Convenience Store Marketing & Loyalty Program Trends for 2019

If 2018 continued the trend of disruption for convenience stores—with things like Amazon Go stores opening at a steady pace and frictionless shopping gaining traction—convenience store marketing trends for 2019 all have to do with capitalizing on those disruptions.

Our team has identified seven can’t-ignore trends that represent a tremendous opportunity to increase brand loyalty and increased revenue. Planning for (and taking advantage of) these marketing strategies now will help ensure that your store’s biggest “trend” for 2020 is consistent growth.

(To get a detailed description of each trend, along with ideas for how to make the most of them, click here to access our free, on-demand training called, “Convenience Store Trends: Expert Predictions for 2019.)

The first trend might seem simplistic at first, but it actually masks a much more nuanced concept: Develop loyal customers. One of the most effective ways of developing loyal customers is by implementing loyalty programs that reward customers for their patronage. But these same loyalty programs are also crucial for gathering valuable data that you can use to maximize visits and spend. This is why it’s important to choose customer loyalty software that easily lets you track customer behavior and engage customers based on data analytics.

The second marketing trend involves driving customers from the pump and into the store. With fully 75% of customers who fuel up at the pump never entering the store, this represents an immense opportunity for convenience stores. Coca-Cola recently did a student that concluded that 31% of customers who saw an ad at the pump were influenced to enter the store and make a purchase.

The third convenience store trend that will be crucial for 2019 is the huge amounts of data available and the most effective use of that customer data. Marketing to and motivating customers is obviously important (including via loyalty ads), but the most effective ways to do so are by being as relevant with messaging and offers as possible—and rich data is the key to that relevance.

For example, the average loyalty program gets 20% of active participants from the total number enrolled and that activity can increase incremental spend by 20%, leading to a 4% impact to the brand’s bottom line.

But a newly developed tactic to utilize data differently can actually 5x the loyalty impact and lead to a 20% improvement to the brand’s revenue.

We discuss this tactic in depth—along with the rest of the convenience store trends for 2019—in our free, streaming video, “Convenience Store Trends: Expert Predictions for 2019.”

This information-packed training gives you the insights and marketing ideas to take advantage of each convenience store trend and maximize revenue for the year.

Click here to watch the free, 30-minute workshop now.