How Loyalty Can Unlock Holiday Sales
NATIONAL REPORT — The holiday season isn't only a boon for big box retailers and e-commerce giants. Convenience store retailers who properly utilize their loyalty programs can also increase store traffic while enriching the customer experience.
Winter is a challenging time for c-stores, with overall foot traffic declining due to cold weather, fewer daylight hours or customers spending less time away from home. "When it's not nice and sunny out, people are less apt to get out," said Jeff Hoover, director of strategy and analytics at Paytronix.
However, retailers can account for this shopping environment and shift in customer behavior. By preparing strategic loyalty campaigns and offers ahead of time, they increase the chance of retaining existing customer visits while also acquiring new customers, Hoover shared during a recent webinar entitled "Leveraging Loyalty to Drive Holiday Traffic for C-stores," presented by Convenience Store News and sponsored by Paytronix.
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More than two-thirds (68%) of consumers report that discounts are the main benefit they want from loyalty programs during the holiday season. Additionally, 77% of loyalty program members plan to spend more with retailers during the holidays and 81% of consumers are more likely to do holiday shopping with the brands they have loyalty memberships with.
High consumer activity days such as Black Friday, Christmas Eve, New Year's Eve and Near Year's Day are ideal days to run key promotions that capture a larger percentage of shoppers who are already out shopping. However, c-stores shouldn't stop there.
"Black Friday is the easy one," Hoover said. "But there's still a lot of heightened activity in the rest of the holiday season. People are just out and about, whether it's shopping, visiting friends and family, [or] a lot of local travel where they're going to be stopping by and have a need for convenience stores. Take advantage of those opportunities and really lean into highlighting loyalty and the value behind that."
Well-executed loyalty initiatives create a positive feedback loop, according to Hoover. Holiday promotions based on feedback from existing loyalty members lead to improved satisfaction and retention, creating a loop that drives real-world financial growth and stability.
Steps to Success
During the holiday season, consumers are looking for ways to treat themselves and loved ones — setting up seasonally relevant opportunities to captivate new and returning customers. Paytronix recommends five powerful ideas for holiday promotions that can be implemented quickly:
- Buy one, get one
- Limited-time offers
- In-store only promotions
- Discount on product(s) based on amount of fuel purchase
- While supplies last
Equally important as the type of loyalty offer is the messaging around it, Hoover noted. It should be clear and informative and make a point to target people who haven't yet entered the store.
"We know that the majority of customers that come on a lot don't even go in store. It's so important to make sure that we're messaging the value and loyalty and what it means to them specifically if they're able to join, and what value they can get out of the program," he said. "Make sure the signage is working hard at the pump. Make sure the signage is there on your windows. If you have policies on what goes on the windows in your stores, there's other opportunities for signage on store."
[Read more: CSN EXCLUSIVE: How to Be Top of Mind With Convenience Shoppers]
Best practices for holiday loyalty promotions call for involving various staff from the entire team for holistic campaign development. Operators should also seek inspiration from both within and outside of the c-store channel.
"Look to your competition," Hoover said. "Look outside of the convenience store, especially into the retail and grocery space, to see what's going on there."
Retailers can take a segmented approach to following up on holiday loyalty offers. For guests who don't continue to visit at a high enough rate after redemption, retailers might send follow-up campaigns with a lighter offer on what they redeemed, while extending the offer or trying something different for those who don't redeem or visit. Along with driving more store visits, these offers may nurture some guests into longer-term behavior changes.
Three recommended actions for future holiday promotions are to schedule promotions strategically, aligning campaigns before and during peak shopping days to capture maximum consumer interest; tailor holiday promotions by tapping into customer data for personalized, relevant holiday offers; and to streamline loyalty experiences by promoting loyalty programs consistently across all channels, including online, in-store and mobile.
"At the end of the day, we often see two programs that look identical on the surface, one is at 5% penetration and one's at 40% penetration, and the differences and all that stuff," Hoover said. "It's in the messaging, it's in the team member engaging it and how they talk about the program, if they talk about the program, and it's how you as a marketing team or your leadership prioritize the importance of loyalty."
A replay of "Leveraging Loyalty to Drive Holiday Traffic for C-stores" is available here.
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