Vetco Veterinary Assistant - Training included

Petco's revamped loyalty programme, Petco Perks, cost the retailer millions in its second quarter after customer redemptions significantly exceeded projections. CEO Joel Anderson said on Wednesday's earnings call that the impact reached "mid-single-digit millions", causing sales to remain flat year over year instead of growing 0.3% as forecast. The relaunched programme, which began in late June, removed friction from the previous version. Members now earn 10 points per dollar spent on most products and 30 points per dollar on private label brands, with 1,000 points worth $1. Petco has since implemented guardrails on redemption velocity. Anderson said the company believes peak redemption volumes have passed and expects the programme to support long-term growth starting in 2027.

Petco reported flat second-quarter sales of $1.49 billion, meeting analyst expectations, but delivered a significant earnings beat with non-GAAP profit of $0.15 per share versus estimates of $0.07. Adjusted EBITDA of $122.2 million exceeded forecasts by 10.9%. CEO Joel Anderson attributed the performance to improved customer engagement following the relaunch of the Petco Perks membership programme, though increased point redemption temporarily pressured net sales. Same-store sales were flat year on year. The company guided third-quarter revenue to $1.47 billion, in line with expectations. Management highlighted growth in companion animal categories and resilience in consumables as stabilising factors. Petco operates 1,377 locations, down from 1,388 a year earlier. The company plans to continue investing in veterinary services, fresh food partnerships, and personalised marketing to deepen customer loyalty whilst managing supply chain cost pressures.

Driving omnichannel sales with Google's Demand Gen. During Cyber Week, Petco faced a classic retail challenge: how to drive immediate online sales without leaving physical store lanes empty. As competitors consolidated their budgets into the same social channels, bidding up costs and competing over a shrinking pool of attention, Petco needed a way to reach high-intent shoppers. Betting that the least-contested demand was waiting outside the social feed, Petco partnered with Ovative Group to capture it through a single, unified Google Demand Gen investment built to drive both online and in-store outcomes. 626%. Approach. One campaign, two paths to purchase. To capture that untapped demand, Ovative and Petco's solution expanded outside the social media bubble, running Google's highly visual Demand Gen ads to reach shoppers during the key holiday gifting window. This strategic shift enabled Petco to reach high-value pet parents where they already spent their time: browsing YouTube, checking Gmail, or scrolling through their personalized Discover feeds. Instead of splitting budget and creative assets into separate online and offline efforts, Ovative built a unified campaign to drive both outcomes from a single investment. Building that unified campaign didn't require a new production budget. Ovative repurposed Petco's high-performing Instagram and Facebook videos, reformatted to look native across Google's placements. This meant every dollar not spent on new production could go straight into media investment instead. As Petco's media and creative partner, Ovative also ensured the hook and Petco branding were front-loaded into the first five seconds for an immediate visual and emotional grab. Closing the gap between inspiration and action meant making the creative itself shoppable. Ovative synced Petco's live product catalog to the ads through Google Merchant Center, so shoppers could purchase a product straight from the video they were watching. Finally, Ovative layered in Petco's first-party customer data to build lookalike audiences, feeding those signals into Google's automated Maximize Conversions bidding. This let Google's AI optimize toward an online checkout or a physical store visit, depending on what each pet parent was most likely to do. Impact. From untapped demand to breakthrough results. By connecting digital performance directly to Petco's most important business outcomes, including physical store visits, customer acquisition costs, and total revenue, Ovative proved that Petco didn't need to choose between digital performance and physical foot traffic to win the season. During Cyber Week, the unified campaign delivered a 626% lift in omnichannel ROAS, Petco's strongest Demand Gen performance to date, alongside a surge in omnichannel visits and a sharp drop in cost per acquisition. These results carried enough weight to turn what could have been a one-off holiday experiment into a core part of Petco's ongoing media strategy. Demand Gen has remained part of Petco's always-on strategy since, with the same product feed and first-party signals now shaping media investment well beyond the holidays. increase in omnichannel ROAS. 71%. increase in site and store visits 86%. reduction in omnichannel cost per acquisition 6%. lift in purchase intent