PetSmart’s Treat Rewards: Paw Perks and Points

HouseholdLifestyle

Jul 31

Last month, we reviewed Petco’s Vital Care Reward programs (still not over that horrible branding), and while their paid subscription program was barking bad, their free program was pretty good, and we rated it “Rewarding”. In this post, we’re looking closely at their rival, PetSmart, which just has a free program, PetSmart Treat Rewards (cute name! See, it can be done). PetSmart has over 1500 stores in the US, plus an online presence, so similar in footprint to Petco. At the end of the article, we compare the 2 programs head-to-head.

PetSmart Treat Rewards Review — *Photocredit*: *Shutterstock*

🐾How it works:

This is a free points-based program that has three tiers.

3 Tiers:
- Base: up to $499 in annual spend
  - 10 points per $1
- Bestie: $500-$999 in annual spend
  - 12 points per $1
  - 1 2x points purchase
  - Annual Tier Recognition Event
- VIPP: $1000+ in annual spend
  - 14 points per $1
  - 2 2x Points purchase
  - Holiday Gift
1000 points = $2 in savings.
Earn 1000 points for profile completion
Frequent member promotions to earn point multipliers, plus other member discounts/deals.
Free shipping on orders $49+
Pet birthday or gotcha gift
Buy 10 doggie day camp passes, get 1 free
2 salon reward certs with the purchase of a bath or groom.
2x points on the $1 you donate to PetSmart charities.

Needless to say, this is a long benefit list, which is nice to see. In addition to having cute names, the tiers are not impossible to achieve if you buy most of your pet food and supplies from PetSmart. We love our pets…but man, they are expensive.

how you redeem:

Points stay in your account until you decide to convert them to $2 off discounts. This provides the member flexibility for when they use the points, which we prefer. It also allows for a bit of hoarding points so you can cash in for a bigger discount.

However, points do expire 1 year after earning, so you can’t hoard them forever. Use it or lose it.

Points can be redeemed online or in-store, and the good news is that they are usually stackable with other offers and promotions.

what’s the value?

(Note: by “return value” we mean how much you save relative to how much you had to spend to earn it. For example, if you spent $100 to earn enough points to redeem $10, that’s a 10% return value.)

Outside of any promo multipliers, the return value is on the low side.

2% for Base members
2.4% for Bestie
2.8% for VIPP

For household retailers, we prefer to see reward value closer to 5%, so this fell short for us.

However, PetSmart really does lean into point promotions and member discounts heavily. Many brands list it as a benefit, but it's harder to find than Bigfoot in the wild. During this writing, PetSmart was running 5x points on a huge selection of Cat products for a Cat Month promo, which would increase return value to 10% - excellent. You just need to check your account often, as many promotions require activation.

Their free shipping benefit, Gotcha/Birthday gift, and other benefits can add to the overall value you get here.

**Promotions are frequent**

You just have to check online often for their deals

🕵🏻The fine print:

You do need to activate most of the offers in your account to earn the bonuses.
Points auto-expire 1 year after earning.
Bonus Point promotions are multiplied off the base tier amount (10 pts per $), even if you are a Bestie or VIPP.
Most rewards are stackable (good news!)

comparison to petco

Looking side by side, they are pretty similar. Petco has a slightly better return value for your points, but PetSmart runs way more point promotions and personalized offers. So if you pay close attention to PetSmart’s deals, your return value could be greater. We also prefer the way PetSmart runs their Rewards- you are in control of how to use them, vs. Petco, which auto-generates them.

Petco has a richer sign-up deal (as of this writing) and has a more generous point expiration policy, while PetSmart has the free shipping benefit and more ancillary benefits.

In conclusion, we don’t find massive differences between the two programs. They are both pretty good so shop at the store you prefer for product, location, and customer service.

  
    Petco
    PetSmart
  
    Point Earning (base)
    1 point = $1
    10 points = $1
  
    Tiers?
    No
    Yes, 2
  
    Redemption
    Every 167 pts = $5 Reward
    1000 points = $2 Reward
  
    Return Value on Points
    3%
    2%–2.8%
  
    Reward Auto Generate
    Yes
    No
  
    Reward Expiration
    30 days
    n/a
  
    Point Expiration
    None, as long as you visit every 90 days
    1 year after earning
  
    Join Benefit
    $25 Reward Promo
    1000 pts for Profile Completion
  
    Free Shipping
    No
    Yes, orders over $49
  
    Member-only Pricing & Offers
    Yes
    Yes
  
    Pet Birthday Gift
    Yes
    Yes
  
    Grooming Benefit
    Every 8th is free
    2 salon Reward Cert with Purchase
  
    Other Benefits
    n/a
    2x points on Charity Donations; daycare benefit
  
    POINTS INSIDER VERDICT
    REWARDING 👍
    REWARDING 👍