customer acquisition.”
How pet health is helping Chewy grow revenue
Singh also said pet health and veterinary care represent “the largest and most compelling long-term opportunities for Chewy.” The retailer’s veterinary care clinics also function as customer acquisition and retention drivers, he said.
About 40% of Chewy Vet Care (CVC) customers are new to the retailer. NSPAC for those customers tends to be about $900, according to Singh.
And existing customers who engage with the retailer’s vet clinics also increase their spending with Chewy “meaningfully faster than other cohorts following their first visit,” Singh said.
Shortly after it completed its fiscal Q1, Chewy closed on its deal to acquire Modern Animal, a veterinary care company. Chewy announced in early April that it signed a definitive agreement to acquire Modern Animal.
“Modern Animal adds a highly complementary and well-established footprint with above-industry unit economics, strong clinical expertise and an experience-led technology-enabled model that closely aligns with CVC,” Singh said. “This transaction accelerates the expansion of CVC and unlocks multiple avenues to accelerate clinic growth.”
Singh said Chewy expects to end its fiscal year operating about 60 clinics.
Percentage changes may not align exactly with dollar figures due to rounding. Check back for more earnings reports. Here’s our last update on Chewy sales.
Do you rank in our databases?
Submit your data and we’ll see where you fit in our next ranking update.
Sign up
Stay on top of the latest developments in the online retail industry. Sign up for a complimentary subscription to Digital Commerce 360 Retail News. Follow us on LinkedIn, X (formerly Twitter), Facebook and YouTube. Be the first to know when Digital Commerce 360 publishes news content.