From touchscreens and videos to beacons, a combination of technologies can help entice your customers from the pump into the store.
By Brad Perkins, Contributing Editor
Seemingly every week, a company or vendor introduces a new technology to help people get things done faster, more efficiently and with less energy.
Yet with the overabundance of technology at everyone’s fingertips, time and attention are increasingly at a premium. This is especially true in the convenience retail industry, where customers want to find what they’re looking for quickly and get in and out even faster.
So how do convenience stores capture eyes, invite customers in and separate themselves in an overstuffed market?
Targeted technology can help. Forecourt technology that blends messaging inside, outside and around the store, including mobile technology, is vital, according to futurist Daniel Burrus, CEO of Burrus Research Associates, which monitors global advancements in technology.
PERIOD OF TRANSFORMATION
“We are in a period of transformation—how we buy, sell and shop very rapidly,” Burrus said. “Retail is changing—if it doesn’t change, you’ll have trouble—and if we start making mobile a part of the retail experience, retail can do quite well.”
Mobile technology, including payment applications and loyalty cards, is just one part of the equation, though. It is an important part of forecourt messaging, but needs to be supplemented with other messaging to capture customers’ attention.
Pay-at-the-pump technology, in addition to changes in fuel delivery from mechanical, attended pumps to electronic fuel dispensers to pumps with marketing screens and touchscreens, have been significant in boosting “the speed of communication and the effect this has on profit margins, easier credit payments, better detection of credit card fraud and less hassle for the sites in remote banking,” said Tom Ellicock, managing director of Petroleum Forecourt Management Consultancy Ltd.
However, these improvements have also led to customers spending less time at the pump and reducing their trips into the physical stores. So what time they do spend should be used wisely.
“With future improvements in electronic communication and advertising direct to the customer via monitors, site operators need these improvements to enhance their businesses and always need to keep an open mind to the technology in the future to keep their profit levels to a maximum,” Ellicock said.
To capture these in-and-out customers, many convenience stores rely on pump toppers and interactive screens that present messaging in a variety of ways and at different locations around the forecourt and in the store.
TARGETING WITH TECHNOLOGY
Ft. Wayne, Ind.-based McIntosh Energy, which operates four Mac Food Stores, uses forecourt technology to capture attention and transform casual patrons into loyal customers.
“We are using TV/video reader boards with specials and prices and we are using an app from OpenStore with a beacon for customers coming into the store,” said Ray McIntosh, president of McIntosh Energy.
The company introduced beacon technology one store at a time and plans to continue to expand its use of technology in general in the near future. The beacon is a device that, using Bluetooth technology, is able to geo-target customers, by recognizing when a customer with the chain’s new app is inside the store and sending in-app messages. Beacon technology also instantly conveys information, coupons or rewards without the customer needing to do anything.
“We are in the process of upgrading all the stores to this technology,” McIntosh said. “The only thing a couple of others don’t have at this point is the TV/video reader boards and the graphics over the coolers. We will be adding the Pay Media program for the dispenser in the near future.”
In addition to a forecourt that extends to the street to entice customers to stop for more than gas, the company is using loyalty cards to get people into stores.
“We have aligned with Kickback Points for loyalty points on gas and merchandise and use National Payment to use our Mac Food Rewards card for ACH fuel discount of five cents. We used LED signage and box signage over the cooler space to advertise our Refresh, Refuel and Reward concept.”
By combining key messaging and loyalty programs into very visible messaging in the forecourt, Mac Food Mart is able to capture attention and build the brand so that customers remember the messages and return. And by supplementing its signage and television systems with loyalty rewards that are highly visible and easy to use, they are able to make customers remember who they are.
“Our objective has been to market our brand of Mac Food Mart Stores as unique to us,” McIntosh said. “Even though we are branded Sunoco, we want to differentiate ourselves in the market and felt that the advances in the technology allow us to fully embrace it to better serve our customers.”
Once the chain gets the customers into the store, it continues to expose them to messaging using Gilbarco-brand Impulse, which shows messaging while customers are at the register.
While apps and enticing them into the stores requires outside signage and communication, Mac Food Mart extended its forecourt to the street, but also relies on tried and true methods to raise customer opinion.
“We want to make sure our stores are well lit and well maintained both outside and inside, and we project our brand and image consistently every day,” McIntosh said.
CONSUMER FOCUSED
As retailers look to expand their use of forecourt, Ellicock said the use of this technology will grow to include supplier communication, credit card interfaces, tank monitoring, smart registers and other back-office items. This means that in addition to television screens that can play video, slideshows or standalone ads describing anything from milk and soda prices to special sales or fuel discounts, back-office enhancements will also be helped by forecourt technology.
This has already begun with registers that are integrated at the point-of-sale to collect payment and data on customers and offer discounts.
“My advice would be to not be afraid of the technology,” McIntosh said. “Even though there are new ways to market, the basics still hold and that is clean stores, and friendly and helpful personnel. If you don’t have the right people, the technology won’t help with servicing your customers.”