Building C-Store Customer Loyalty Programs with Relevant Rewards
stores are a major part of the daily lives of consumers. People may need to fill their gas tanks while going to the office or buy coffee while going home. A hungry employee may also grab a sandwich from the food section. Even students often stop by for a soda or candy bar.
Many customers give repeated business to c-stores, so it makes sense for the c-stores to offer customer loyalty programs to their loyal customers. However, it is tricky to implement these programs for businesses as it may be tough to meet the individual needs of every customer.
How can convenience store loyalty programs work to offer a personalized experience to their customers?
C-Stores Post-Pandemic
The pandemic worked as a reawakening for the c-stores. While retailers and restaurants were shut down, c-stores remained open. This enhanced its status as an important business worldwide, offering food and beverages to people when they needed them. 80% of the fuel in the United States is sold at convenience store locations, so you have a lot of traffic there stopping by. But apart from gasoline, c-stores are aiming to extend their retail space.
While previously, c-stores were 2,000 sq. ft., they are now 4,000 to 5,000 sq. ft. The expansion of c-stores from a bare necessity store to a comprehensive, all-supply market is remarkable and has placed them for continued success. Part of the success includes incorporating a customer loyalty program for consistent business.
The Expansion of C-Store Loyalty Programs
Loyalty programs aren’t something new to convenience stores. And now they are available virtually too. However, keeping it customer-oriented to make the most of its theory evolved just a few years back! Most c-stores have backed out of loyalty cards and chosen QR codes over them. The convenience store rewards programs motivate consumers to shop more frequently for the rewards offered.
While most shoppers only go to c-stores for gas, the challenge is to make them enter the store to shop. To overcome this, most stores have shifted to mobile apps, and now customers have loyalty programs at their fingertips. Just download the app, make a profile, shop, make a payment, and you can get selected for a suitable store loyalty program. The only thing the store needs to do is push these reward offers and make them as appealing as possible to the shoppers. C-stores choose a loyalty program to boost their revenue by 25% to 40% with good retention. Chain retention works as a valuable means to drive loyalty and income.
Successful C-Store Customer Loyalty Programs
Rather than giving generic offers and rewards, c-stores should offer targeted offers. It will help your business have the maximum impact. And when merchants recognize their customers personally, it motivates customer loyalty. Often, when customers get promotional emails, they usually ignore them. A loyalty app offers a great opportunity for c-store merchants to drive customized and unique promotions and help developers target every customer.
Loyal-n-Save Addresses Customer Engagement and Offers Perfect Loyalty Programs for C-Stores
To promote loyalty, Loyal-n-Save focuses on the wider issue of how merchants can engage customers personally. They know that c-stores have their own set of challenges, which are not the same as omnipresent businesses. Loyal-n-Save offers customer-centric c-store customer loyalty programs that help you develop long-lasting relationships with your customers and boost retention. They aim to reward all customers in a unique way for being loyal to your store. They run impactful marketing campaigns through omnichannel communication to engage your customers across various channels. Loyal-n-Save’s API solution integrates with your POS system and helps you detect customers’ purchasing data in a precise way to help you personalize your rewards programs. For instance, if a customer visits your store for coffee every morning, your loyalty program initiative could include “make your friend buy a coffee and get a 50% discount on your coffee.”
Loyal-n-Save uses different loyalty program approaches for different convenience stores. Here are some of them:
Umbrella Loyalty Program
This program is highly recommended for convenience stores that have their own chain. If you want to unify all your stores under one brand, this will help your customers redeem their rewards anywhere, so a customer can redeem at a store even if they have not purchased from there.
User Engagement
You should use a user engagement loyalty program to turn your customers into loyal customers. It engages your customers regularly to develop long-lasting relationships and drive retention. Using this approach, you can leverage omnichannel communication and engage with your customers on different channels. This will also help you offer a customized user experience and boost engagement levels. Merchants can find out the individual needs of a customer and offer them a unique experience.
Campaign Builder
Using a campaign builder, merchants can run and track their different programs for different customers. A campaign builder will help you a lot if you want your loyalty program to acquire and retain customers. It helps you track and handle your campaigns in one place and make changes for enhanced engagement and sales.
Team Builder
Make your customers add more members to your store, and every time a new member makes a purchase, your old customer also earns reward tokens. It is a no-limit rewards program; the bigger the team, the higher the reward.
Conclusion
You can implement simple and effective c-store customer loyalty programs using these tips. Choose the best convenience store loyalty program providers to set up your program and run it within a few minutes. Choose practical and futuristic loyalty rewards solutions to engage and retain customers and leave your competitors behind.
This article was written by Loyal-n-Save, an omni-channel customer loyalty solution for retailers looking to increase customer retention and new customer acquisition.
FAQs
Of course. Customization helps you meet the individual needs of every shopper, and you can give them what they’re looking for in a loyalty program.
It takes a few minutes to set up your loyalty program. If you choose the best convenience store loyalty program provider, the process is simple and hassle-free.
Yes, you can make real-time changes to your loyalty program anytime, anywhere.
Yes, your loyalty program can be integrated with the POS of your choice. Choose an intuitive, user-friendly POS system for the highest adaptability and proficiency.
Posted on May 7, 2022