Getting More Out of Your C-Store Customer
Are you looking for new ways to drive customer traffic in-store? The answer can be as simple as defining what convenience means to your current shoppers. We all have seen how shopping activities and habits have changed over the last year. Knowing what your customers believe is a convenient shopping experience can be key to knowing how to maximize the in-store basket sizes of regular visitors.
Defining a Convenient Shopping Experience
There are a number of factors that contribute to a convenient shopping experience according to one poll. A quick visit topped the list of what defines a great in-store experience. Easy access and proximity to home and work also came up as considerations. Essentially what shoppers are seeking is an opportunity to save time and effort during a hectic day. But now that we’ve defined convenience, how do you become familiar with your customer’s shopping habits?
Review Current Shopping Habits
Research shows that convenience store shopping has become a strong habit amongst Millennials and Gen X shoppers alike, who make at least one visit per week to their favorite local convenience store. Furthermore, the report finds that 72 percent of shoppers tend to visit the same convenience store location every time -- that’s an awfully loyal customer, wouldn’t you say?
Knowing that convenience store shopping is etched into the daily routines of a large portion of the U.S. population, how can stores use this information to their advantage?
Customer Engagement: Know What Your Customers Want
Stay in-tune with what your customers are buying on a day to day level. For example, have you noticed any changes in what items your most loyal customers are purchasing due to the pandemic? As families are headed back to work and school, have you done an analysis of basket-level transactions to help you learn more about how you can use promotions and pricing to meet the needs of your loyal customers?
How can you use sound pricing and promotion strategies to encourage additional customer spend?
A Modern Look at Loyalty Programs
These days, personalized loyalty programs are what convenience store shoppers are looking for. No longer are they satisfied with, “buy 10, get 1 free,” promotions that can be found anywhere. Research shows that 87% of convenience store shoppers are happy to have their buying habits tracked and monitored if the end result was a more personalized experience.
The data retrieved from tracking consumer buying habits can give convenience stores a wealth of detailed information that can help store managers create strategic marketing and sales strategies. An updated approach to loyalty programs rewards individual purchase patterns and behaviors and seeks out the right opportunities to increase value for the customer. It’s also an opportunity to learn who your customer avatars are beyond the obvious coffee and gas buyer profile.
Engaging Across Platforms
If your convenience store location is solely dependent on dancing objects on the side of the road to attract customers, you may be missing out on opportunities to engage your loyal customers over the long-term. Skupos Engage particularly works well with smaller convenience stores to help them connect with household name brands and offer discounts directly to your consumers. Furthermore, the platform allows brands to analyze the types of discounts that perform best so they can, in turn, offer retailers compelling discounts their customers will love.
Increasing the in-store basket size of loyal store visitors is about more than just driving traffic. There has to be a strategic effort to monitor and analyze where they buy, how they buy, and what they buy. Technology like Skupos Engage closes the communication gap between smaller convenience stores and brands to help increase in-store basket sizes using real-time data.
