Convenience store loyalty programs people use

On this page

1. Make joining take seconds
2. Rewards people notice
3. Pick offers your margin can carry
4. Keep the offer list short
5. Train the counter
6. Rolling it out
7. Tobacco loyalty, in general terms
8. Respect the customer’s number
9. Measure it like any other line

A convenience store visit is short. Customers come in for gas, a drink or a pack, pay and leave. A loyalty program has to fit into that minute at the counter or it won’t get used. No app to download and no card to dig for.

Below is what to put in a program people will actually use, and what to watch so it pays for itself. Any numbers are made up for illustration.

Make joining take seconds

A phone number is the easiest ID you can ask for. Customers know it by heart, and nobody has to carry anything.

• The customer types their phone number on the PIN pad, or tells the cashier.
• The first time, that number becomes the account. No sign-up sheet.
• Rewards attach to that number from the very first purchase.

If you want an email address or a birthday, ask later and give a reason, like a birthday treat. Don’t make it a condition for joining.

Rewards people notice

A reward a customer sees right away does more than a points balance they’ll never check.

Instant discounts

Money off at the register, on the spot: a few cents off a fountain drink or coffee for members, or a member price on a snack. The customer sees it on the receipt every time, and that receipt is the best reminder there is.

Punch-card offers

Buy a set number, get one free. Coffee, fountain drinks and hot food fit well. Keep the count short enough that a regular gets there in a couple of weeks.

Bundles

A member price on a sandwich and a drink together. A bundle gets the customer to add something to the basket. A plain discount often just lowers the price of what they were buying anyway.

Fuel discounts tied to an inside purchase

Cents off a gallon gets attention, but it comes straight out of a thin fuel margin. If you offer one, tie it to something bought inside and cap the gallons. For example: 5 cents off a gallon, up to 15 gallons, with a coffee and a breakfast sandwich. The most that offer can cost you is 75 cents a visit, and the coffee and sandwich are there to carry it.

Pick offers your margin can carry

Put rewards where you have room. Fountain drinks, coffee and food often do. Cigarettes, fuel and lottery usually don’t, unless a manufacturer or supplier is paying for the discount. Check your own costs before you promise anything.

Worked example

Say a fountain drink costs you 30 cents in syrup, cup, lid and straw, and sells for $1.99. If members get every sixth drink free, you give away one 30-cent drink for every five you sell. That works out to 6 cents of cost on each paid drink.

Each paid drink earns you $1.69 over cost, so one extra visit from a regular pays for the rewards on a lot of drinks. If the offer only rewards visits they would have made anyway, it is a small, steady cost instead. Watch which one it turns out to be.

Keep the offer list short

• Run a few offers at a time, not a menu.
• Make each one fit on a counter sign in one sentence.
• Change them on a schedule, monthly for example, so customers have a reason to keep looking.
• End offers nobody uses.

Train the counter

Everything depends on the cashier asking. A program nobody mentions might as well not exist.

• Ask every customer, every time: “Do you have a rewards number?”
• If they don’t, offer to sign them up with their phone number right then.
• Tell members what they saved. A line on the receipt or a word from the cashier is the best advertising you’ll get.

Rolling it out

1. Set each offer up at the register and test it with a real sale before launch.
2. Put a sign at every register and one on the door or at the pumps.
3. Train every shift on what to say, including nights and weekends.
4. Start on an ordinary week rather than a holiday rush, so problems are easy to spot.
5. After the first month, look at the numbers and drop what isn’t working.

Tobacco loyalty, in general terms

Some tobacco manufacturers fund discounts for adult tobacco customers who are enrolled in a loyalty program at the store. The manufacturer pays for the discount, so it doesn’t come out of your margin, but it comes with rules:

• Who qualifies. Adult tobacco customers of legal age, identified by their loyalty ID. Age checks still happen at the counter, same as always.
• Which products. Only the products named in the program.
• How often. Programs often limit how many discounted purchases a member can make in a set period.
• How it is reported. The sale, the discount and the loyalty ID go back to the manufacturer, usually as part of your scan data.

These programs sit inside the manufacturer’s retail agreement, and each manufacturer writes its own rules. If you join one, your register has to apply the discount exactly as the program describes, and your scan data has to report it the same way.

Respect the customer’s number

A phone number is personal information. Treat it that way.

• Tell customers what you use the number for, on a counter sign if nothing else.
• Don’t sell or share it.
• If you plan to send marketing texts, get the customer’s written permission first. Federal rules on marketing texts are strict, so check them before you send anything.
• Make it easy to leave the program.

Measure it like any other line

Each month, look at:

• How many sales carried a loyalty number.
• How often members come back.
• What the rewards cost you.
• Whether the items on offer sold more than before.

If a reward costs more than the business it brings in, change it. If members keep coming back, keep it and tell more customers about it.