Coca-Cola Unveils New Tool to Help C-store Retailers Drive Shopper Conversion & Sales

ATLANTA — The Coca-Cola Co. aims to help convenience store retailers drive shopper conversion and sales with a new tool: beverage segmentation.

This tool segments c-stores into clusters based on both store-level shopper data and store-level beverage demand data. Then, Coca-Cola mines store-level shopper and non-alcoholic, ready-to-drink (NARTD) beverage demand data and analyzes it using proprietary models with advanced techniques, such as machine learning.

Based on the beverage segmentation findings, Coca-Cola can suggest actionable insights to operators, such as:

• Adjusting assortment in a given location in the store, such as the cold vault, secondary cooler or displays;
• Determining which stores new products should have additional merchandising/capacity, depending on where they each are likely to perform best;
• Determining where to execute in-store activations, depending on where it sees the strongest shopper demand/volume for a given beverage item; and
• Tailoring shopper marketing programs based on varying shopper demand for NARTD beverages.

The value this capability brings is not only in the segmentation analytics and insights, but also — even more importantly — in the "category-first" application and execution excellence, according to the company.

C-stores serve a fragmenting shopper base that demands an expanding variety of beverage options. Cookie-cutter approaches that roll out the same products, activations and merchandising to every store result in missed opportunities and inefficiencies like out-of-stocks, Coca-Cola explained. To drive shopper conversion and sales in stores, it is crucial to customize the beverages that each store offers and merchandise those products to specific shopper groups.

Coca-Cola showcased its beverage segmentation tool at the 2019 NACS Show, which took place Oct. 1-4 at the Georgia World Congress Center in Atlanta.

At the show, the beverage company also released findings from its Pump-to-Purchase Insights, Tips and Scorecard, which found that of the 74 percent of shoppers who get gas but never go inside the store, 63 percent are motivated by pump signage that invites them to make a purchase inside in return for a discount on their fuel purchase on that visit.

Atlanta-based The Coca-Cola Co. offers more than 500 brands across more than 200 countries and territories.