Starting a Pet Food or Pet Products Brand on Shopify India

Pet food and pet supplies look like an easy first D2C category: repeat purchases, loyal customers and products people search for by name. The catch is that founders often assume pet food is regulated like human food, or assume it is not regulated at all, and both guesses cause trouble later. This guide explains what we found when we checked the rules for pet food in India, then how to set up a Shopify store for repeat orders, bundles, heavy bags and the product information pet parents look for.

Regulatory details are from the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006 as published by FSSAI, the Bureau of Indian Standards standards portal and the Department of Animal Husbandry and Dairying (DAHD). Shopify details are from the Shopify Help Center. All were checked on 9 October 2026. This is not legal advice; confirm your own product with a regulatory consultant before launch.

Is pet food regulated by FSSAI in India?

Based on the law as written, no. The Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006 defines food as a substance "intended for human consumption", and the same definition says it "does not include any animal feed". You can read this in section 3(1)(j) of the Act published on the FSSAI website.

That has two practical effects for a pet food founder:

• An FSSAI licence is not the licence for dog or cat food. Some pet brands still display one, often because the same company also makes human food or treats aimed at people. Do not copy that on your product pages unless it genuinely applies to the product.
• Do not borrow human food claims. Words such as "FSSAI approved" on a pet product can mislead buyers, and misleading product claims are a consumer protection problem regardless of which regulator covers the product.

If your range includes something that is sold for both people and pets, such as plain peanut butter or dried fruit, the position changes, because the product may be food for human consumption. That is exactly the kind of edge case to put in writing to a consultant before you print labels.

Is there a BIS standard for pet food?

Yes, but as of our check it is a published standard, not a mandatory certification. The BIS standards portal lists IS 11968:2019, "Pet food for dogs and cats, Specification (First Revision)", handled by the Animal Feeds and Nutrition Sectional Committee. The listing we saw did not show it under compulsory certification or a Quality Control Order.

Even when a standard is voluntary, it is useful. It gives you a recognised specification to brief your manufacturer against, and a reference point when a buyer asks how you check quality. If you are working with a contract manufacturer, ask them directly whether they test against IS 11968 and ask for the test reports, rather than assuming.

Mandatory status can change when the government notifies a Quality Control Order, so recheck the BIS portal before launch and before every new product line.

What if you import pet food to sell in India?

Imports of dog and cat food containing animal origin material have specific veterinary rules. DAHD's notification S.O. 3926(E), dated 22 September 2021 (listed in the notifications section of the DAHD website), sets the veterinary health certificate requirements for these products. Among its conditions:

• Each consignment must travel with a separate veterinary health certificate in the form annexed to the notification.
• A manufacturer's declaration must be pasted on each container, covering traceability of the source animal and confirming the certificate carries the product's batch number.
• The declaration must confirm the product does not contain beef, beef tallow or beef flavour originating from beef, because import of beef into India is prohibited.

DAHD's trade division page also lists later conditions for specific product types, so an importer should read the current list rather than rely on the 2021 notification alone. Import paperwork is your importer's and customs agent's job, but your store depends on it: a held consignment means out of stock pages during your launch.

Which pet products need the most care before you list them?

Pet supplies cover a wide range, and the risk is not the same across it. A simple way to sort your catalogue before launch:

We did not find a single government page that covers every pet product type, so treat the table as a checklist of questions to answer, not a list of legal requirements.

Can you sell pet food subscriptions on Shopify in India?

Yes, but check the payment side first, because it decides which subscription tool you can use. Shopify's own Subscriptions app lists the payment gateways it works with: Shopify Payments, PayPal Express, Authorize.net, Adyen and Stripe. Shopify Payments is not available to Indian businesses, and Razorpay, Cashfree and PayU, the gateways most Indian stores use, are not on that list.

So for an Indian pet brand, the realistic routes are:

1. A third-party subscription app that supports your gateway. Confirm in writing, from the app developer, that recurring charges work with your Indian gateway and with UPI recurring payments if you want them. Our subscription app comparison covers what to look for.
2. A reorder flow instead of auto-billing. A reminder message near the expected refill date with a one-tap reorder link. It is less automatic, but it works with any gateway and with cash on delivery customers.
3. Prepaid multi-month packs. Sold as normal products or bundles, delivered in one shipment or split by your operations team.

Whichever you choose, let customers pause and skip easily. Pet food needs change when a puppy grows, a pet falls ill or the family travels, and a subscription that is hard to change becomes a refund request.

How should you structure pet food variants and bundles?

Start from how pet parents choose: species, life stage, size, then pack size. Shopify lets each product have up to three options and up to 2,048 variants. For most pet food ranges that means one product per recipe, with options for life stage (where the recipe differs, it should be a separate product) and pack size.

Bundles suit this category well: starter kits for a new puppy, food plus treats, or multipacks of the same bag. The free Shopify Bundles app supports fixed bundles and multipacks, with limits worth knowing before you plan your catalogue:

• Fixed bundles can have up to 30 components.
• A bundle can have a maximum of 3 options and 100 variants in total.
• Bundle prices do not update automatically when component prices change.
• Bundles use overall stock tracking rather than location-based inventory.

Those points come from Shopify's Bundles help page. The last one matters if you ship from more than one warehouse. Our note on Shopify bundle limits goes deeper into when the native app is enough.

How do you handle shipping for heavy pet food bags?

Price shipping by weight, and make sure every product has an accurate weight. Shopify supports weight-based shipping rates, which charge different prices "based on the combined weight of items shipping from the same location with the same shipping option". That only works if product weights in your admin are correct, including packaging.

Points to settle before launch:

• Courier weight slabs and volumetric weight. Large litter or food bags can be billed on volume, not just weight. Ask your courier or aggregator how they bill, and check how weight disputes are raised.
• Free shipping thresholds. A free shipping rule that makes sense for treats can lose money on large bags. Set your thresholds with the weight of your heaviest packs in mind.
• Cash on delivery on heavy orders. A returned large bag costs more than a returned toy. Decide whether COD applies to every product or only below a weight or value you are comfortable with. Our guide to cutting COD return losses covers the controls.

If you have not chosen a shipping partner yet, our comparison of aggregators and direct courier contracts lists the questions to ask before you sign.

What should a pet product page show?

The questions pet parents ask before buying are predictable, which makes them easy to answer on the page:

• Species and life stage the product is for.
• Full ingredient list, in the same order as the pack.
• Feeding guide by body weight, copied exactly from the pack or your manufacturer's sheet.
• Pack size and approximate number of days a pack lasts for a given pet size, only if your manufacturer has given you that figure.
• Storage instructions and shelf life after opening.
• For imported products, country of origin and importer details.
• How to contact you with a question before buying.

Store these as product metafields rather than typing them into each description. That keeps the format the same across products, lets the theme show them in tabs or tables, and lets you filter collections by species or life stage. Our metafields guide explains how to set this up.

What should you set up first, and what can wait?

For launch, keep the store tight: a small range done well, accurate product data, payments and shipping tested end to end, and a clear way to reorder. Things that can usually wait until you see demand include loyalty points, a full subscription portal, multiple warehouses and international shipping.

If you are deciding how to split your first budget across stock, store and marketing, our first budget guide for new brands covers that decision in more detail.

One regulatory reminder before you place your first big stock order: confirm in writing which rules apply to each product type you sell, including packaged goods labelling, and keep that confirmation on file. The rules we checked are summarised above, but a consultant who has seen your actual labels is the right final check.

Planning a pet brand on Shopify?

Free pet store setup review. Get in touch or email hello@exactwhy.com with the subject "Pet Brand Store Review" and your store URL or product list. Tell us whether you sell food, supplies or both, which payment gateway you use and how you plan to handle repeat orders. We reply within 4 hours with a recommended product and variant structure, the subscription or reorder route that fits your gateway, and the shipping settings to fix before launch.

If you go ahead. We set up your Shopify store for a pet brand: product and variant structure, metafields for ingredients and feeding guides, bundles and starter kits, a reorder or subscription flow that works with Indian gateways, weight-based shipping and COD rules, and launch testing with real orders.