Chewy Shifts Focus Towards Health and Technology Amid Strong Growth
Chewy, an e-commerce company specializing in pet products and services, is shifting its focus towards health and technology. At the Goldman Sachs Global Consumer and Retail Conference on September 14, 2026, CEO Sumit Singh outlined the company's plans to expand beyond traditional retail and into healthcare. Chewy has been seeing significant growth, with gross margins increasing from 18% at its IPO to around 30% today.
The improvement in margins can be attributed to Autoship, health products, and supply chain optimization. The company added about $9 billion in incremental revenue over the past six years, with Chewy Health contributing approximately $4 billion or 44% of that growth. Despite a softer consumer backdrop, management believes this trend is temporary normalization rather than a structural decline in pet ownership.
Chewy aims to use artificial intelligence, agentic commerce tools, and its clinic network to support future growth while self-funding most investments. The company plans to evolve into a scaled health platform with a credible retail offering over the next five to ten years. To achieve this goal, Chewy is expanding its veterinary clinics, which currently operate 60 locations, generating an average of $3.5 million per clinic.
The company's software platform is used by around 18,000 veterinarians in the US, and they are exploring a possible software-as-a-service offering. Additionally, Chewy has partnered with Google, Gemini, and other major agentic platforms to develop internal tools for an agentic commerce environment. The company expects $50 million in AI-driven savings in 2027.