Marketing
PetSmart’s loyalty strategy is all about getting personal
The pet retailer’s loyalty program is at 60 million members and counting.
June 9, 2023 by Judy Mottl — Editor, RetailCustomerExperience.com & DigitalSignageToday.com
Since PetSmart launched its Treats Rewards loyalty program in 2018 the retailer has seen double-digit or sometimes triple-digit membership growth every year. In the first six months alone 19 million members enrolled.
But 2022 was one for the record books with Treats member offer activation up nearly 150% compared to 2021.
This year the 37-year-old pet retailer, which operates more than 1,660 stores in North America, hit the 60-million-member mark and the reasons are multi-fold, according to Bradley Breuer, VP of marketing, loyalty, personalization and customer relationship management.
The loyalty program's goal is to deepen the connection with pet parents and the enrollment success is tied to the retailer's efforts to experiment, innovate, test, learn and get personal.
"People want to sign up because we're offering something compelling," Breuer told RetailCustomerExperience in an email interview.
The "something compelling" includes the fact that it's free, it's omnichannel, members earn eight points for every dollar spent and at 1,000 points can redeem $2.50 in savings whether in the store or online – whether for a toy, treat or one of the services such as doggy day camp, the PetsHotel training and grooming. Members also get exclusive member only deals and discounts, free shipping on select orders over $49.
"We give members total control over how they redeem the value and use Treats to live up to our common goal of doing anything for pets," said Breuer, adding that customers who shop at least once a month will save $90 a year.
"Our focus in our communications and in-store programs is to show pet parents the many ways they can earn and redeem points to drive engagement in the program, deliver value to pet parents and grow our business."
The art of getting personal
PetSmart, which now has 50,000-plus employees, launched with a store in Phoenix, Arizona and is listed among the leading U.S. retailers as of 2021, according to Statista data.
Its newest store opened in mid-April in Surprise, Arizona and those visiting the more than 16,400-square-foot store were given a goodie bag that included a $10 gift card as well as toys and coupons.
That personal, welcoming touch and potential for savings is exactly what consumers are craving from a brand. In fact nearly half, over 40%, are willing to hand over more personal data to attain a deeper personalization experience, according to a Vibes survey.
And PetSmart is all about getting personal with its customers and getting to know them.
In early April, to celebrate the Treats 60 million mark, the retailer hosted its first-ever Treats members Month to reward loyal customers. Every week members received new offers, were able to earn bonus points and had a special giveaway content for a chance to win 1 million points.
The brand has also been busy testing and learning how to better engage members, which provides broad insight into consumer insights and behavior.
The retailer is currently experimenting with the opportunity to transfer points so members can donate to the PetSmart Charities program.
"With nine out of 10 customers attaching their purchases to the loyalty program, we have a very complete set of data on customer purchases. We use those signals, and we really think about how we can take that data to serve our pet parents better," said Breuer.
Recent tests have given members early access to new collections and products.
"We're also testing through customized deals, point amplification and redemption programs to see which offerings drive the highest engagement," said Breuer.
"We continue to learn from the customer data and analytics of our Treats members to provide more personalized offerings to drive desired activation behaviors and make the customer journey more personal and easier to use. In the pet space, this means knowing what each pet needs at every stage of life and having solutions for every pet family. The learnings are informing future strategies as well as what we're offering today."
Activation through the offers is critical in driving trial of new products and services, encouraging replenishment and customer retention.
"We have been focused on a robust offer strategy, reaching members with personalized deals through the PetSmart app, in their online account and through our active email program. Through these channels, we are targeting opportunities to drive desired engagement and shopping behaviors,' said Breuer.
"It has also enabled us to invite pet parents to use our digital services like ship to home, Door Dash same day delivery and buy online pick up in store."
Engage, engage, engage
Membership program growth is increasing, he added, as people are engaged in the offer strategy as they're getting more value.
"There are clear benefits for a retailer to having a well-designed loyalty program. Loyalty programs are critical in engaging and retaining customers, but they also need to be robust and provide real value to customers. While many brands are pulling back on loyalty and rewards, we're actually investing in our program and giving our customers more because loyalty has been a key driver of PetSmart's business growth," said Breuer.
The goal, overall, is to draw pet owners to the store for all shopping needs and the personalized offerings can expose them to a new service or a specific product their pet or home needs.
"We've helped pet parents build routines in caring for their pets. We know when a pet parent comes to our store and they redeem their points, which is often an incremental trip or an incremental sale. The main benefit to our company really comes from the stickiness of the program — the return trips and the bigger baskets," said Breuer.
Learnings and successes
A big key learning is that pet is an "emotional category," and PetSmart touches upon that emotion to do more for customers — beyond replenishing dog food to what brings the pet joy.
For example, PetSmart operates an email program to ask customers how they plan to spend their birthday with their pet.
"Once they share that information with us, we give them ideas for products and experiences in our stores that are related to their birthday celebrations, and then remind them that they have points they can use to celebrate that birthday," said Breuer.
Successes related to the Treats program are growing — the brand now has metrics for engagement and increasing interest in proprietary brands.
"We have 10 proprietary brands that drive over $100 million in sales each. We use our loyalty program to think about how we can drive replenishment of those proprietary brands. They are the ultimate form of loyalty because you can only purchase those brands at PetSmart. By leaning into proprietary brands through our loyalty program, we have generated great replenishment with those products and loyalty has been a strong area of customer engagement for those brands," said Breuer.
The 'frontline' for the loyalty program is the brand's store associates who champion the program at point of sale. To inspire associates Breuer's team recorded two videos for associates illustrating how to drive engagement in the stores.
"The biggest and most powerful tool in our arsenal are the 50,000 store associates who campion the program. There is always something new in retail and we want our store associates to have a clear and focused message of what to be talking about with customers. We did a special offer for them to give them rewards and also teach them how to use the points so they could properly explain to customers how to use the program and the program benefits. Investing heavily in our store associates has been successful for the loyalty program and for PetSmart in general," said Breuer.
More than just discounts
When it comes to lessons learned the hard way, and efforts that didn't hit the success point, Breuer said the outcome has been to learn into what PetSmart knows speaks to its customers. It's about "providing opportunities that align with our values as a company, such as helping pet parents create moments of joy for their pets and helping pets in need."
While Treats membership is a prime goal PetSmart is just as focused on being more than discounts and sales and incentives.
"We want to be a trusted partner to our pet parent and part of that is helping our customer care for their pets. We just recently launched a whole communication series around caring for your specialty pet, like reptiles and fish. The loyalty program is a critical tool to do that, like establishing a routine for how you care for your pet," said Breuer.
The opportunity to reward members without any sort of monetary aspect is also a focus going forward in the loyal strategy.
"We've really focused our program over the last several years on giving members early access to new collections and products as one example of an area we've been exploring. People want to do business with brands that have shared values and we all share with our customers the love of pets. And we see high engagement with those offerings," said Breuer.
About Judy Mottl
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