Pet Loyalty Programs & Promotions: How to Grow Your Pet Commerce Business in 2025

Let’s be honest. Selling pet products today is no easy task. Pet parents are shopping online, comparing top brands, and expecting personalized experiences (yes, even birthday rewards for their dogs).

Pet ecommerce is booming, with U.S. spending hitting $151.9 billion in 2024 and climbing. Over a quarter of pet care sales are now online, and while inflation hit many sectors, pet owners stayed loyal, only 19% traded down, compared to 47% in grocery.

If you're looking to keep tails wagging and revenue growing, you're in the right place. In this post, we’ll explore how smart promotions and loyalty programs are helping pet brands win hearts and carts.

Best practices for promotion and loyalty design in pet commerce

1. Make loyalty emotional, not just transactional

Pet owners share a deep bond with their animals – it’s more than shopping; it’s caring for family. Loyalty programs shouldn’t just be about points or discounts. The best pet loyalty programs tap into this connection, creating moments that show brands truly value both pets and their owners.

Beyond spending, loyalty can include perks like birthday treats, adoption anniversary gifts, or wellness reminders. These small gestures show customers that a brand “knows and cares” about their furry family members.

2. Tier rewards and guarantee VIP treatment

Sometimes, loyalty works best when customers feel part of an exclusive club. Tiered programs can boost engagement and spending by giving pet owners a sense of status and special treatment. The key is to keep tiers clear, achievable, and worthwhile. Small touches – like a free bag of premium pet food or an exclusive toy for VIPs – help customers feel genuinely valued.

3. Gamify the loyalty experience

Gamifying the loyalty experience is a great way to keep pet owners engaged and excited. People love loyalty programs that feel, again, fun – not just transactional. Some effective tactics include:

• Points & badges: Reward customers not just for purchases, but for actions like writing reviews, sharing pet photos, or referring friends.
• Punch cards: Digital punch cards (e.g. buy 10 bags of food, get 1 free) mimic old paper cards but are tracked easily online.
• Challenges and contests: Periodic challenges, like sharing a pet photo for bonus points or social media contests can boost engagement and generate user content.
• Referral Incentives: “Give $X, Get $Y” deals turn loyal customers into brand advocates, especially when both parties benefit.
• Surprise & delight: Unexpected perks, like a free treat in an order, create memorable moments and spark positive word-of-mouth.

Learn more: Loyalty Gamification: 10 Examples of Gamified Loyalty Programs

4. Keep loyalty consistent across all channels

To keep customers happy, it’s crucial to ensure loyalty benefits and promotions are consistent everywhere they shop. A member should be able to redeem a coupon in-store that they received by email, or spend points earned in-store on the website.

This isn’t just about tech, it also takes solid operations. Staff should know to ask, “Are you a loyalty member?” at checkout so in-store purchases always count toward rewards.

Consistency also means aligning your messaging. If your website promotes “2x loyalty points this week,” your in-store signage should say the same thing. Brands that get omnichannel loyalty right don’t just create smoother customer experiences – they often see retention rates up to 91% higher than those sticking to a single channel.

5. Build community and share knowledge

Pet brands thrive when they go beyond discounts and build a sense of community for pet lovers. Today’s loyalty programs often blend education, social connection, and purpose.

Members value exclusive content and events like Q&A sessions with veterinarians, training webinars, or in-store workshops, which reward customers and position brands as trusted experts.

Adding a cause-driven element is powerful, too. Many pet owners care deeply about animal welfare. Letting members donate points to shelters or matching points for charity aligns loyalty programs with customer values. Globally, 57% of consumers feel more loyal to brands that demonstrate social responsibility.

Engineering and technical challenges in pet loyalty programs

Building a loyalty program in the pet industry sounds cute and fluffy, but behind the scenes, there’s plenty of heavy lifting. Let’s dig into the biggest challenges and how leading pet brands are tackling them.

1. Build a scalable loyalty infrastructure

One of the first decisions pet brands face is whether to build a custom loyalty system in-house, switch on a simple plugin or use a SaaS loyalty vendor. 

Custom-builts offer full control and tailored experiences but require significant engineering resources, especially to handle peaks. Plugins fall flat when it comes to customization and branding. I highly recommend looking into composable loyalty platforms which provide scalability, faster time-to-market, and lower complexity. They integrate smoothly with various tech stacks and can easily handle high demand without major architectural headaches.

Learn more: Building Loyalty Programs in a Composable Architecture: A Practical Guide

2. Ensure omnichannel integration

Pet owners shop everywhere – online, in stores, on apps, and even at vet clinics. Omnichannel integration means connecting all these channels, including POS systems, so customers can earn and redeem points wherever they go.

This becomes much easier with composable, API-first tools like CDPs, API gateways, message queues, and cloud services that link systems quickly and reliably.

Behind the scenes, it’s about ensuring every action – from buying treats in-store to booking a grooming session – flows instantly into the loyalty system. While modern API-driven platforms and middleware make these connections possible, teams still need careful implementation and testing to keep data accurate and real-time.

Learn more: How to Create an Effective Omnichannel Loyalty Program in 2025?

3. Plug in personalization engines and data management

In the pet industry, personalization is a powerful driver of loyalty. Think of helping a pet owner choose the right food for a schnauzer’s sensitive stomach or sending reminders when it’s time to restock flea medication.

To deliver this, brands need data from many sources – purchase history, pet profiles, browsing behavior, service bookings, and even veterinary records. Combining this creates a single view of each customer, enabling tailored offers and recommendations.

Many brands rely on CDPs or CRMs to merge loyalty, ecommerce, and veterinary data into one picture. A centralized data platform helps break down silos, spot buying patterns, and deliver faster, more relevant experiences for customers and their pets.

Learn more: Maximizing Customer Loyalty with CDP-Powered Incentives

4. Look into privacy, compliance, and data security

Loyalty programs collect valuable data – including pet names, owner details, shopping history, and sometimes health records. That makes privacy and compliance a crucial challenge.

Brands must comply with regulations like GDPR and CCPA, which require systems to track consent and manage how personal data is used. 

Loyalty data is often called “the new oil” of retail – but it comes with responsibility. Brands need to invest in encryption, secure storage, and permission-based data flows.

Interestingly, stricter privacy laws are pushing brands to innovate. Pet wellness apps that give users full visibility and control over their data can actually boost loyalty by building trust. Businesses now work closely across technical, legal, and security teams to create features like consent dashboards, data retention policies, and strong cybersecurity for loyalty platforms.

5. Minimize latency

Loyalty programs thrive on instant gratification. Customers expect loyalty points to appear as soon as they check out and to redeem rewards without delays.

From a technical perspective, this requires low-latency integrations between ecommerce systems and loyalty databases, along with high system uptime. Any downtime during major promotions, like a double points weekend, can erode trust and hurt sales.

Events like Black Friday or National Pet Day bring huge traffic spikes. Pet brands need to load-test systems and monitor performance to avoid bottlenecks. Many in the industry see omnichannel integration and adopting new technologies as two of the toughest challenges in scaling loyalty tech.

Learn more: Optimizing Loyalty Programs for Speed and Low Latency

Real-life examples of pet commerce promotions & loyalty programs

1. Petco: Vital Care Program

Petco’s Vital Care is a good example of how loyalty can go beyond points to support pet health and strengthen the pet-owner bond. For $19.99 per month, Vital Care members get routine vet exam credits, plus 10–20% discounts on food, litter, grooming, and other services – adding up to roughly $320–$400 in annual benefits.

Instead of being purely transactional, Vital Care acts as a wellness plan that taps into pet owners’ desire to invest in their pets’ health. Emotional loyalty plays a big role, making the program feel more like a partnership and helping boost customer lifetime value for Petco.

Alongside Vital Care, Petco launched “Welcome to the Family,” a program aimed at new pet parents. It offers guidance and up to $285 in savings on essential products and services. By partnering with vendors and integrating vet, training, and grooming services, Petco uses this program to educate new pet owners and build loyalty from the very start.

2. PetSmart Treats™ Loyalty Program

PetSmart’s Treats™ Loyalty Program combines a classic points system with modern perks and deeper connections to pet services. Members earn points not only for every dollar spent online or in-store, but also for things like donations to PetSmart Charities and bookings for grooming or pet hotel stays.

Points can be redeemed for discounts, and members enjoy exclusive deals, birthday gifts for their pets, and early access to special events. But Treats™ goes further, linking loyalty to emotional experiences like adoption support and charity work, which helps strengthen bonds with pet owners.

As Greg Fancher, EVP and CTO of PetSmart, explains:

“We’ve relaunched our loyalty program. As a part of that, we're able to fuse the activity that people have in the salon with their activity in the store in a single cohesive loyalty program that allows us to interact with our customers on a very regular basis. This allows us to leverage that stickiness with that trusted groomer, the person who’s taking care of the customer’s pet for an hour or two while they're getting bathed and groomed. Now, that we've enabled online booking for our [pet] hotel as well, it gives us just one more connection point to bring that entire experience together.” 

3. BARK (BarkBox): Subscription + Loyalty Hybrid

BARK, the brand behind BarkBox, has turned loyalty into a monthly experience for dog owners. Each BarkBox delivers themed toys, treats, and chews, creating joy and surprise for pets and steady, repeat revenue for the business.

Even during economic downturns, BarkBox maintained impressive loyalty. In 2023–2024, subscriber retention reached record highs – the best since BARK went public. While new subscriber growth slowed due to tighter consumer spending, existing customers stayed loyal. BarkBox reported a retention index of ~64, compared to an acquisition index of ~59, highlighting how it’s often easier and more profitable to keep subscribers than constantly acquire new ones.

Notably, 44% of pet owners said “enjoyment” was their top reason for sticking with pet subscriptions – more than twice as important as price. BarkBox taps into this by delivering whimsical themes and personalizing boxes to a dog’s breed, size, and play style.

The brand also sends tailored offers and exclusive promotions to subscribers, blending together loyalty and subscription strategies.

4. Chewy: Autoship and Chewy+

Chewy, the online pet supply giant, is a great example of building loyalty through both convenience and genuine customer care. Its Autoship service, which lets customers schedule automatic deliveries of pet essentials, achieved 9% year-over-year sales growth in 2024. By making reordering easy and offering discounts for subscribers Chewy keeps pet owners coming back.

In late 2024, Chewy launched Chewy+, a paid membership that adds even more perks, including free shipping and 5% cashback rewards. Early results were promising: in Q3 2024, Chewy’s sales rose 4.8%, driven largely by growth in Autoship and the new Chewy+ program.

Beyond subscriptions and savings, Chewy has earned a reputation for its personal touches. The brand famously sends handwritten holiday cards, and even sympathy flowers when customers lose a pet – small gestures that build strong emotional bonds and lasting loyalty.

5. The Honest Kitchen: Loyalty & referrals combined

The Honest Kitchen, a premium pet food brand, has built loyalty by blending personalized experiences with community engagement. After launching a combined loyalty and referral program, they focused on using customer data to deliver more tailored value.

• Personalized content: The Honest Kitchen sends educational materials tailored to each pet’s profile – like species, weight, or allergies – helping pet owners make informed choices and positioning the brand as a trusted advisor rather than just a seller.
• Personalized rewards: Customers see relevant product recommendations and rewards directly on their loyalty account pages, driven by their purchase history.

The results speak for themselves. The Honest Kitchen’s referral opt-in rate grew to 4× the industry average, with a 25% referral conversion rate, meaning one in four referred friends makes a purchase. 

6. Jollyes: PetCLUB Loyalty Program

Jollyes, a UK pet retailer with over 90 stores and a growing online presence, shows how even established brands can revitalize loyalty with a modern approach. Looking to connect more personally with pet owners, Jollyes launched petCLUB, a loyalty program powered by Voucherify.

• Exclusive rewards: petCLUB members enjoy personalized discounts and offers tailored to their pets’ needs, plus surprise perks like birthday treats for furry friends.
• Omnichannel benefits: Customers can earn and redeem points both in-store and online, choosing from treats, toys, and premium products.
• Engagement beyond discounts: Jollyes uses Voucherify to run targeted promotions based on shopping habits, pet type, or purchase history. They also create flash sales around pet-themed holidays and host creative giveaways to keep customers engaged.

The results speak for themselves: 85% of Jollyes’ transactions are now linked to the loyalty program, loyalty members shop an average of seven times per year, and the brand has kept annual churn below 10% thanks to effective retention incentives.

{{CUSTOMER}}

{{ENDCUSTOMER}}

7. Doodle Dogs

Doodle Dogs, a Calgary-based pet retailer with four stores and an online shop, refreshed its loyalty strategy in 2024 with a gamified punch card program. Customers could earn rewards by placing repeat orders – for example, placing 12 orders of $100 each unlocked a bonus, turning shopping into a goal-driven experience.

Loyalty members at Doodle Dogs have an average order value 1.6× higher and shop 4.6× more often than other customers. By 2024, 25% of the company’s revenue came from shoppers in the punch card program. The co-founder said customers were “like married to our loyalty program,” showing how strong the connection became.

Choose the right tools – loyalty platforms for pet commerce

Building a successful loyalty program in pet ecommerce often starts with choosing the right technology. There’s no one-size-fits-all solution – brands can pick from off-the-shelf platforms, marketing tools, or even custom-built stacks, depending on their size, goals, and resources.

Here’s a quick look at some options pet brands consider:

• Composable loyalty platforms (e.g., Voucherify, Open Loyalty): These API-first solutions let brands build highly customized promotions, loyalty tiers, and personalized offers. They’re ideal for businesses wanting flexibility, scalability, and easy integration with modern tech stacks.
  
  
• Plug-in loyalty platforms like LoyaltyLion or Smile.io provide pre-built loyalty templates and features – points, tiers, referrals, VIP perks, and analytics. They’re a solid choice for smaller brands, but may become a problem once you start scaling.
  
  
• Marketing automation & CRM tools like Klaviyo, HubSpot, Salesforce Marketing Cloud aren’t loyalty platforms alone but excel at personalizing communication, segmenting audiences, and integrating loyalty data for targeted campaigns. Many pet brands pair these with loyalty platforms for maximum impact.
  
  
• Enterprise suites such as Salesforce Loyalty Management, Oracle CrowdTwist, SAP Customer Loyalty cater to large retailers with complex omnichannel needs. They offer deep customization, multi-brand support, and robust data integration – but require significant investment and technical resources.
  
  
• Custom tech stacks remain an option for brands wanting complete control and unique loyalty concepts. They are often built in-house or composed from microservices and integrations. The upside is differentiation; the downside is the significant investment in development and maintenance.

Ultimately, the right choice depends on your brand’s ambitions, budget, and technical resources. For pet brands, the goal remains the same: creating loyalty programs that feel personal and as rewarding as a wagging tail.

{{CTA}}

Launch your pet loyalty program with Voucherify

Let's chat

{{ENDCTA}}