PawTree launched in early 2014 and operate in the pet care MLM niche.

The company is based out of the US state of Texas and headed up by founder and CEO, Roger Morgan.

So the story goes;

After nearly a decade as a CEO in the pet industry, our founder, Roger Morgan, discovered something so exciting and revolutionary that he left his job and began a journey to create a company committed to making a difference in the lives of pets and people.

On the professional side of things,

Roger served as President and CEO of The Retail Products Group (RPG) manufacturing and selling pet products to retailers from 2005 to 2012.

He served as the Chairman of the American Pet Products Association (APPA) from 2011 to 2013 and is currently on the board of APPA.

He has formerly served on the boards of directors of PetSmart Charities and the Pet Industry Joint Advisory Council (PIJAC).

I wasn’t able to find an MLM history for Morgan, suggesting PawTree is his first MLM venture.

Read on for a full review of the PawTree MLM opportunity.

PawTree Products

PawTree market a range of pet care products for dogs and cats.

These include:

  • food
  • treats
  • health & wellness
  • flea & tick treatment
  • bowls
  • toys
  • potty & training
  • collars
  • beds & blankets
  • gifts and
  • superfood seasoning

All products are PawTree branded, with the company claiming it’s put together

a top team of veterinarians and a Ph.D. in animal science and pet nutrition to help pet parents answer the age old question, “What should I feed my pet?”

The result is what makes pawTree stand apart from the rest.

PawTree market far too many individual products to list in this review individually, however a full retail catalog is readily available on the company website.

The PawTree Compensation Plan

The PawTree compensation plan pays affiliates when they make sales to retail customers.

Residual commissions are paid out via a unilevel compensation structure.

A Generation Bonus and Group Volume Override extend commissions payable beyond the three initial offered unilevel levels.

Affiliate Ranks

There are nine affiliate ranks within the PawTree compensation plan.

Along with their respective qualification criteria, they are as follows:

  • perPro – sign up as a PawTree affiliate and generate $150 PV a month
  • Senior petPro – generate $250 PV a month and recruit and maintain one petPro ranked affiliate
  • Director – generate $500 PV and $1000 GV a month and recruit and maintain at least two petPro ranked affiliates
  • Senior Director – generate $750 PV and $2000 GV a month and recruit and maintain at least three petPro ranked affiliates
  • Executive Director – generate $1000 PV and $4000 GV a month and recruit and maintain at least two petPro and two Director or higher ranked affiliates
  • Vice President – generate $1500 PV and $8000 GV a month and recruit and maintain at least two petPro and two Senior Director or higher ranked affiliates
  • 1 Star Vice President – maintain $1500 PV and $8000 GV a month and recruit and maintain at least two petPro, one Executive Director and one Vice President or higher ranked affiliates
  • 2 Star Vice President – maintain $1500 PV, $8000 GV and $40,000 DV a month and recruit and maintain at least one petPro and three Vice President or higher ranked affiliates
  • 3 Star Vice President – maintain $1500 PV, $8000 GV and $100,000 DV a month and recruit and maintain at least three Vice President and two 1 Star Vice President or higher ranked affiliates

PV stands for “Personal Volume” and is sales volume generated by retail customer orders and an affiliate’s own purchase of product.

GV stands for “Group Volume” and is PV generated by an affiliate and their downline, up until a Vice President is found in each unilevel leg.

DV stands for “Downline Volume” and is PV generated by an affiliate and their entire downline.

A corporate PawTree compensation plan video states that generated sales volume ‘is typically 70% of (the) wholesale’ cost of PawTree products.

Retail Commissions

PawTree pay affiliates a 10% commission on all retail customer orders.

Retail customers who sign up for autoship are referred to as “Paw Club” customers.

When a PawTree affiliate signs up a Paw Club customer, they are paid a one-time bonus as follows:

  • Paw Club customer standard shipping – $10 one-time bonus
  • Paw Club customer qualifies for free shipping – $15 one-time bonus

As per the PawTree website;

FREE SHIPPING is a benefit available to all Paw Club members as long as they have 3 or more Qualifying Items in their EZ Ship order (beds and bowls are not eligible for free shipping).

Qualifying Items include anything except dog food or cat food (wet or dry).

Retail Power Bonus

If a PawTree affiliate generates 150 in new PV within a month, they receive a Retail Power Bonus for that month.

How much of a Retail Power Bonus is paid out is determined by how much new PV is generated that month:

  • $500 to $999 new PV = 5% bonus retail commission
  • $1000 to $1499.99 new PV = 7% bonus retail commission
  • $1500 or more new PV = 10% bonus retail commission

New retail PV can be one-time new customer retail sales and/or new retail autoship orders.

Recruitment Commissions

When a newly recruited affiliate signs up with an “Ultimate Sales Kit”, the affiliate who recruited them is paid a $75 commission.

The first upline Senior Director and Vice President ranked affiliates are also paid a $25 commission each.

Residual Commissions

PawTree pay residual commissions via a unilevel compensation structure.

A unilevel compensation structure places an affiliate at the top of a unilevel team, with every personally recruited affiliate placed directly under them (level 1):

If any level 1 affiliates recruit new affiliates, they are placed on level 2 of the original affiliate’s unilevel team.

If any level 2 affiliates recruit new affiliates, they are placed on level 3 and so on and so forth down a theoretical infinite number of levels.

PawTree cap payable unilevel levels at three.

Commissions are paid out as a percentage of sales volume generated across these three levels based on affiliate rank:

  • petPro – no residual commissions
  • Senior petPro – 4% on level 1
  • Director – 6% on level 1
  • Senior Director – 7% on level 1 and 2% on level 2
  • Executive Director – 7% on level 1 and 4% on level 2
  • Vice President and higher – 7% on level 1, 5% on level 2 and 1% on level 3

Group Volume Override

The Group Volume Override is a bonus percentage on sales volume generated throughout the unilevel team of Vice President and higher ranked affiliates.

A 1% Group Volume Override is paid on sales volume generated in each unilevel leg, up until a Vice President or higher ranked affiliate is found in that leg.

Generation Bonus

A generation in the PawTree compensation plan is defined when a Vice President or higher ranked affiliate is found in a unilevel leg.

This affiliate caps off the first generation, with the second beginning immediately after them.

If no additional Vice President or higher ranked affiliate exists in the leg, the second generation extends down till the end of the unilevel leg.

As per this generational structure, a PawTree affiliate can earn a generation bonus on up to three generations within each unilevel leg in their unilevel team.

  • Vice President ranked affiliates earn 1% on the first generation
  • 1 Star Vice Presidents earn 3% on the first generation and 1% on the second
  • 2 Star Vice Presidents earn 4% on the first generation and 3% on the second
  • 3 Star Vice Presidents earn 4% on the first and second generations and 3% on the third

Rank Achievement Bonus

PawTree affiliates receive a one-time $500 Rank Achievement Bonus when they first qualify as a Vice President.

Joining PawTree

PawTree affiliate membership is tied to the purchase of one of three sales kits:

  • Basic Sales Kit – $24.99
  • Complete Sales Kit – $49.99
  • Ultimate Sales Kit – $299.99

The only difference between the kits are bundled PawTree products, topping out at an equivalent $640 retail value for the Ultimate Sales Kit.

Conclusion

Any pet owner will tell you that outside of unexpected vet bills, the primary expense of pet ownership is food.

With that in mind, my focus on evaluating PawTree’s product range began with their pet food offering.

For reference I have two dogs and a cat, all of which are eating dry kibble with meat as the primary ingredients. This is supplemented with raw meat offcuts two or three times a week from the kitchen.

For dog food Paw Tree’s offerings start out at $39.99 for a regular (10.3 lb) bag to $82.99 for a 30.9 lb bag.

This is slightly more expensive than premium dog food available in my area, on top of the added shipping expense.

Cat food was a lot more, coming in at roughly double what I pay now.

Costs are reduced with autoship (which makes sense for pet food), and I’ll readily admit PawTree’s pet food is a premium cut above what I feed my own pets.

Having one pet makes for a far more cost-effective experience over having three, that’s for sure.

The rest of the product range looked alright, although the pet beds were four to five times what I spent on my own pet’s beds.

PawTree market their beds as “luxurious”, so I guess you get what you pay for.

Luxurious is the only way to describe this well-appointed bed. Super soft and cuddly, your dog will fall in love with it.

In beautiful designer fabrics that will enhance any room, these beds definitely make a statement…”My dog is spoiled”.

While I do look after them well, personally I’m not a fan of spoiling pets.

That said I know a few fellow pet owners who are, and that’s probably where you’re going to find your core market of retail customers.

Some products like the pet food seasoning seem pretty ridiculous to me.

I do mix up the flavors of food my pets get, and that seems to do them just fine.

Again however I know pet owners who’d be totally into seasoning (one spends an inordinate amount on pet biscuits, cakes and the like).

As pet owners we’re all different in our needs and from a marketing perspective, this is something you’re going to have to evaluate. What’s available locally is going to play a large factor into you being able to effectively market PawTree’s products, so don’t ignore the competition.

Moving onto the compensation plan, PawTree offer a tight unilevel spread of three levels, supplemented by an override and generational bonus.

The use of three sales volume definitions keeps focus initially on limited levels (easier to manage), which then builds into a larger downline over time.

Compliance wise the weakest part of the PawTree compensation is the commission paid out on recruited Ultimate Sales Kit affiliates.

Given the nature of the products though (inventory loading isn’t going to be a problem), that these are strictly product packs that have no impact on potential earnings and the one-time nature of the commission, I don’t think there’s much to worry about.

The potential for chain-recruitment does exist, however it’s also easily identifiable.

Each PawTree affiliate has to generate a minimum of $150 in PV each month to be commission qualified ($250 PV for MLM commissions).

Some of this PV is undoubtedly going to be self-purchases (can’t see non pet owners signing up as affiliates), however what is spent should at the very least be matched by retail sales.

What you want to watch out for is a PawTree affiliate self-qualifying for commissions each month, earning commissions on recruited affiliates doing the same.

PawTree have a strong 10% base retail commission which through generating retail sales can be bumped up to 20%. Retail sales also generate sample credits, which can be used to obtain sample product to further increase marketing effectiveness.

Lord knows before settling on my current brands I wasted enough money trying this brand of food and that.

Really, there’s no excuse for PawTree affiliates to be putting retail sales on the back burner in favor of recruitment. Given the niche PawTree operate in I don’t really see chain-recruitment happening, but it still doesn’t hurt to check.

Other than that if you like what you see for your own pets and can see yourself carving out a potential market among your fellow pet owners, PawTree might be a perfect MLM opportunity fit.

Good luck!