Petco: The Pet Parents Partner

Review by eFreeware

Most retailer apps are catalogs with a checkout button. The Petco app tries to be something more specific: a record of one animal's life, tied to a chain of stores. You set up a pet profile, and from there the app tracks that pet's health needs and purchase history, then uses the same profile to book grooming and suggest supplies. That single-pet focus is the most distinctive thing about it, and it shapes everything else in the app.

It is built for people who already shop at Petco, or who are close enough to a store to use one. If you buy pet food, litter and treats on a regular schedule, book grooming a few times a year, and want points from those purchases collected in one place, the pieces fit together. If your pet supplies come from wherever is cheapest that week, the app's value depends on how much of your routine already runs through Petco.

The app is free and contains ads. The money side runs through the store itself: what you order, what you book, and the membership programs described below. It has been on Google Play since April 2018 and carries a 3.8 average from more than 22,000 ratings, with over a million installs.

Ordering in the app, collecting at the store

The feature the developer leads with is the combination of buying in the app and collecting in person. You place an order, then pick it up at one of more than 1,000 US locations. The store network is the backbone here: the app is only as useful as the nearest Petco is convenient, and for a lot of people that is the deciding factor.

Curbside pickup is the version of this the developer highlights most. You order online and staff bring the items out to your car, which cuts down on social exposure. I would expect this to matter most to people buying bulky items, like a large bag of food or a crate, where carrying things out of a store is the annoying part. It is the kind of feature that quietly changes a weekly errand rather than transforming it.

Because pickup depends on store stock, the practical rhythm is to order ahead when you know what you need, rather than treating the app as a browse-and-wander tool. The developer's framing is that the app handles the transaction and the store handles the handoff. That division is simple, and it is the part of the app most people will use most often.

Grooming bookings and the eighth-groom perk

Grooming is the second pillar. You can schedule an appointment in the app and, if you need to, rebook, reschedule or cancel from the same place. Appointments are matched to a groomer the developer describes as a skilled stylist, with the match based on the pet's age, breed, hair and skin. That specificity is the interesting part: rather than a generic slot, the booking is framed around what your particular animal needs.

There is also a membership perk attached to grooming. Members get a free groom after seven paid ones. It is a loyalty mechanic in the classic mold: keep booking through the same account and the eighth visit is on the house. For anyone who grooms a dog on a regular schedule, that is a meaningful part of the math; for occasional users, it is a nice-to-have that may take a while to reach.

What I like about putting this in the app is the record it creates. Appointments, the groomer, the pet's profile and the purchase history all sit together, so the person doing the grooming has context and you have a history. The developer treats grooming as part of health and wellness rather than a cosmetic extra, and the booking flow is built around that idea.

Perks, points and repeat deliveries

Petco Perks is the loyalty layer. Members earn points that convert to Petco Cash, which the developer says can be spent on food, grooms, litter and vet visits, with triple points on Petco brands. Cash is tracked, loaded and redeemed there, along with your personalized offers. If you already earn points in store, having them visible and spendable in one place is the main draw.

Autoship covers the recurring side of pet ownership. You set your pet's staples to arrive on a schedule you choose, and you can skip, add or change items at any time. That flexibility is the selling point, because the usual worry with subscription deliveries is being locked into a bag of food your pet has gone off. Being able to adjust before a delivery is what makes the model workable.

Both features feed the same profile. Points accrue from what you buy, Autoship generates the repeat purchases, and the pet profile ties the two together so the app can show what is covered and what is not. The developer's pitch is that this makes you a better-organized pet owner; the more modest truth is that it makes your Petco spending visible in one place, which is useful if you spend there often and irrelevant if you do not.

What the app asks of you

The requirements are worth being straight about. Pickup and curbside collection depend on a Petco store being near you; the developer cites more than 1,000 US locations, which is a lot but not universal. Grooming appointments happen at stores with grooming services, and the free-groom perk is tied to membership. Autoship assumes you want deliveries rather than store visits.

The app itself is free to download. Money changes hands through orders, grooming appointments and the membership programs, and the developer's descriptions of Perks and Autoship are the source for how those work.

The practical starting point is setting up your pet in the app. The personalized parts of the app, from the health tracking to the offers to the grooming history, all hang off that profile. Setting it up properly at the start is what makes the rest of the app behave the way the developer intends.

Getting the most out of it

If you decide to use it, I would set up the pet profile first and fill it in properly, since the grooming match and the care-category view both draw on it. Then connect the recurring purchases: put your pet's staples on Autoship and let the app handle the schedule, adjusting as your pet's needs change. That combination, profile plus Autoship, is where the app does the most work for the least effort.

For grooming, booking through the app rather than by phone keeps the appointment, the groomer and the history in one place, and it makes the eighth-groom perk easy to track. If you shop in store as well as online, the purchase history is worth a look now and then, because it pulls both channels together and shows where your pet's care is covered and where it is not.

The app was updated in October 2026 with technical improvements, performance work and bug fixes, which suggests routine upkeep rather than a new direction. That is fine for an app of this type. Its value comes from the store network and the membership programs behind it, not from any single clever feature, so the question is whether your pet's routine already runs through Petco.

A fit for regular Petco shoppers

The Petco app is a well-defined tool: order and collect, book grooming, collect points, schedule deliveries, all tied to a profile for one pet. It does those things in one place, and the eighth-groom perk and triple points on Petco brands give regular customers something concrete back.

My recommendation is for people whose pet care already centers on Petco: you buy food and litter there regularly, you groom there a few times a year, and you would rather manage all of it from your phone than across a website and a store counter. For that reader, the app is the natural front door to the store. If your shopping is spread across whatever is convenient, the app will not change that, and the store-dependent features will matter less.

What's new in version 9.46.0

Thanks for downloading the Petco App! This release includes technical updates to improve your experience, boost performance, and fix bugs across the app.