Dive Brief:

• Convenience store chains that focus discounts and deals through their loyalty programs may be giving the impression to other shoppers that they don’t offer many sales and promotions, according to the American Customer Satisfaction Index Convenience Store Study for 2024.
• Rewards members gave convenience stores’ frequency of sales and promotions a satisfaction rating of 74 out of 100, while non-members rated that aspect a 64. That category saw the largest gap between the scores from members and non-members.
• Having a gap between the two numbers is ideal, since it can drive interest in loyalty programs. But there are ways c-stores can maintain the value proposition of signing up while still appealing to other cost-conscious shoppers, said Matt Sargent, vice president of loyalty analytics for consulting firm NexChapter, in an email.

Dive Insight:

While many convenience retailers have been improving their loyalty and app strategies, a possible side effect of great deals for members is a lower perception of value for other shoppers. 

“I think there should be a natural gap between these two and there needs to be perceived value in the loyalty program,” Sargent said. “But … you also want to ‘pull along’ the non-members and engage them with promotional offers.”

There are a few steps retailers can take to make sure that member-specific deals encourage shoppers to sign up rather than shift to another store. First, they should stay focused on enrolling new members into the loyalty program, Sargent said. 

Second, he suggested offering paired member and non-member deals — for example, a “buy one, get 25% off the second” offer for everyone, but upping the discount to 50% for rewards members.

“This achieves two things,” Sargent said. “[First, it] keeps the frequency of promotions high with non members and [second,] reinforces the value of being a member.”

Finally, retailers can build out and promote the ability for customers to sign up for email or text message offers. This feeds them regular promotions and offers, and could serve as a gateway to full membership. 

Customers’ satisfaction scores for frequency of sales were lowest of all categories in the ACSI study among both cohorts, suggesting convenience retailers could also do a better overall job of reaching value-oriented shoppers.

While frequency of deals was the lowest-rated category, c-stores generally rated highly among consumers for hours of operation, location, app quality and reliability, effectiveness of mobile order pickup, and the variety and quality of cooked food. All these categories earned a rating of at least 80.

The report also noted that the convenience store industry’s overall satisfaction rating came in at 76, the same level as airlines, car rentals and health insurance. However, some retailers bucked that trend. Wawa, QuikTrip, Buc-ee’s and Murphy USA all scored an 80 or above.