PetSmart Treats is a points-based loyalty program for the US pet retailer, covering 1,600-plus stores. Members earn points on all purchases and receive bonus multiplier points on grooming, training, and boarding services -- the categories that generate significantly higher margins than retail product sales. The bonus-on-services mechanic converts single-purchase customers into multi-service regulars, and it is one of the cleanest examples of a loyalty program that rewards the behaviors that benefit the business most.
This article breaks down how PetSmart Treats works mechanically, why the service-bonus structure drives behavior standard points programs miss, and what a single-location pet groomer, trainer, or pet store can copy from it this week.
What PetSmart is actually doing
PetSmart Treats is a points program at its base. Members earn points on every qualifying purchase and redeem those points for discount coupons. That part is standard retail loyalty mechanics.
The distinctive feature is the service multiplier. Members who book grooming, training, or boarding services earn bonus points on top of the standard retail earn rate. The multiplier is meaningfully higher on services than on retail -- the specific ratio varies by promotion period and service type.
The logic is deliberate. PetSmart operates both a retail floor and an in-store services business (grooming salons, training classes, and PetSmart PetsHotel boarding). The services business runs at higher margins than the retail floor, requires appointment booking (which drives planned visits), and generates longer dwell time in-store (which produces impulse purchases on the retail floor).
A customer who only buys food and toys at PetSmart visits whenever they need to resupply. A customer who also grooms their dog at PetSmart has a fixed appointment every 6-8 weeks, generates grooming revenue, and almost always adds retail purchases during the grooming drop-off or pick-up visit. The service multiplier in the loyalty program accelerates the migration from category-one customer to multi-category customer.
That migration is what the program is actually designed to produce. The points on retail purchases are the baseline engagement; the service bonus is the behavioral shaping.
Why it works
The service-bonus mechanic exploits the asymmetry between customer acquisition cost and customer expansion revenue.
Acquiring a new pet owner as a PetSmart customer costs marketing spend -- paid search, promotions, referral incentives. Expanding an existing retail customer into a grooming customer costs almost nothing if the loyalty program is doing the work. The member already trusts PetSmart, already visits regularly, and already understands the program. Showing them a "3x points on your first grooming appointment" offer is a low-friction introduction to a higher-value service category.
The psychological mechanism is progress-linked cross-sell. The member is already accumulating points and watching the balance grow toward a redemption threshold. Adding a grooming appointment accelerates the progress -- not just because of the bonus multiplier, but because the member now has a reason to book a service they might not have considered in isolation. "I'll try the grooming once to push my points over the redemption threshold" is a real internal justification that leads to a real first appointment.
First grooming appointments have high repeat rates. Pet grooming is a recurring need (dogs need grooming every 6-12 weeks depending on breed). A first-time grooming visit triggered by a points incentive is likely to become a repeat appointment at the baseline service price, without any further incentive required.
PetSmart's math: the bonus points cost on the first grooming visit is less than the revenue from subsequent grooming visits at full rate over the next 12 months.
Paper, app, or wallet pass?
For any pet business evaluating this mechanic, the infrastructure decision comes before the program design.
A paper stamp card can run a basic "10th groom free" mechanic. It is fast and cheap to start. The limits are real: no bonus points on specific service types (a paper card cannot calculate a multiplier), no data on visit frequency, no re-engagement channel when a member goes quiet. A customer who booked grooming every 8 weeks and then stopped for 10 weeks cannot be reached by a paper card.
A branded loyalty app has the opposite problem. It can run any mechanic you design -- multipliers, bonus events, personalized offers. But approximately 83% of branded apps are uninstalled within 30 days. A pet grooming business asking customers to download a proprietary app is creating friction at the exact moment the customer is deciding whether to book. Most will not download it.
A wallet pass on Apple Wallet and Google Wallet sits between them. The mechanic sophistication of an app (points, multipliers, configurable earn rules) combined with the zero-friction adoption of a physical card. The customer scans a QR code at checkout and the pass is on their lock screen in 30 seconds. No download required. When the member has not booked in 10 weeks, you push a notification: "Charlie is due for a groom -- book this week for double Treats points." Push notification open rates on wallet passes run approximately 90%. Paper cards cannot do this.
The service-multiplier mechanic that makes PetSmart Treats valuable is fully configurable in a wallet-pass program. You set the rules; the pass tracks the math.
What a pet business can copy on Monday
1. Award double stamps for the higher-margin service
If you run a dog grooming business and also sell pet food, shampoo, or accessories, the loyalty program should reflect the asymmetry in your margins. A full groom earns two stamps; a product purchase earns one stamp. The 10th stamp redeems for a free bath or a discount on a future groom.
The cost of the extra stamp is near zero relative to the value of training customers to book the full grooming service by default. One wallet-pass loyalty program connecting the retail side and the service side is more effective than two separate programs -- members engage with whichever earns them progress, and you gain visibility into their full spend history.
2. Cross-sell with a bonus-earn offer on a first service
If you have retail customers who have never booked a service, the loyalty program is the introduction channel. Push a notification to members who have made four or more purchases but zero service bookings: "You've got 80 points -- earn 3x points on your first grooming appointment and you'll hit your first reward faster." That message has a specific value proposition (faster progress), a specific action required (first grooming), and a specific audience (loyal retail customers who have not tried services).
The cost of that push is one notification template and the bonus points on a single service booking. The potential return is a new recurring grooming customer at full price for the next 12 months.
3. Reward the highest-margin behaviors across the calendar
PetSmart runs periodic bonus-point events tied to seasons and pet care milestones. The pre-summer groom push. The back-to-school training enrollment bonus. The holiday boarding promotion. A small pet business can replicate this with three or four calendar pushes per year.
The logic is simple: push a bonus-earn offer when the underlying service has seasonal demand, before the customer decides where to book. "3x points on summer grooms booked before June 15" reaches a member who is already thinking about their dog's summer coat. The timing and the incentive arrive together.
PetSmart Treats vs. comparable pet loyalty programs
| Program | Mechanic | Service bonus | Cross-category | Wallet pass |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| PetSmart Treats | Points + service multiplier | Yes | Yes (retail + services) | Via app |
| Chewy | Autoship discount + promotions | No formal service | No (online only) | No |
| Petco Vital Care | Subscription ($19.99/mo) | Bundled | Yes (vet + grooming + retail) | No |
| Independent pet groomer on LoyaltyPass | Stamps or points, configurable | Configurable | Yes | Native Apple/Google Wallet |
The comparison highlights an important difference between PetSmart and Chewy. Chewy's loyalty is built on Autoship convenience -- members who set up recurring deliveries stay because switching away is friction, not because the loyalty program is rewarding. PetSmart's loyalty is built on behavior shaping -- the program actively moves customers into higher-value service categories.
For a pet business that operates both a product offering and a service offering, the PetSmart model is more valuable to copy because it generates revenue growth, not just retention. Keeping a customer at their current spend level is different from expanding their spend into a new service category.
The SMB setup that captures PetSmart's mechanic
If you run a pet business today with no formal loyalty program, this is the sequence that captures the core PetSmart Treats mechanic:
Set up a wallet-pass program with two earn rates. Standard purchases earn one stamp (or one point per dollar). Service appointments earn two stamps (or two points per dollar). The pass tracks both automatically at scan.
Define the first-service cross-sell push. Segment members who have made three or more purchases but zero service bookings. Push once with a specific bonus-earn offer on a first appointment. Send it six weeks after their last purchase -- when they are likely thinking about their next visit anyway.
Run one seasonal bonus event per quarter. Pre-summer grooming. Back-to-school training. Holiday boarding. Push the bonus-earn offer four weeks before the seasonal peak. Keep the message specific: service type, bonus earn rate, booking deadline.
The result is a loyalty program that does what PetSmart Treats does at chain scale -- reward the behaviors that generate the most revenue, use the point balance to cross-sell into higher-margin services, and push personalized reminders when members go quiet. The infrastructure is a wallet pass. The setup takes under ten minutes.
