Pet store loyalty programs: examples and Shopify setup guide

A pet store loyalty program rewards customers for joining or returning to a pet supply retailer. It can use purchase points, store credit, member discounts or a paid benefit bundle. Start with a repeat purchase that customers already need, then decide whether the reward makes that purchase easier or better value.

Pet food, litter and treats may have a replenishment pattern, while beds, carriers and bowls may be occasional purchases. Use your own order history to identify the difference. A program designed around monthly food purchases should not assume that an accessory customer will return at the same interval.

For a small store, one understandable reward is a useful starting point. Explain who earns it, what purchases qualify and how to redeem it. A long list of benefits will not fix an offer that costs too much to deliver.

These are independent US program examples, not Memberply customer case studies or evidence of a promised sales increase. Check the linked official pages for current terms and local availability.

Petco: a free entry option and a paid upgrade

Petco describes Petco Perks as its free tier and Petco Perks Premier as its paid tier. Its offer combines shopping rewards with benefits relevant to different pet types. The lesson for an independent retailer is to make the upgrade useful for a specific purchasing pattern, rather than charging for a badge. Choose benefits you can actually fulfil; an app does not create grooming or veterinary services for your business.

PetSmart: purchase rewards with spend-based status

PetSmart’s Treats Rewards terms describe a free program with Member, Bestie and VIPP tiers, where higher status depends on qualifying annual spend. This illustrates an important distinction: a customer can earn status by shopping without paying a membership fee. For your store, clearly separate the rules for earning points, qualifying for a tier and using a reward.

Use these examples for program structure, not as a template for every benefit or price. Your product margins, parcel weights and service capacity will differ.

Membership and autoship are separate. A recurring Memberply membership payment purchases membership access; it does not automatically ship pet food. If you also offer product subscriptions, use a suitable product-subscription workflow and test the combined checkout, discounts and renewals before promising compatibility.

Read the membership versus subscription guide for the distinction. For a paid offer, use the membership pricing calculator to compare the fee with expected benefit use.

A fictional pet boutique could start with a free points club for regular shoppers. A store with many repeat buyers could separately test a paid tier with an eligible-product discount. Neither offer needs to include unlimited shipping. Memberply supports purchase reward points redeemed for credit, member discounts, loyalty drops and configurable free shipping; you choose which benefits to enable.

For a pet birthday campaign, verify that your chosen tools can collect and use the pet’s date. Do not assume a member’s birthday field represents a pet or supports multiple pets. Likewise, service appointments and supplier-funded “buy several bags, get one free” schemes need their own verified workflows.

Explore the store credit guide and tiered loyalty guide for more detailed reward planning.

Illustrative calculation: a $70 order has $42 in product costs and $8 in other variable costs, leaving $20 contribution before membership benefits. A 5% discount costs $3.50. If free shipping adds $9 to the merchant’s cost, contribution falls to $7.50. That is $12.50 less on the same order. This simplified example excludes tax and assumes the other costs do not change.

If a $60 annual member uses those benefits on six orders, the benefit cost is $75. The membership fee alone would not cover it. Count only additional contribution the program produces, not all revenue from shoppers who would have bought anyway.

From the customer’s perspective, recovering a $60 fee through a 5% discount alone requires $1,200 of eligible spending. Do not include excluded products in the savings claim. Shipping savings add value only when the customer would otherwise pay for delivery.

Set shipping rules around the parcel, not just the subtotal

Memberply supports minimum purchase requirements, selected countries, a maximum shipping cost setting and product or collection exclusions for free shipping. A mixed basket can still be expensive to ship even if some items do not count toward eligibility. Test the actual shipping rates and boundary cases, including food bags, litter and remote destinations.

Use the free shipping threshold calculator as a planning aid, then check the result against your real parcel costs. The membership discount profit calculator helps explore discount tradeoffs.

1. Define the audience and rules. Choose a repeat-purchase group using your order history. Write the benefit, eligible products, cost, expiry and cancellation terms before configuring the app.
2. Create a membership tier. In Memberply, open Membership Tiers and add a free, one-time or recurring tier. Review the fee and billing frequency before publishing because those settings are locked afterward. Follow the tier creation guide.
3. Configure the selected benefits. Open Benefits and Edit Benefits for the tier. Set point earning and redemption rates, discount exclusions or shipping rules as appropriate. Start with one offer that is easy to test. See the reward points and free shipping instructions.
4. Connect membership checkout. For recurring tiers, enable the Memberply Membership selling plans app embed and add the Memberply Subscription Details block to the membership product template. Follow the checkout setup guide.
5. Set up new customer accounts. Add the Memberply benefits page to the accounts menu. Enable Store credit when rewards use native credit. Follow the customer account instructions.
6. Connect POS if you sell in person. Enable the integration and add the Memberply tile. Staff should select the customer before checking benefits. Enable Store Credit as a POS payment method if members will redeem it at the till. Follow the POS setup guide and its requirements for recurring membership sales.

• Joining and access: test a new member, an existing member, a signed-out shopper and an ended membership in a development or staging store.
• Basket eligibility: test eligible food or accessories, excluded products, mixed carts and promotion combinations.
• Shipping: check light and heavy parcels, minimum purchase boundaries, excluded countries and rates at the maximum shipping cost setting.
• Rewards: confirm point earning, credit redemption and expiry. Verify refund behaviour rather than assuming every reward automatically reverses.
• POS: check the same customer’s status and balances online and in store. Train staff to explain eligibility without promising every benefit in every channel.
• Product subscriptions: if you also run autoship, test its orders and renewals separately from membership renewals. One successful initial checkout does not validate every later order.

For reminders, use purchase history and the customer’s actual buying pattern. A household with several pets may reorder differently from a single-pet household. Configure messaging in your email platform and stop reminders after a relevant reorder. Memberply membership alone does not infer when a pet will run out of food.

Use these fictional audience rules to plan relevant follow-up. Product purchases and membership status answer different questions: being an active member does not tell you whether a household needs another bag of food.

A missing order is not proof that a pet needs more food or that the customer has left. Check whether the customer changed pack size, switched product or uses autoship before interpreting the gap. Review the member win-back guide separately when membership itself has ended.

Configure follow-up in your email platform using verified order data, current membership eligibility and marketing consent. These are planning examples, not campaigns automatically created by Memberply.

Track enrolment, first reward use, time to the next purchase, repeat purchase rate and contribution after discounts, credit, delivery and service costs. For paid tiers, also track renewals and cancellations. Use a window long enough to include the replenishment cycle you are testing.

Compare with a suitable baseline or holdout group where practical. Members may already be frequent shoppers, so higher spending among members alone does not prove the program caused it. Review heavy users as well as average users before expanding shipping or credit benefits.

For follow-up ideas, read the post-purchase email guide and customer retention examples.