The Rise of the Platform: How Vetcove Is Reshaping the Supply Chain
I’ve been in the veterinary industry for less than a decade, and from everything I’ve seen—and everything I’ve been told by those who were here long before me—the industry today is almost unrecognizable compared to what it once was.
For years, the rhythm of veterinary supply purchasing followed a familiar beat.
Distributor reps would regularly visit clinics, handshakes were exchanged, and relationships were built slowly over time. Orders were placed through a messy patchwork of phone calls, emails, fax machines, and outdated web portals. Pricing was rarely transparent, backorders were a frequent headache, and it was nearly impossible for a veterinarian or practice manager to know whether they were getting a fair deal from their supplier.
What bridged that uncertainty was trust—trust earned over months and years of working with the same rep, seeing that person follow through, resolve problems, and advocate for the clinic when it mattered. The rep wasn’t just a salesperson. In many cases, they were the clinic’s supply chain quarterback. This wasn’t just how business was done—it was the unwritten code of the industry. For many, this era represented the “golden age” of veterinary distribution.
Then came Vetcove.
An online purchasing platform, Vetcove aggregates the supply catalogs of many major U.S. veterinary distributors into one consolidated interface. Veterinarians with multiple distributor accounts can log in, view pricing and inventory availability in real time, see what’s on backorder, compare delivery estimates, and place orders across vendors—all without ever making a call or speaking to a rep. With thousands of U.S. vet clinics reportedly using the platform, Vetcove has quickly become the not-so-quiet standard for how small animal general practices manage their purchasing.
It’s efficient. It’s tech-forward. It promises to empower clinics with greater control and visibility.
But like any major shift, it raises deeper, more uncomfortable questions like….
What happens when all prices are visible to everyone? What becomes of the distributor rep who used to provide clinical insights and hands-on support? What happens if a veterinarian misses out on better pricing from a rep because they ordered on Vetcove and paid MSRP?
And what happens when the platform—not the clinic, not the rep, and not the manufacturer—becomes the most powerful gatekeeper in the entire supply chain?
This blog takes a closer look at that shift—and the consequences, good and bad—through both points of view.
Point of View A:
Vetcove and Online Purchasing is Good for the Industry
Consolidation of Vendor Access in One Platform
Before platforms like Vetcove, clinic purchasing was more fragmented and inefficient than it is today. Like any consumer, sometimes veterinarians or their purchasers might spend hours each week logging into multiple distributor portals to manage inventory, reorder supplies, compare prices, or verify stock. Sometimes, if a distributor ran out of a product, the clinic often wouldn’t know until after an order was placed. Time was lost, patients were impacted, and frustration mounted.
Vetcove changed that by creating a single access point for the entire supply ecosystem. Vet hospitals can see contracted pricing from each vendor, spot stockouts in advance, track shipments, and reorder common items with a click, or even automatically.
This isn’t just about convenience—it’s about cost savings and better patient care. When inventory management is optimized, hospitals, in theory, can operate more smoothly. When backorders are detected in real-time, alternatives can be decided on before the situation leads to critical issues.
Transparency and the Rise of Efficient Markets
Vetcove can offer price transparency that was impossible to find prior to the site’s genesis. Hospitals can see what each distributor charges for the same product, and also any promotions or deals that they may be eligible for. That visibility can help put pressure on distributors to offer competitive pricing and discourage price gouging or “custom quotes” based on a clinic’s size or bargaining ability.
Through an economic lens, Vetcove brings veterinary purchasing closer to an efficient market—a system in which buyers and sellers have equal access to information. Transparency leads to efficient markets and efficient markets lead to fairer pricing, better allocation of resources, and increased competition. It’s far easier for a hospital or clinic to make rational, price-informed decisions without relying on blind loyalty or guesswork.
Efficient markets also weaken price discrimination strategies, where different clinics may unknowingly pay wildly different prices for identical products (yes, I’ve seen it happen – it’s real and can be insane). That shift—toward equal information—is a major win for independent practices without purchasing groups or corporate buying power.
Empowering Independent Clinics Against Consolidation Pressures
As veterinary medicine becomes more corporatized, independent practices often find themselves outgunned in pricing power. Corporate groups negotiate bulk discounts, sign exclusive agreements, and lean on the threat of going with a different supplier to drive down costs. Smaller practices, in contrast, often pay MSRP for the same product that a corporate clinic is paying half the price for.
Platforms like Vetcove help give these independents a fighting chance by exposing pricing across vendors, enabling direct ordering, and allowing smaller clinics to analyze their spend more intelligently.
For the solo veterinarian who doesn’t have time to negotiate distributor contracts or chase down reps, this kind of platform can feel like a lifeline—helping them stay profitable without becoming a procurement expert.
Data Visibility and Strategic Purchasing
For some hospitals, a significant advantage of Vetcove is accessing the data it provides through tracking spending by product type, category, vendor, and time period. Over time, this data gives clinics the tools to spot patterns, identify overused items, and standardize purchasing decisions.
Clinics can use this data to reduce inventory waste, forecast supply needs, and even identify opportunities for consolidation or substitution—especially valuable in unstable supply chain environments where availability can be as important as pricing.
In an industry where margins are tight and time is scarce, better purchasing intelligence is not a luxury—it’s a necessity.
Point of View B:
Vetcove and Online Purchasing is Bad for the Industry
Commoditization and the Race to the Bottom
Price transparency has a downside—commoditization. When clinics and hospitals are encouraged to choose based solely on price, it creates a downward pressure on distributors and manufacturers.
Margins get tighter. Service gets cut. Educational programs vanish. Clinical support disappears. Quality of equipment weakens. Warranty terms tighten.
This isn’t just hypothetical.
Distributors are already scaling back their outside sales teams and have let go top performing reps. Field-based education has been reduced. Hospitals and clinics are being pushed toward self-service.
The problem? Many veterinary products—especially capital equipment, diagnostics, and therapeutics—require more than just a transactional purchase. They require training, troubleshooting, and follow-up. When every product becomes a “line item” in a shopping cart, even the most unique and complex technologies get reduced to commodity status.
And when pricing is the only differentiator, the cheapest wins—not the most valuable.
Erosion of Sales Support and Manufacturer Advocacy
In the old model, reps from distributors and manufacturers played an essential role in product adoption. They demoed new equipment, answered clinical questions all hours of the day and night, and went to any length to help veterinarians in making informed decisions based on patient outcomes—not just cost.
Vetcove, by design, eliminates that layer. While this can increase autonomy, it also leaves clinics to evaluate new products in a vacuum—often relying on incomplete information, biased reviews, or brand familiarity rather than true product merit.
For emerging manufacturers or products that require explanation (think regenerative medicine, surgical tools, or wireless monitors), this is a serious barrier. Without advocates in the field, their chances of gaining clinical traction plummet.
The Power of the Platform—and the Question of Data Ownership
While Vetcove presents itself as a neutral marketplace, its business model raises deeper concerns. By aggregating and analyzing billions in veterinary purchases, the platform has a bird’s-eye view of the entire supply chain as to what’s selling, who is buying it, and where and when are they buying it.
This data is incredibly valuable. But who owns it? And how is it used?
As Vetcove grows, it may be tempted to monetize its insights—by selling analytics to suppliers, favoring certain vendors, or offering “premium” placement to those who pay for visibility.
At that point, the platform is no longer a neutral aggregator—it’s a gatekeeper, shaping what clinics see and buy.
This introduces a subtle but serious risk: a consolidation of power that favors large manufacturers and stifles smaller players who can’t afford premium placement or data access.
New Product Launches Get Buried
Innovative products, especially in the veterinary industry, rarely succeed on specs alone—they need storytelling, education, and time. Whether it’s a new therapeutic cooling device, a regenerative wound treatment, or a wireless monitoring system, clinics need to understand the value before they buy.
In a platform environment like Vetcove, where thousands of SKUs compete for attention, it’s hard for new products to stand out.
There may be no rep to explain the technology. No clinical case study shared over coffee.
That’s not a critique of the platform—it’s a reality of the medium. And it’s one that disproportionately hurts innovation.
Final Thoughts
Whether you see Vetcove as a tool of progress or a warning sign of what’s to come, one thing is clear: it isn’t going anywhere.
Platforms like Vetcove have become embedded in the day-to-day operations of thousands of veterinary practices across the country. And for good reason. They’ve introduced long-overdue transparency to a supply chain that, for years, operated in silos. They’ve made it easier for time-strapped clinics to manage inventory, compare pricing, and respond quickly to shortages or backorders. For many independent clinics—especially those without the buying power of large corporate groups—Vetcove has helped level the playing field.
In that sense, it’s easy to see why so many view it as a positive evolution. More information. More control. Less guesswork. Fewer dependencies on personalities, sales cycles, or opaque contracts.
But as with any powerful system, the benefits come with tradeoffs. It’s not the platform itself that’s inherently good or bad—it’s how it changes the broader behavior of the industry.
What happens when relationships are replaced by algorithms?
When product education is substituted by price filters?
When purchasing decisions become purely transactional, devoid of nuance, context, or clinical consultation?
None of this happens overnight. But over time, convenience has a way of making us forget the intangible things we used to value: trust, service, accountability, clinical partnership. And once those things are gone, they’re hard to rebuild. That’s not a warning. It’s just a reminder.
Veterinary medicine is increasingly complex. The supply chain that supports it should be responsive, yes—but also thoughtful. Transparent, yes—but also supportive. Efficient, yes—but not at the expense of insight. The goal isn’t to resist change or reject technology. Platforms like Vetcove can absolutely coexist with meaningful sales support, clinical education, and strong supplier relationships. The key is to remain intentional. Don’t assume that convenience always equals value—or that visibility always means fairness.
The platform is not the strategy. It’s the tool. And how we use it will shape what this industry becomes next.
