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Hello!

Welcome to the 12th edition of Always Be Convenient, the roadmap for how to navigate today’s digital world in an industry dominated by brick-and-mortar retail. All previous issues are available in the archives.

If you’ve been around the industry for very long, or have read even a couple of issues of this newsletter, the general playbook for navigating digital is known.

Driving digital at retail (the what) looks something like this:

1. Establish a digital presence for your brand

2. Encircle your customers with the right marketing touchpoints

3. Enable easy purchases with your brand from anywhere at any time

4. Encourage repeat visits through experiences that reward a customer’s loyalty

Knowing what you need to do isn’t the problem. It’s knowing how to connect the dots given your brand’s ‘why.’

Your IT or digital teammates may know why they do what they do – it’s what they were hired for – but do they know why your brand is doing those things? Do you?

We’ll dive into all this and more in today’s newsletter.

Conveniently,
Mike

P.S. This weekend I am headed to two events in Schaumburg that will put a spotlight on the ‘how’ and ‘why’ for retailers. If you’ll be attending Retail Media Network Forum or C-StoreTEC, shoot me a text: 515-979-3176

A MESSAGE FROM OUR PARTNER

The only dedicated retail media event for c-stores

Join industry colleagues at the only dedicated retail media event for the convenience industry. Hear from keynote speakers, retail media network practitioners, and subject matter experts during this special forum from CSP.

Attendees will participate in interactive workshops and educational sessions that are designed to surface strategies for the overwhelmed retail operator. You’ll learn about what it takes to be successful, what partners are seeking from retailers, and how to build a foundation for your brand’s own retail media network.

Come to Schaumburg, be inspired, and take learnings back to your team so you are prepared to capitalize on this emerging wave within the industry and retail at large.

Register now – the event kicks off this Sunday!

Why and how you do what you do

How does a business make money? In a retail context it’s a simple picture: buy a product and sell it for a higher price than you bought it.

At its core the convenience retail industry is all the same. We are selling a similar set of commoditized products to similar groups of consumers from wherever we are.

Some retailers have different sized formats. Some sell fuel and others are standalone retail stores. Some have robust foodservice offerings that could rival QSRs. Others stick to tobacco products and fast-moving consumer goods.

What sets convenience retailers apart is not necessarily what they offer – every outlet is in the business of convenience – but why and how.

Often this is where c-store retailers’ origin stories come from. 7-Eleven started as Southland Ice Company, operating an ice house storefront in Dallas. Wawa started as an iron foundry in the early 1800s, then eventually got into the dairy business and finally their own food market stores. Casey’s started with a single general store in rural Iowa, and then expanded over time to become a staple in these underserved markets.

The original ‘why’ for these businesses was rooted in the unmet needs of the consumer. A store that was open when the working consumer could access it. Fresh, quality dairy products for growing families. A true neighborhood store that could provide goods locally that would be inaccessible otherwise.

As companies expanded and the brands matured, they carried with them the unique qualities that helped make them who they were. These distinctive assets, and the way they delivered them through experiences, are what kept customers coming back.

Turning to today and how technology has impacted the landscape, we find ourselves once again in a commodity environment – or at least what appears to be a race to get there.

Just like competitors chased each other for the highest-trafficked street corners or the “best” price on fuel, they’re now doing the same in digital spaces.

Everyone has a website, a loyalty program, a mobile app, and a way to get things fast. Or so it seems. But when everyone has ways to get what they need, what draws a customer to you as a retailer?

As we all continue forward in retail, we run the risk of digital becoming just as commoditized as the food and beverage items we carry.

If you aren’t creating differentiation through these capabilities, you will have trouble courting the consumers that everyone else is after.

Consider questions like the following to help you pinpoint your ‘why’ for digital:

• Does your local brand experience match up with what consumers find online?

• Is your digital presence reflective of who you are as a brand?

• When you engage with consumers in marketing channels, is your brand’s voice coming to life in the same way it does in stores?

• Can customers identify you by your marketing?

• Is it easy to buy something from you wherever and whenever the customer wants it?

• Are there unique things you offer (offline and online) that set you apart from others?

• What is it about your loyalty program that makes it unique to your brand?

• Are loyalty members proactively steered by your program, or do they just use it whenever they happen to be in your store?

This is not just about having what people expect – which now includes digital connectivity, mobile experiences, and what is perceived as a rewarding relationship.

Getting digital right is about taking those expectations (the what), infusing your brand’s strategy behind each capability (the why), and then delivering your unique offering in a way that builds trust in your brand’s promise (the how).

The what is easy. The why and the how are hard.

If this resonated with you and you’d like help defining your what, why, and how, please reach out – just reply to this email and I’d be happy to chat.