Sponsored by Stuzo
Maintaining customer loyalty is the backbone of the convenience store sector, with franchises continuously seeking ways to enhance their loyalty programs to get customers to spend more with them than their competitors. However, many C-store operators face challenges in trying to deliver meaningful outcomes for their business while using the same traditional platforms and strategies that have yielded subpar results in the past. To address this, forward-thinking convenience store chain Yesway partnered with Wallet Steering provider Stuzo to boost incremental sales and store visits.
“Historically, our top customer service inquiry has been members forgetting passwords or being unable to log in to their account,” says Mike Caldwell, senior manager of loyalty at Yesway. Yesway, a rising convenience store chain, has sought the help of Stuzo to upgrade its customers’ digital experience.
“With Stuzo’s Open Commerce platform, members access their account simply with their mobile number and a magic link sent to them via text,” says Caldwell. “In one fell swoop, we eliminated a huge portion of customer headaches.”
Stuzo’s unified Open Commerce platform consists of Activate for intelligent 1:1 loyalty, Transact for integrated commerce, Experience for branded consumer engagement, and Retailer Connect for corporate-to-site program management. Stuzo’s Wallet Steering technology evolves traditional loyalty to focus on metrics that matter and is the only supplier in the industry to contractually guarantee business outcomes with its 1.5X Performance Guarantee.
“When you implement a program of this magnitude, there are going to be challenges,” says Caldwell. “However, Stuzo was with us every step of the way in many capacities (day-to-day management, tech, data, insights, etc.). Their customer service is top-notch.”
One of the biggest reasons for Yesway to switch to Stuzo’s platform was the improvement in enrollment to its loyalty program. “We no longer had to hand out a card and hope customers went online later to register,” says Caldwell. “Our customers now enroll immediately by entering a mobile number at the registers or pumps.” This frictionless enrollment process has led to promising results, with new enrollment numbers showing early signs of success.
Business outcomes are top of mind for Stuzo and its retailer partners. For Stuzo customer CEFCO, the Open Commerce platform delivered an 80 percent lift in transactions, a 115 percent lift in member enrollment, and a 243 percent lift in active members in just two months.
The synergy between Stuzo’s outcome-oriented strategy and Yesway’s future-forward vision elevates insights, informing programmatic decisions to capture more visits and incremental spending. Stuzo’s Patent Pending Wallet Steering System provides Yesway with real-time data-driven insights, enabling Yesway to automatically target incremental opportunities with hyper-personalized offers.
“Stuzo supported us with every part of this endeavor, helping us brainstorm solutions, come up with new ideas, and even adjust features or implement new ones based on our needs,” says Caldwell. “The entire process has, more often than not, felt like a partnership rather than a client/provider relationship.”
With a guarantee of an increase of 50 percent in loyalty members and 50 percent in loyalty transactions, Stuzo partners with retailers seeking to elevate customer loyalty and transform their programs into profit centers. Through seamless enrollment, customer service, and enhanced personalization, retailers can capture incremental spending with Stuzo.
To learn more, visit Stuzo’s website here.
By Drew Filipski
