Chewy
What It Is
Chewy is an online retailer specializing in pet food, supplies, and related products, sold primarily through subscriptions and direct delivery. It was founded in South Florida in the early 2010s and grew rapidly into one of the largest online pet retailers in the country, later becoming a publicly traded company. Built around customer service and recurring shipments, Chewy competed directly with much larger general e-commerce players and carved out a durable niche. Its origins and early growth are tied to the South Florida region.
Why It Matters
Chewy stands out as a genuine homegrown e-commerce success from South Florida, the kind of internet-native company the region had historically struggled to produce on its own. Its rise dovetails with the broader northern migration and tech wave that brought new technology talent, capital, and ambition into Miami. For a metropolitan economy long anchored in trade, tourism, and real estate, a large native online retailer signaled that South Florida could also build and scale a modern consumer-technology brand — a marker of the region's gradual diversification into digital business.