With a decline in convenience store traffic during the first half of 2017, brands are looking for new ways to get customers to come into the store more frequently. There are many ways to increase store traffic, from implementing a loyalty program to simple promotions for discounted fuel and in-store products. But what are some of the ways you can increase your store visits in the short and long-term?
Here are five ways that you can attract new visitors and generate more loyalty from your customers.
Start with millennials. Millennials in 201 will have a global net income of 3.4 trillion dollars, a huge amount of money that makes them the generation with the highest purchasing power. Being able to capture this generation and generate loyalty from them can be a big boost to your brand, especially since this will only grow as millennials get older and move up in their careers. So, what can you do to get this generation into your stores? Well, Millennials look for three main things from your brand; simplicity, a personal touch, and convenience. Make sure all your promotions and loyalty programs are simple to understand and state a clear value proposition for your millennial customers and are relevant to each customer.
Better promotions at the pump. Getting customers to go to the store form the fuel pump is one of the biggest challenges convenience store marketers are experiencing right now. Simple promotions that are tied to products in the store such as “buy x amount of product, get x cents off per gallon” are very effective at capturing those fuel-only customers attention and get them to step inside the box. In fact, 73 percent of customers say that the best promotions are the ones that have discounted fuel with in-store purchases.
Go mobile. According to a study by Coca-Cola® millennials check their phone 157 times per day. That means there is a large opportunity to reach those millennial customers on the device that they are on all the time. Optimizing for mobile messages, such as push and pull, or geofencing is key to reaching these customers. In fact, geofencing messages can be tremendously successful. Brands that implement these messages see 30 to 40 percent of the customers who receive that message come into the store to take advantage of the offer within 24 hours. Mobile messages can provide an almost immediate lift to your store visits and sales.
Promote food service. Food service is becoming a big part of convenience stores today with prepared and made to order food is a major draw in for customers. Offering limited-time offers tied to food items can greatly enhance a stores visits, especially with millennials. About half of all millennials say that limited time offers are very enticing and something that they are on the lookout for.
Segment and target. To create a bond between the brand and its customers and maximize the impact marketers have on revenue creation, market segmentation is essential. Within any customer base, there are segments of people with shared interests and motivational factors. When marketers develop insights into their customer base that reveal common motivators, the result is a powerful, profitable marketing strategy. By identifying your market segments, marketing messages, offers, and message cadence can be tailored to each segment based on their common needs and behavioral patterns. The result is greater audience reach, more revenue, and higher profitability.
I discussed these ways to increase traffic in a recent webinar and provided an in-depth analysis for each of these topics. Watch the webinar on-demand and you will walk away with insights into how to increase your store traffic.