Family Express Tops It!

The convenience store chain’s National Pizza Day campaign grows orders by 10x

Making a splash with pizza is a tall order, even in the best of circumstances. But standing out on National Pizza Day? That’s a whole different level.

Family Express ran a hyper-personalized digital marketing campaign powered by Paytronix Loyalty to introduce guests to their pizza – and keep them coming back. The campaign helped the convenience store brand reach record numbers for daily pizza orders, achieved sustained lift, and earned deeper guest loyalty.

With 81-units, Family Express is well-known for providing great service to its guests, but also for its food offerings. The brand recently rolled out bean-to-cup coffee and high-end tea on top of its custom food offerings like bakery items made in-house.

But only 30 units offer Cravin’s to Order, which includes hot foods like pizza, boneless wings and breakfast items. And the pizza is far from off-the-shelf.

When National Pizza Day rolled around, they wanted to offer a deal that would not only introduce guests to their pizza, but would keep them coming back. The offer was simple: 2 XL pizzas for $12. But it’s the rest of the work that made this deal break through.

Using Paytronix Loyalty, the Family Express marketing team segmented its audiences to find those who they could hit with the right message at the right time. By looking just at those who visited one of the locations with Cravin’s to Order, or a nearby store, within the last 60 days, they avoided frustrating those who couldn’t partake in the deal.

To top it all off, they chose not to run any in-store signage. In other words, this was a test of how well the digital marketing program could drive on its own.

On National Pizza Day, they broadcast the offer as an app notification and orders began trickling in. But it was a 2pm email that triggered a flood of orders.

“It was the best kind of mayhem, and our people did an amazing job in the kitchens keeping up with the demand” said Thierry Lyles, Head of Digital Marketing for Family Express. 

A few hundred open orders flowed through within the first 90 minutes. When it was done, Family Express had nearly 10 times the number of typical daily orders – an all-time high. The benefit spilled over beyond pizza, with add-on purchases raising the average ticket price to $18.  Mobile ordering accounted for most of the traffic, with 70% of online orders coming in through that channel.

The story of Family Express’s National Pizza Day extends past its holiday debut. Today, the brand’s benefiting from a 10% sustained lift from the previous month’s digital sales. Pizza fans who may have visited at the word of a good deal, are sticking around for the value of the loyalty program.