A pet brand on Shopify runs corporate gifting by selling a company a batch of gifts at a fixed price per head and handing each recipient a one-time code. The recipient picks a product, chooses a variant such as dog size or cat versus dog, and types their address, and a $0 draft order lands in your admin. Because many recipients have no pet, the choice set also needs something for people.

Why companies buy pet gifts

Pets are a warm, low-risk topic at work. Pet-friendly offices, remote teams who talk about their dogs on video calls, and companies that run adoption or fundraising drives all make pet gifts a natural fit. The usual occasions are holiday gifts to staff, welcome gifts for new hires, thank-yous to clients in veterinary and pet-adjacent industries, and employee recognition for people who are known as the office dog person. Pet brands also sell well to pet-focused businesses, such as groomers, vets, boarding kennels and pet insurers, which buy gifts for their own customers.

I could not source a per-head budget benchmark for pet gifts, so I will not give one. For client gifts in the US, the IRS limits the deduction for business gifts to $25 per person per year (see IRS Publication 463). The rule is for clients and not staff, and the buyer's accountant decides how it applies. A toy or a treat bag fits easily under it, so pet gifts are a natural low tier.

The real problem: who owns what

Every other category in this series assumes the recipient can use the product. Pet gifts assume the recipient has a pet, and of the right kind. APPA data reported in the trade press says dog ownership reached about 51% of US households in the 2025 survey, or 68 million, and cat ownership 37%, or 49 million (see Good News for Pets on the APPA 2025 report). A newer APPA report put dogs at 53% and cats at about 39% for 2025 (see the Global Pet Industry summary). I read these as pet ownership being common but far from universal, and the two figures overlap, since a household can own both. Plenty of recipients in any company own no dog, no cat, or a different animal altogether.

If you send the same dog-toy gift to 60 employees, some number of them will receive something useless. Three design choices fix most of it.

1. Put a no-pet option in every tier

Add one product that suits a person. If your brand sells only pet products, add a branded mug, tote, blanket or a plush toy that works as a desk item. If it does not, ask whether a simple partnership is worth it: a local shelter donation in the recipient's name, fulfilled by you outside the gift form, is a reasonable option as long as you can actually run it. Do not offer an option you cannot fulfil.

2. Make pet type a variant, or a product

A dog and a cat want different things. Set the choice up so a recipient picks: one product per animal, or a variant such as "Dog" and "Cat" on a treat bag or a toy. I checked in the gift form code that the form reads each product's Shopify variants and shows a picker for any product with more than one, so the recipient chooses their own. Prices are never shown. Other pets, such as birds, small mammals and fish, can sit in as extra options if your range covers them.

3. Let the gift travel

Because the recipient enters their own address, they can send the gift to a friend with a pet. You do not need to build anything for this. Say so on the card: "Send it to anyone you like." It turns a mismatch into a nicer outcome and keeps the buyer happy.

Seed, built for Shopify

Run gifting on Shopify with Seed

Send one link. Creators pick their products and address. A draft order lands in your Shopify admin.

Install on Shopify

Size, safety and sensitivities

A wrong-size collar is an inconvenience, but a wrong-size chew toy is a safety risk. Put a clear size guide on every product that depends on size, with weight ranges rather than breed names, and make size a variant. Add a plain safety line to toys and chews: supervise play, replace worn items. Do not write anything about veterinary benefit that you cannot support.

Pets, like people, have allergies and sensitivities. A dog on a restricted diet can react to a new treat. Keep food in the set small and simple, such as a single-protein treat bag in a small size, and list every ingredient on the page. Pet food labels have their own rules. The Pet Food Institute describes what a label must carry, including an ingredient list, a guaranteed analysis and feeding directions for products marked complete and balanced (see Pet Food Institute on labelling requirements). That is a trade-group summary and I did not check the FDA or AAFCO texts, so confirm the rules that apply to your product before you gift a full diet.

Food versus toys versus accessories

  • Toys and accessories. The safest option, long shelf life, easy to ship, and easy to size with a variant.
  • Treats. Good value and a good first taste of your brand. Keep them to a small bag with a clear ingredient list.
  • Complete food. The riskiest gift. A full bag is heavy to ship, a pet may not take to it, and a diet change should be gradual. If you include it, offer a sample size, and put feeding instructions on the card.
  • Beds and large items. Heavy and expensive to ship, and size dependent. Reserve them for an upper tier.

How to structure the offer

Tiers by budget

On Seed, each budget tier is a campaign inside an organisation, which is the record for the buying company. You build a tier from a price band (minimum inclusive, maximum exclusive), a hand-picked list or a live Shopify collection. A hand-picked list is useful for pet brands because it lets you place the no-pet option in every tier on purpose, whatever its price. A price band could drop it. Review the final list for each tier and make sure it contains at least one product a person can use and one for each pet type you cover.

You mint one single-use code per recipient and export a CSV per tier. The buyer prints cards or emails the codes. Every code redeems at one permanent page, which can sit on your store at a path such as brand.com/gave. The recipient enters the code, picks one gift and a variant, types their address, and a $0 draft order lands in your admin. You see issued, redeemed and outstanding codes per company. Each tier has two tester codes that stay out of the totals.

If the address list exists

For a small team where the buyer holds every address and knows who has a dog, a bulk-order app such as Send To Many can turn a spreadsheet into orders directly. The code flow is better when the buyer does not know who has a pet, which is the usual case. See the best corporate gifting apps for Shopify for more.

How to sell it

Pet buyers fall into two groups. The first is general companies: HR leads at pet-friendly offices, office managers, and remote-team coordinators. The second is pet-adjacent businesses: vet clinics, groomers, boarding and daycare, trainers, pet insurers and animal shelters, which give gifts to customers and donors. The second group is smaller but more likely to repeat, and they understand your products.

Timing: the holiday season is the main peak. Adopt-a-pet and shelter fundraising events are good mid-year occasions, and a business can give a welcome gift to every new client. For events, a pet-friendly company often runs a bring-your-dog day, which is a good hook for a gift batch.

Pricing math, with hypothetical numbers

These numbers are made up for illustration.

  • Buyer wants 50 gifts at $38 per head: $1,900 invoiced.
  • Choice set: a dog toy in three sizes, a cat toy, a small treat bag and a branded mug for people without pets. Landed cost ranges from $5 to $12, so price against $12.
  • Packaging and card: $3 per head, so $150.
  • Shipping: $7.50 per parcel, so $375.
  • Cost: 50 x $12 = $600, plus $150 and $375 = $1,125. Gross profit: $775, about 41%.

If a share of recipients choose the cheaper mug or toy, your real margin is higher than quoted. The Corporate plan is $249 per month, so see the pricing page for details.

Checklist

  • A no-pet option in every tier.
  • Pet type as a product or variant, with size guides by weight.
  • Toys and treats ahead of complete food.
  • Full ingredient lists on food pages.
  • A safety line on toys and chews.
  • "Send it to anyone" printed on the card.
  • Hand-picked tiers, so the no-pet option is never filtered out by price.

The feature overview is on the corporate gifting page. A retailer using the flow is in the OnlyByGrace case study. For the mechanics read how corporate gifting works on Shopify. If you also gift to creators, our HiccPet case study covers a pet brand doing that.

Frequently asked questions

How does a pet brand on Shopify run corporate gifting?

A company buys a batch of gifts at a fixed price per head. Each recipient gets a one-time code, enters it on one shared page, picks a product from a curated set, chooses a variant such as dog size or cat versus dog, and types their own address. A $0 draft order lands in your Shopify admin and you ship it.

What about recipients who do not have a pet?

Plan for them. About half of US households own a dog and about four in ten own a cat, according to the APPA, which means many recipients own neither. Include at least one product in each tier that suits a person, such as a mug, a tote or a throw, or a donation-style option, so nobody redeems a gift they cannot use.

Should I gift pet food or toys?

Toys, treats and accessories are safer than complete diets. A pet on a prescription or sensitive diet can react to a new food. If you include food, choose a small treat with a short, clear ingredient list and keep a sample size in the set rather than a full bag.

How do I handle dog size and breed?

Make size a variant in Shopify, with a size guide on the product page. Collars, harnesses, beds and chew toys all depend on size, and the wrong size is a safety issue for a chew toy. Let the recipient choose.

Can recipients pass the gift on to a friend with a pet?

A code is single-use and the recipient enters their own address, so they can enter a friend's address if they want to. You cannot control it and you probably should not try. Say on the card that the gift can be sent to anyone.

What does corporate gifting cost on Seed?

The Corporate plan is $249 per month or $1,999 per year, with a 7-day free trial. It includes one organisation per client company, campaigns per budget tier, personal one-time codes with CSV export, and one shared redemption link.