Four ways to revamp the fuel customer experience

This post was originally published on 12 May 2021 and updated on 22 February 2023

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As consumer demand for convenience, speed, variety and affordability rises, the convenience store format needs to transform. Kelly Brown describes four areas to focus on to modernise the c-store CX.

With demand for traditional fuel expected to plateau around 2030, fuel retailers are urgently innovating to replace shrinking revenues and dwindling profits.

The leaders have quickly moved to improve and expand their traditional products and services and launch in new, but related, market segments. They recognise that the future business of fuel will be less vehicle-centric and more focussed on the customer. They’ve developed a customer-centric mindset and are building new skills and capabilities to compete with unfamiliar competitors.

We’ve seen some impressive transformations. The retailers making the first move are creating differentiated experiences for competitive advantage and forming strong customer relationships that are driving up conversions and profits.

It’s an immense undertaking. 

While fuel retail has always been challenging – very fast service is non-negotiable, transaction volumes are high and operations typically run 24x7 – this requires a fundamental transformation of the standard business model.

And customer expectations have never been higher. Today’s consumers expect brands to deliver fast and frictionless experiences through compelling interactions across all physical and digital touchpoints.

Building customer loyalty requires a complex mix of emotional and rational factors that enable you to connect and build relationships with customers across all your channels and communications.

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So where should you focus? 

Here are four areas to explore:

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1. Enhance the purchasing experience

Create a seamless experience across the end-to-end ordering and purchase journey, with personalised offers and incentives to encourage store visits, and fast point of sale transactions on the forecourt and in stores.

• A mobile app will let your customers pay for fuel without leaving their vehicles. Don’t restrict it to payments - use the app to help customers find their nearest service station, view their purchase history, accumulated loyalty points, discounts and rewards, or pre-order coffee, convenience items or a carwash.

• Some retailers are making payments fully contactless with license plate recognition systems where customers essentially pay for fuel with their number plate. Our client Z Energy’s Pay by Plate helped grow its active customer base by more than 80% in a year.

• By identifying customer pain-points and aggressively embracing innovation, Z Energy has delivered a world-first in fuel retail with the launch of its virtual fuel tank called Sharetank.  

2. Create a Convenience Hub

The convenience store format is ready for change. Consumers are cutting back on big weekly supermarket shopping trips and choosing to purchase more of their groceries at easily accessible local stores. 

• Become a neighbourhood hub by expanding beyond traditional c-store offerings into high-quality products and fresh food, and design places customers want to visit, rather than need to visit.   

• In highway locations, encourage customers to stay as long as they want, with fresh in-store and takeaway food, and rest areas for travellers. 

• Consider the un-manned store model, which reduces costs while offering customers a quick, digital experience.  

3. Offer ordering and pickup

With the surge in ecommerce over recent years, consumers want new options for purchasing, payment and fulfilment.  

• Boost sales and profits by letting customers place and pay for their order in advance using your mobile app. When they reach the store, all they need to do is pick up the order and go. Some fuel apps let customers order items while they fill up, and an attendant delivers them to their vehicles.   

• New self-serve software offers a simple yet sophisticated solution to meet customer demands for speed and convenience via digital experiences.  

• Draw online shoppers into stores by offering omnichannel services such as click-and-collect.  

• Home delivery apps let your stores drive sales and engage with new customers, while continuing to encourage their local communities to shop in store.   

4. React smarter and faster to demand changes

Make better decisions about product assortments, by matching breadth and depth to demand, trends and local demographics.  

•  A unified view of inventory will give you total control over your wet and dry stock to improve efficiency, reduce overall stock, create more satisfied customers and boost the bottom line. 

• Maximise profits, conversions and promotional impact by customising products, prices and promotions nationally, regionally and even by individual sites.   

• Offer a range of discounts to appeal to different shoppers, including dollars off the price, cost per litre, percentage off the price, cost plus a specific margin or markup and more.  

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Want help to revamp your c-store customer experience? 

As you transform your CX to deliver the seamless and personalised buying journeys your customers crave, your point of sale and retail systems must transform as well. If you’re experiencing technology challenges that prevent you from unifying your physical and digital experiences, get in touch. We’d love to help you develop the agility to innovate and scale new services, faster

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For more on how to deliver every c-store customer a personalised, fast and seamless experience, download our new ebook:  

How new customer loyalty programmes fuel the c-store retail experience

Fuel retailers now realise there is enormous untapped potential to revamp their loyalty programmes to drive customer engagement and expand share of wallet. Kelly Brown explains how to elevate fuel loyalty solutions to create more relevant and personalised experiences that grow customer value and differentiate the business.

For many years, fuel retail loyalty programmes were an easy way to drive customer engagement and revenue. However, with changing consumer behaviours and formidable new competition, few meet the needs of today’s retailers or consumers. 

Most are simple “earn-and-burn” transaction or discount-based programmes that extend the same set of outdated offers to all customers, regardless of their different behaviours.   

They typically relinquish ownership of customer data and relationships to third party coalition loyalty providers who can’t differentiate retailers from their competition. 

And, crucially, with no access to their customers’ preferences, purchasing behaviour or communications, retailers can’t assess what their customers care about to provide the fast and easy personalised services they increasingly expect. 

The reality is, today customers don’t just compare your service to that of your competitors, but to the best service they’ve ever received, anytime and anywhere. At a time when digital technologies allow companies to ‘hyper-personalise’ to serve each individual customer, fuel retail loyalty programmes are well overdue for an overhaul. 

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Leading fuel retailers are investing in innovation, digitisation and branding to launch new loyalty solutions that deliver a complete view of customers’ preferences and purchasing behaviour, with the ability to create fast and memorable experiences. 

If you’re looking at how to develop your loyalty and personalisation capabilities, here are the steps to take to deliver an exceptional CX: 

•  Take control with a standalone loyalty programme  

In contrast to the coalition loyalty programmes, modern loyalty systems give you a 360-degree view of all retail and trade customers, with their entire purchasing history and preferences captured and centrally stored in one database.   

 By reclaiming ownership of your customer data from all channels and touchpoints – ranging from fuel selections to coffee preferences and convenience items within stores - you can recognise customers consistently wherever they shop with you. 

•  Extend your loyalty programme to your mobile app 

Today loyalty programmes are an integral part of a smartphone app: loyalty mobile app users typically spend 10-20% more a month, and visit 20-30% more frequently each month

When you create your loyalty app, ensure you include features that save customers’ time, increase convenience and turn purchases into a fun and engaging experience. And to really differentiate your offering, make it a game-changing experience by enabling both fuel and in-store transactions. 

•  Apply analytics to create more relevant and personalised offers  

The next stage is to use the data-driven insights to create cluster- or even site-specific offers. Tailor your offers for local buying opportunities and use your customers’ transaction histories to customise product bundles, pricing and promotions to increase sell-through without compromising margin. 

 You can then capitalise on opportunities to craft offers that feel personally relevant to each individual in your database by combining internal data (such as transactions and location) with external data (such as competition, weather, traffic conditions and demographics). 

•  Use AI-driven marketing tools to hyper-personalise the CX  

AI algorithms let you analyse customer preferences, predict many aspects of customer behaviour and develop personalised communications, experiences and offers. 

By interacting with customers at the right moment, with the right offer and in the right channel, you can drive behavioural changes in customers and multiply the lifetime value of loyalty customers. 

•  Ecosystem loyalty programmes are next 

Looking ahead, large retailers are learning to drive customer loyalty and growth by pooling data within an ecosystem of brands. A recent McKinsey webinar described how multiple companies are tapping into their complementary product and service offerings to develop a joint loyalty programme around a unifying customer value proposition. 

While still in their early stages, these ecosystem approaches promise many benefits: 

• Consumers will receive heightened experiential benefits in addition to faster loyalty rewards growth, more flexible redemptions and an unmatched simplicity and daily relevance. 

• Retailers and brands will see a rise in reach and frequency of usage. They will gain access to richer, more privileged consumer data, shared infrastructure and cross-marketing opportunities.  

 As you look at how to modernise your loyalty programme, ensure you focus on the end-to-end customer experience. You have a fantastic opportunity to leap-frog your competition by taking an ecosystem-centric approach that gives your customers a ‘next-generation’ experience. . 

Z Energy fuels more sales and repeat visits

Z Energy, New Zealand’s largest fuel retailer and part of Ampol Australia, developed Pumped to replace a third-party loyalty scheme and create a more seamless mobile and in-store customer experience.

Built using Infinity’s Loyalty module, Pumped uses a QR barcode on Z’s mobile app to identify the customer at point-of-sale or self-serve online payment terminals and add any relevant offers to their transaction. It also lets them consume any offers they have earned, such as free coffee, carwashes or LPG bottle swaps.

Z can now create new offers that help engage customers, offer them valuable rewards and encourage repeat visits. And Pumped is now Z’s cornerstone for innovation, with the ability to deliver the unified and personalised experiences its customers expect.

“With a single view of the customer we are right in the middle of the transaction with the customer in real-time. We know where, when and how they shop and, over time, will find new ways to interact, personalise and reward each customer’s experience.”

Andy Stewart, Head of Digital & Operations – Low Carbon Futures, Z Energy 

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Want help to modernise your fuel loyalty programme? 

As you transform your customer experience to deliver the seamless and personalised buying journeys your customers crave, your retail systems must transform as well. If you’re looking for help to develop your loyalty and personalisation capabilities, get in touch. We’d love to help you develop more meaningful relationships that deliver profitable growth. 

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For more on how to deliver every c-store customer a personalised, fast and seamless experience, download our new ebook:

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6 omnichannel retail painpoints unified commerce solves

With rising customer expectations for a seamless ‘one-brand’ experience, many retailers have hit a wall because their omnichannel efforts can’t meet today’s retail demands.

Here Kelly Brown describes six major omnichannel retail challenges and explains how a unified commerce approach helps to create the relevant and tailored omnichannel experiences your customers now expect. 

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Customers today are delightfully unreasonable, and expect to transact when, where and however they want. They don’t care how you achieve it and will reward you if you have it - or shop elsewhere if you don’t. 

Retailers are responding by integrating their physical and digital channels to deliver new omnichannel experiences that align with customer expectations.  

However, it’s complicated. 

Many retailers have taken a hard look at their ecommerce capabilities over recent years, but most are still searching for ways to create connected and adaptable experiences within stores. They have legacy solutions that are no longer fit for purpose and have bolted on solutions for the digital space that don’t easily integrate.  

And they struggle to support their customers’ current omnichannel demands, let alone the ‘phygital’ shopping journeys now expected by post-pandemic, digitally savvy consumers.  

If you’re looking at how to keep pace with customers, here are the most common challenges retailers face as they build their omnichannel systems, and how they can be remedied with a unified commerce approach. 

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1

Inventory that isn’t real time

Managing inventory is a retailer’s biggest challenge — no matter their size. It’s also the biggest cost. Many retailers launched digital commerce channels without getting their inventory right and can only access rudimentary sales and inventory positions. That prevents them from offering the ‘buy anywhere, fulfil anywhere’ options that are best for customers and most profitable for them.  

The solution: Optimise inventory and availability  

One of the most compelling benefits of unified commerce is a single view of stock across all stores and DCs. This means you can quickly see where inventory is and therefore the fastest place to fulfil from. You’ll improve inventory accuracy, reduce stock requirements, minimise fulfilment costs and get products to customers faster. And you’ll increase sales by using ranging and fulfilment capabilities that enable you to sell products across channels (and even sell products not normally stocked within any channels).  

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2

Blending physical and digital experiences 

Services such as click-and-collect, ship-from-store, find-in-store and returns anywhere are all just table stakes today. Many retailers implemented quick-fixes at the start of the pandemic to swiftly get new capabilities up-and-running, but now need a long-term unified solution to connect backend systems and deliver the omnichannel experiences customers expect. 

The solution: Create relevant and agile experiences 

With a unified inventory you can increase your purchasing, ordering and fulfilment options to provide customers with frictionless experiences and access to your entire range from any location. A single platform gives everyone across channels and stores the ability to view all customer touchpoints in real time. And you can extend your range across more sales channels such as in-store kiosks, shoppable screens, pop-up stores, concessions and mobile devices. 

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3

Obtaining a single view of the customer  

Today consumers don’t think in terms of channels. They now expect a “one-brand” experience that lets them shop at any time, using any channel, from any device, at the best price. But if you’ve got siloed backend systems and processes that mean your customers must deal with inconsistencies and gaps, you simply cannot offer a seamless customer experience.  

The solution: Personalise your customer experience  

The ability to see each customer’s shopping preferences and purchase history across all channels is critical for building personalised shopping experiences. With a unified commerce platform providing a holistic view of your customers, you can better plan your pricing and promotion strategies and get the right offer or message to the right customer, at the right time and right place. By creating remarkable customer experiences that meet or even exceed consumer expectations, you can ensure customers return, again and again. 

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4

Integrating data silos

Retailers use multiple customer-facing and back-office systems, spanning POS, mobile apps, inventory management, ecommerce, CRM, fulfilment, finance, marketing and more. Often loosely connected with manual processes and custom integrations, these omnichannel solutions are fragile, inefficient and costly to maintain. 

The solution: Lower cost of ownership 

A single commerce platform gives you a leaner and more flexible architecture that reduces the need for reconciliation and manual processes to maintain and manage data and functions, and there is only one system to secure. Exposing data and functions (rather than moving and replicating them) makes integration faster and standards-based, improving efficiency, decreasing errors and increasing accuracy. Third parties can easily plug in, building the ecosystem of retail software, tools, resources and devices you can add and change to match your business needs.  

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5

Adding modern technologies and capabilities  

To keep pace with consumer demands for omnichannel services, retailers need to create and deploy new apps, services and channels. However, connecting legacy systems with modern technologies requires custom integrations, and creating new brand experiences is complex, costly, time consuming and risky.  

The solution: Accelerate speed to market  

With a single platform, there’s less work required to plug in and implement new functions across channels, test cycles are reduced, and you’ll use development capacity more effectively. You can run experiments to test new customer experience innovations and easily move the successful experiments into enterprise-wide operations. These improvements in IT efficiency and flexibility let you launch new tools and services to meet business demands and start seeing revenue benefits faster. 

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6

Unifying employee experiences 

After years of underinvestment and now a labour crunch, many retailers are playing catch-up with the employee experience. Their stores often lack the tools and systems that enable their people to deliver the relevant and personalised customer experiences that match online shopping’s price, speed and convenience.  

The solution: Boost in-store productivity and sales

By arming your store staff with the right customer data and tools, combined with AI-driven recommendations, they can more easily make decisions, provide personalised upselling advice, sell inventory at any location and serve customers faster, anywhere in the store. You’ll enhance customer interactions, improve the employee experience and increase conversions.  

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Can you keep up with your customers’ expectations? 

Retailers are unifying their backend systems to create the seamless and convenient experiences customers now expect. If you’re experiencing technology challenges that prevent you from unifying your physical and digital experiences, get in touch. We’d love to help you develop the ability to create a compelling in-store experience harmonised with a digital offering for competitive advantage.

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For more on how a move to a unified commerce strategy gives you the flexibility and agility you need to keep in step with consumers’ changing needs, download our new ebook:

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How self-service software underpins growth in convenience stores

If queues lengthen and sales slow when your teams are busy making coffee or rolling ice creams, then you’ll be wondering how self-serve technologies can help your convenience business. Kelly Brown explains why many self-serve offerings aren’t suited to c-store formats and describes disruptive new self-serve software that makes it simple to create a fast and memorable experience.

Fuel and convenience stores that become destination stores are best positioned for long-term growth and customer loyalty.

They know that a customer experience centred on convenience is fundamental to success. And they’re urgently modernising the checkout experience so that consumers can transact on their own terms.

But as c-stores build a reputation for speed and simplicity, they often struggle to maintain that convenience for customers.

During peak hours, sales can be lost when customers see long queues and decide not to make purchases. It’s difficult to ensure that there are enough people in the store to handle the peaks without wasting resources during the troughs. And labour shortages continue to cripple the retail industry, with high rates of staff absenteeism compounding the challenge.

The fix for many retailers is self-serve kiosks. They’re a practical solution for large stores and supermarkets, helping to deliver shorter queues, faster service times and reduced costs.

However, most self-service kiosks aren’t suitable for a c-store format and don’t provide the services customers seek.

The high up-front cost of a kiosk is a key barrier to adoption. The large pedestals take up valuable floor space, reducing stock and advertising opportunities, and extending the payback period.

Theft is a serious concern, particularly for small stores with few staff.

Many consumers don’t like self-checkouts and want to engage with a store member during a purchase. In addition, some transactions can’t be completed without help - such as age-restricted products - which limits the streamlined experience self-checkout promises.

So how are c-stores innovating to increase convenience in their stores?

Disruptive new self-serve software is fast becoming a c-store staple.

Convenience stores are taking advantage of new self-serve software applications that can be deployed on any terminal or touchscreen display.

For example, one client is rolling out a touchscreen self-service solution in over 50 stores to provide a simple way for customers to purchase items, order food and make payments.

Positioned on store counters next to POS terminals, the solution includes a second monitor so that store staff can easily view each customer’s progress, assist and serve when required.

Customers scan in barcoded items they want to purchase and use the interactive touchscreen to select non-barcoded products from a menu of made-to-order fresh and hot food.

Developed by application developer Hoodoo, the software takes advantage of Infinity APIs to expose product, pricing and inventory data in real-time and easily add new capabilities. It’s lightning-fast, with an intuitive, easy-to-navigate interface and runs on any hardware device.

This simple yet sophisticated approach offers significant benefits for c-stores:

• Speed up service: reduce queues and make it easier for customers to transact in less time to boost customer satisfaction and drive profits

• Redeploy your staff: free up your people for more high-value tasks such as preparing food and engaging with customers. This reduces pressure on them and lifts productivity, creating efficiencies and higher profitability. Some large c-stores will be able to cut their headcount to reduce costs

• Give customers choice: present all the available options and specials to each customer, step-by-step, and put them in control of their in-store experience

• Increase order accuracy: integrate orders with your POS, customer and inventory systems to eliminate the possibility of errors or miscommunication

• Boost upselling: make it easy for customers to add-on items to grow basket size and increase sales

• Differentiate your CX: provide a modern, intuitive digital experience in stores to amplify your brand and create more memorable experiences.

Ordering and pickup options are next

The surge in self-service goes beyond self-serve purchases – consumers want new options for ordering and order pick-up as well.

Mobile ordering boosts sales and profits by letting customers place and pay for their order in advance using a mobile app. When they reach the store, all they need to do is pick up the order and go. Some fuel retailer apps let customers order items while they fill up, and an attendant delivers them to their vehicles.

Self-checkout options are extending to online ordering platforms. Convenience stores are drawing online shoppers into their physical stores by offering omnichannel services such as click-and-collect.

And home delivery has the potential to further enhance the customer service. Home delivery apps let c-stores drive sales and engage with new customers, while continuing to encourage their local communities to shop in store.

Consumers now expect digital convenience from c-stores

How quickly will you adopt self-serve solutions to differentiate your brand and deliver what customers want? 

If you’d like help to provide a streamlined and fast customer experience, get in touch. We’d love to help you deploy a self-serve solution to shorten queues, reduce wait times and help your team become more efficient.

NPD modernises its retail experience with Triquestra

Fuel and convenience retailer, NPD, has selected Triquestra to transform its retail system and provide a hub for future innovation. Triquestra’s Infinity unified commerce solution will be installed as NPD’s point of sale in stores to improve the customer experience and support retail operations excellence and profitable growth.

Following rapid New Zealand expansion over recent years – including the launch into the North Island market in 2021 – NPD has 95 sites nationwide. With ambitious growth plans to launch 32 new sites over the next three years, the company prides itself on offering an exceptional customer experience.

“We have a strong focus on innovation as we grow our network and expand our retail offering to meet changing consumer needs,” says Lewis Preston, Retail Operations Manager at NPD. “Our architecturally-designed cafes are inviting and spacious, and we offer a forecourt service to ensure customers are being looked after as soon as they arrive. What really sets us apart is our incredibly popular range of café products which are all freshly prepared on site.” 

According to Louise Mitchell, NPD’s Senior Category Manager, the team are looking forward to the move to a modern technology platform that will streamline processes, gather deeper insights and provide great customer experiences.

“Infinity will play a key role in delivering a fast and efficient service to customers, while also helping to better manage our pricing and promotions and operate our business in a more profitable, data-driven manner.” 

It was important to NPD to partner with another New Zealand-based company. “As a Kiwi owned and operated business, we really pride ourselves on supporting local businesses and communities,” says Louise. “The Triquestra team’s responsiveness and flexibility gave us the confidence that we’ll get the swift, on-the-ground support and reliability we need.” 

Infinity’s analytics capability was another key factor in the decision. “We wanted to eliminate labour-intensive manual reporting and give our management fast and easy access to real-time business intelligence to support their decision-making,” explains Lewis. 

NPD is looking forward to better inventory and order management to increase stock accuracy and reduce admin time spent on sales, transactions, stocktakes, receipting, cash balancing and reordering. 

 “Right now, we have one retail price point for all of our sites nationwide,” says Lewis. “With surging inflation and rising costs, this negatively impacts the profitability of our sites in expensive regions.  

 “We pride ourselves on bringing genuine price and service competition to the fuel market. With Infinity’s ability to customise products, prices and promotions by site and region, we can provide our customers with even more value,” he adds. 

 “And we expect Infinity’s user-friendly interface to speed up our service at the till,” says Louise. “That will be amazing for both our staff and our customers.” 

 “There is tremendous pressure on fuel retailers to create new business models and revenue streams to replace traditional sources of revenue,” says Triquestra CEO Kelly Brown. “Retailers that become destination stores with more of what customers want are best positioned for long-term profitability and customer loyalty. We’re proud to partner with an award-winning convenience retail leader like NPD that is innovating to differentiate the customer experience.” 

Infinity will be implemented in a phased approach starting in mid-2022, with deployment and support provided by Triquestra’s implementation partner, ECL Group.

If it’s time to upgrade your point of sale to one that will scale and adapt to shifting consumer expectations and new technologies, contact us.

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New video series explores why retail is moving to cloud edge for frictionless commerce

If it’s time to make the store your focus to deliver the fast, fluid and personalised experiences that consumers now expect, then our new video series can help you understand how cloud edge ensures the experience is truly ‘zero-friction’. 

Our videos have been prepared for technical and non-technical audiences to answer the most common questions that arise when we use the terms edge and cloud computing. 

Join me as we share how cloud edge is creating buying opportunities that are seamless and lightning-quick. 

Video 1: What is edge computing and why does it matter?   

Video 2: The trends driving retail’s move to edge computing 

Video 3: The top benefits of cloud edge for retail 

 Video 4: 3 reasons retailers need edge computing 

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To achieve frictionless commerce, you need cloud edge 

See how cloud edge can help you create hybrid customer experiences across the entire buying journey. 

Video: GAS crafts personalised customer experiences to grow loyalty

GAS is one of New Zealand’s largest independent fuel retail networks. Following its blistering-fast implementation of Infinity point of sale software, the retailer is now capturing customer data to develop a distinctive experience and boost loyalty.

Watch Nahid Ali, GAS General Manager, describe how GAS can now develop cluster- or even site-specific offers that let site owners take advantage of opportunities in their local areas.

Nahid explains:

“Infinity has opened the door for GAS head office and GAS retailers to a wide variety of marketing tools that we've never enjoyed before.”

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Interested in how GAS only took 10 weeks to deploy Infinity POS nationwide?

Watch GAS modernises fuel retail through fast point of sale deployment.

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If you’d like help to create tailored customer experiences that boost loyalty, get in touch. We can help you seamlessly integrate physical and digital channels to create a unified customer journey.

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New guide: Why cloud edge is the new battleground for retailers

Retailers have turned their attention to the store to create the unified commerce experiences consumers now expect across the entire buying journey.

They’re blending physical locations with digital channels and using technologies such as AI, AR, VR and IoT to create new value through frictionless and dynamic interactions. 

However, it’s a challenge to give these latency-sensitive, data-intensive applications the performance and speed they need with a traditional central cloud or data centre. Uploading and downloading data takes too long. And it requires expensive infrastructure and network bandwidth. 

That’s why cloud edge is a game changer. By enabling connected devices to process data closer to where it’s created, on the edge, it ensures the customer experience is truly ‘zero-friction’. 

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Our new guide, The retailer’s guide to cloud edge: Why cloud edge is the new battleground for retailers, explains what edge computing is and why it matters, what’s driving adoption and the benefits it delivers, with retail use cases and architecture considerations.

It’s been written for technical and non-technical audiences who want to create lightning-quick ‘phygital’ experiences that cut costs, delight customers and grow revenue. 

DOWNLOAD THE GUIDE

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Want a taste of what’s inside?  

Watch Mike Baxter, Triquestra’s CTO, as he explains how edge computing works and why it’s important for rich retail experiences.

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Three ways to revamp the fuel customer experience

With demand for traditional fuel expected to plateau around 2030, fuel retailers are urgently innovating to replace shrinking revenues and dwindling profits.

The leaders have quickly moved to improve and expand their traditional products and services and launch in new, but related, market segments. They recognise that the future business of fuel will be less vehicle-centric and more focussed on the customer. They’ve developed a customer-centric mindset and are building new skills and capabilities to compete with unfamiliar competitors.

We’ve seen some impressive transformations. The retailers making the first move are creating differentiated experiences for competitive advantage and forming strong customer relationships that are driving up conversions and profits.

It’s an immense undertaking. 

While fuel retail has always been challenging – very fast service is non-negotiable, transaction volumes are high and operations typically run 24x7 – this requires a fundamental transformation of the standard business model.

And customer expectations have never been higher. Today’s consumers expect brands to deliver fast and frictionless experiences through compelling interactions across all physical and digital touchpoints. Building customer loyalty requires a complex mix of emotional and rational factors that enable you to connect and build relationships with customers across all your channels and communications.

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So where should you focus? 

Here are the three actions you can take now:

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1. Enhance the purchasing experience

Create a seamless experience across the end-to-end ordering and purchase journey, with personalised offers and incentives to encourage store visits, and fast point of sale transactions on the forecourt and in stores.

• A mobile app will let your customers pay for fuel without leaving their vehicles. Don’t restrict it to payments - use the app to help customers find their nearest service station, view their purchase history, accumulated loyalty points, discounts and rewards, pre-order coffee, convenience items or a carwash.

• Some retailers are making payments fully contactless with license plate recognition systems where customers essentially pay for fuel with their number plate.  

• By identifying customer pain-points and aggressively embracing innovation, our client Z Energy has delivered a world-first in fuel retail with the launch of its virtual fuel tank - Sharetank. 

2. Transform the convenience store

The convenience store format is ready for change. Consumers are cutting back on big weekly supermarket shopping trips and choosing to purchase more of their groceries at easily accessible local stores.

• Become a neighbourhood hub by expanding beyond traditional c-store offerings into high-quality products and fresh food, and design places customers want to visit, rather than need to visit.  

• Increase sales and create new profit streams by giving your customers a variety  of delivery models, such as click-and-collect and home delivery.

• In highway locations, encourage customers to stay as long as they want, with in-store and takeaway food, and rest areas for travellers.

• Consider the un-manned store model, which reduces costs while offering customers a quick, digital experience. 

3. Personalise customer offers and experiences

Historically, fuel loyalty programmes were ‘earn and burn’ type rewards that provided discounts for future spend and effectively gave away customer data and relationships to third party loyalty and payments providers or consumer brands. 

• You have a fantastic opportunity to reclaim ownership of your customer data from a variety of channels and touchpoints – ranging from fuel selections to coffee preferences and grocery purchases within stores. 

• Analyse these customer preferences and develop personalised communications, experiences and offers that go beyond the novel to become meaningful.

• Use AI tools to include personalised recommendations in e-receipts and during click-and-collect pick-ups. 

By anticipating your customers’ needs and showing that you know and understand them, you’ll drive up conversions, increase revenues and boost loyalty.

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If you need help to create exceptional customer experiences, get in touch. We can help you seamlessly integrate physical and digital channels and create your unified customer journey.

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