The pet industry track is already very different from what we used to imagine.

From basic pet food and leashes, to pet smart water dispensers and pet emotion soothing collars that have emerged in recent years, and even more segmented products like pet funeral paper money and pet birthday cakes, the width of this track is still being continuously explored.

 

Image source: Internet

Meanwhile, social media platforms led by TikTok are becoming the new battleground for marketing in the pet industry.

According to TikTok data, views on pet-related topics are growing exponentially, with pet care, pet health, and pet toys constantly becoming trending topics.

In this environment, the emerging pet home brand Muddy Mat, relying on precise product positioning and effective marketing strategies, achieved sales of over $4.27 million (about RMB 29.22 million) on TikTok US, becoming a popular brand in the pet home category in the US market.

 

Image source:TikTok Shop

What's even more interesting is the huge price difference. An ordinary anti-dirt mat, after adding pet attributes and specific usage scenarios, can quickly increase its unit price.

With the same 18"*28" size, Muddy Mat leveraged the 'anti-mud' selling point to push the price up to $20; while on the upstream 1688 platform, the same chenille mat without any marketing packaging has a factory price of just a dozen RMB.

The dozens of times markup in between relies not only on the material itself.

 

Image source:1688

Only by identifying pain points can you build a good brand

Looking at Muddy Mat's growth history, its development path is quite pragmatic.

The brand can be traced back to around 2020, driven by the Catch Creation system, with CEO Matthew Squillace leading the team to enter through e-commerce and wholesale business.

Brand designers once worked remotely with the Catch Creation team to create a brand visual identity system and e-commerce website for Muddy Mat. This product, positioned as "a mud-proof mat designed specifically for dog owners," quickly became Catch Creation's flagship product.

 

Image source:harley design studios

By 2026, Muddy Mat officially announced its expansion from entrance mats to washable area rugs, Cloud K9 dog beds, stair anti-slip mats, and a complete cleaning care product line, moving from "solving entrance problems" to "whole house pet home solutions."

On the data level, Muddy Mat's search popularity also confirms its growth. According to trend monitoring platform Exploding Topics, the brand was marked as "explosive growth" in May 2025, with monthly search volume reaching 201,000 times and a growth rate as high as 9000%.

The synergy between social media popularity and e-commerce conversion is becoming a standard approach for pet Tuke brands.

 

Image source:harley design studios

From TikTok to offline shelves, how to lay out channels?

Muddy Mat's approach to channel operations is worth analyzing. It's not simply about "where to sell," but about linking the brand and channels around the consumption behavior of pet families.

-TikTok content-driven explosive growth

On TikTok, a platform focused on emotional value and visual impact, "empathy" is indeed a powerful weapon.Muddy Mat's content is based on this very point.

For example:

The beloved dog falls into a mud pit, then runs around the house, leaving muddy paw prints everywhere. Faced with this scene, any dog owner would probably go crazy.

So, when a product appears that can easily solve this problem, will everyone's desire to buy soar?

A video with over 2.7 million views gives the answer.

 

Image source:TikTok

Not only is the content carefully crafted, Muddy Mat truly treats the comment section as a customer service front desk.

Looking through the comments, you'll find the brand responds to almost every message—someone asks about sizes, they list colors and specs with links; someone questions "isn't this just an ordinary mat," they don't avoid or delete comments, but directly explain material differences and performance advantages; influencers express cooperation intentions, and are immediately guided to private messages for connection.

Trust is gradually built through these exchanges, and users' dwell time, repurchase intention, and active recommendation rate naturally rise as well.

 

Image source:TikTok

However, these are just the basic front end of content operations. What really pushes the traffic up is advertising.

Take this 56-second viral video as an example (posted by @hollysmith883, ads run for 90 days), the data breakdown is clear:

Although organic views accumulated over 3.7 million, ads accounted for 79.28% of transactions, nearly 80% of orders came from paid traffic. For this video, the brand invested about $14,800 in ads, ultimately driving $50,400 in sales, with a ROAS of 2.7.

 

Image source:kalodata

In other words, content is responsible for triggering resonance and accumulating views, while ads precisely capture those most likely to place orders. Muddy Mat didn't just stop at "the video went viral," but quickly used highly interactive materials for ad amplification, locking in pet owner groups with paid traffic.

For home daily necessities like mats with low unit prices, a ROAS of 2.7 is enough to support large-scale advertising. Without ad investment, viral videos might just be a temporary buzz.

PS: Ad investment does not mean blind spending, it must be based on the actual situation of the product!

 

Image source:kalodata

－Independent site: the brand's "private domain"

Unlike many sellers who rely solely on a single e-commerce platform, Muddy Mat built its brand independent site early on.

The brand's independent site is built on Shopify, connecting visitors from TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, etc., undertaking paid traffic and social media organic traffic; on the other hand, by displaying the complete product line, material information, usage scenarios, etc., it completes secondary persuasion and final conversion of users.

For brands with not low unit prices and multiple SKUs, having a purchase entry under their own control reduces dependence on a single platform, which is itself a common channel diversification strategy.

 

Scenario premium, brand moat

A chenille mat on 1688 costing less than 10 RMB, after adding the scenario definition of "pet anti-mud" and branded content operation, is sold overseas for nearly $20. The huge price difference is essentially "scenario premium."

For Chinese merchants who are observing brand Tuke, Muddy Mat's case sends a clear signal: in today's highly mature supply chain and highly homogenized products, simply relying on low prices to distribute goods is becoming increasingly difficult.

Premiums are never generated out of thin air; you must first figure out whether your product is worth several times the consumption in this scenario. For merchants looking for Tuke direction, it's really worth studying this point carefully.

What scenarios can your product enter? How is user consumption power in this track? If you're not sure, feel free to discuss with us~