Supplier Spotlights: ADC, Koupon, PepsiCo & Skupos
NATIONAL REPORT — While it's important for convenience store retailers to market themselves, new products, services, promotions and other initiatives by c-store suppliers are a major part of capturing consumer interest. Convenience Store News will regularly highlight such efforts in this roundup.
Here are the latest supplier spotlights:
ADC
Applied Data Corp. (ADC) entered into an agreement to acquire Pinpoint Software Inc., provider of software solutions driving operational efficiencies and execution for grocers and other retailers, including expiration date management platform Date Check Pro.
The acquisition is a highly strategic addition to the ADC portfolio, which includes ADC's fresh item management platform FreshIQ and fulfillment orchestration platform ShopperKit, and will result in a solution that not only reduces food waste and delivers higher sales, but ultimately goes beyond sustainability to a more regenerative approach for retailers, the company said.
"ADC's trajectory as a total store operations platform continues to expand to meet the needs of retailers in today's evolving market," said Shamus Hines, CEO of ADC. "Pinpoint helps retailers proactively track inventory expiration dates across the store and work together with shoppers to minimize food waste. As a company, we're committed to enhancing all store operations for food retailers. With elevated consumer interest in sustainability, retailers are faced with the challenge to reduce food waste while also driving sales, and that is where both ADC and Pinpoint come into play."
With the addition of Pinpoint's Date Check Pro, ADC will be able to offer additional reductions in shrink from expired products while also increasing customer satisfaction.
"At Pinpoint, we've always believed in driving efficiency and ensuring the freshest shopping experience possible for customers," said said Andrew Hoeft, founder and CEO of Pinpoint. "ADC started in Fresh and has a strong belief in helping retailers reduce waste. Combined with our shared emphasis on user adoption with solutions that are easy to use and learn, joining forces with ADC was a perfect marriage. By blending our teams' knowledge and solutions, we will continue to push the limits of retail operations technology."
COIN CLOUD
Coin Cloud added cryptocurrency meme coin Shiba Inu to its digital currency machine (DCM) enterprise. It has a full ecosystem, including three tokens (SHIB, LEASH and BONE) and a Decentralized Exchange (DEX), ShibaSwap. Users can stake and swap SHIB on other DEXes, including Uniswap, SushiSwap and 1inch. The tokens for all these platforms are available at Coin Cloud DCMs.
"It's been quite a journey bringing these options to our clients, but we react quickly to customer demand and make it happen," said Chris McAlary, CEO of Coin Cloud. "We believe in offering people the coins they want, the way they want them. It became very clear when they wanted DOGE, and more recently we got a lot of requests for SHIB, so we're happy to be able to fill that demand with the easiest cash purchase option."
Coin Cloud provides the only national network of 100 percent two-way DCMs, offering purchase and cash-out options at every location. Its DCMs are the next generation of standard Bitcoin ATMs, and give customers the ability to instantly buy and sell Bitcoin, Ethereum, Cardano and over 35 other digital currencies with cash, including the most popular stablecoins and DeFi tokens.
DIEBOLD NIXDORF
The Technology & Services Industry Association (TSIA) honored Diebold Nixdorf, global leader in driving connected commerce across the financial and retail industries, as a winner in the "Best Practices in the Delivery of Field Services" category of TSIA's 2021 STAR Awards, which acknowledge a commitment to innovation, leadership and excellence among technology and services organizations across the globe.
Diebold Nixdorf won the STAR award for its DN AllConnect Data Engine, which powers its maintenance and availability services to deliver a predictive and data-driven service model.
"Winning a TSIA 2021 STAR award, coupled with the milestone of more than 100,000 banking self-service devices now connected to DN AllConnect Data Engine, reinforces Diebold Nixdorf's commitment to setting a new standard for self-service solution performance and reliability to power an industry first: a truly digitally-enabled, connected service model for the banking self-service channel," said Octavio Marquez, senior vice president, Global Banking, at Diebold Nixdorf.
The award follows the company reaching a milestone of having over 100,000 banking self-service devices connected to DN AllConnect Data Engine
IRI
IRI launched IRI Lift for Facebook, which enables consumer packaged goods manufacturers and retailers to measure the offline sales impact of their advertising campaigns across Facebook and Instagram.
The solution combines Facebook's media exposure data with IRI's point-of-sale, frequent shopper and causal data to provide accurate, granular and household-level insights. Advertisers will be able to maximize their Facebook advertising learning agenda; quantify the true return of various activation elements; and evaluate their campaign strategy, messaging, audiences and more to drive optimal performance.
"We are very excited to be launching this solution for advertisers on Facebook, one of the largest and most sophisticated digital advertising platforms in the market today," said Nishat Mehta, chief product officer and president of the IRI Media Center of Excellence. "The addition of Facebook and Instagram measurement to our robust suite of Lift solutions makes IRI the industry's most effective partner for capturing the in-store sales impact of online advertising impressions across all digital media and television partners.
"Now our clients can leverage our enhanced Lift suite and industry-leading shopper loyalty data assets to accurately and granularly measure returns on their total advertising spend, and make the informed, data-driven decisions they need to execute more productive campaigns and win in the market. And at the same time, consumers benefit from a more relevant ad experience," he added.
The launch of IRI Lift for Facebook expands on Chicago-based IRI's existing measurement partnership with the social media platform, which also includes marketing mix. In addition, Facebook and Instagram campaigns can be supported by IRI's 100 percent deterministic, purchase-based audiences, derived from over 500 million loyalty cards for the highest levels of targeting accuracy.
KOUPON
Promotion and data insights solution provider Koupon partnered with Vroom Delivery to extend the reach of its digital promotions to convenience shoppers interested in ordering from home. Consumers can now access digital promotions powered by Koupon's technology from home and have their favorite c-store products delivered directly to their door.
"Delivery in c-store has been evolving over the past few years, but the pandemic accelerated the demand two-fold," said Gregg Augustine, executive vice president, strategic Partnerships and Business Development. "Partnering with Vroom allows Koupon to extend the reach of its CPG promotions by catering to shoppers looking for immediate convenience and value."
In addition to reaching more consumers, Koupon's c-store retailers will also have significant opportunity to increase sales, the company said. Vroom's average order size is $44, five times larger than the average in-store purchase value at c-stores.
"We are excited to offer Koupon deals on the Vroom Platform," said Vroom CEO John Nelson. "This offering will be unique to any other e-commerce solutions, and provide value to both our retailers and their customers."
Koupon expects the partnership to contribute an influx of shopper data to supplement its growing data network over time.
KRS
Convenience chain solutions provider KRS announced a strategic partnership to resell and distribute 500-plus Tortoise remote-controlled sidewalk delivery vehicles to empower its convenience chain customers to grow their business with affordable, zero-emissions same-day last mile delivery.
"We couldn't be more excited to partner with the team at Tortoise to offer this sustainable and economical last mile solution for convenience retailers," says Pat Lewis, Founder and CEO at KRS. "Integrating low-cost curbside pick-up and delivery is essential for convenience retailers to keep growing as consumer behaviors rapidly evolve."
Each Tortoise delivery robot can carry 150-plus pounds of goods as it safely navigates sidewalks and bike lanes at low speeds. Goods travel in secure insulated containers with Bluetooth locking that is also controlled by the remote driver.
"KRS, a beloved convenience industry innovator, is a fantastic partner to bring Tortoise's zero-emissions robotic delivery technology to convenience retailers nationwide," said Dmitry Shevelenko, Tortoise co-founder and president. "We're particularly excited to leverage the flexibility of our vehicles to quickly deploy zero-emissions last mile delivery in a wide variety of communities that have convenience retailers that are powered by KRS."
NATIONAL CARWASH SOLUTIONS
National Carwash Solutions (NCS) signed a definitive agreement to acquire Zep Vehicle Care (ZVC) from Zep Inc. The acquisition will enhance NCS' chemicals brands, helping advance its mission to provide customers industry-leading complete car wash solutions and services.
ZVC's commercial car wash chemical offerings, including Armor All Professional, Blue Coral and Rain-X, will complement NCS' existing products to provide customers with the broadest selection of car wash chemicals. They will be additive to NCS's comprehensive equipment and service offering, including MacNeil Wash Systems, Ryko Solutions, TSS products and services and Vacutech Vacuums. ZVC also brings its PurClean water management and reclamation equipment brand to the combined entity.
"We are thrilled to welcome the Zep Vehicle Care team to NCS," said Mike Gillen, CEO of NCS. "ZVC's beloved products are a great fit with our chemicals offering and will enhance our ability to provide car wash operators with a superior selection of chemicals, equipment, and solutions. We're also excited for this opportunity to provide operators with an easy, integrated sales and service experience with the best talent in the industry."
Gillen will continue to serve as CEO of NCS while Greg Heyer, chief commercial officer of ZVC, will lead that business. Executives from both NCS and ZVC will take on leadership positions.
PAR TECHNOLOGY
ParTech Inc., global restaurant technology company and provider of a unified commerce cloud platform for enterprise restaurants, announced the Summer 2021 Product and Innovation Release for Punchh, its loyalty, offers and engagement platform. The release includes a continued focus on analytics, marketing automation and consumer experience enhancements, as well as expanded integrations and partnerships.
The addition of Punchh Pickup to the Punchh platform coincides with the release. Punchh Pickup is a native, loyalty-integrated pickup solution that creates a frictionless, end-to-end pickup experience for both customers and employees. It allows operators to view and manage all pickup orders from a customizable web-based console, providing real-time location and arrival estimates that enable clear, automated communications with customers through a personalized mobile and web experience, the company said.
ParTech also introduced new Mobile Experience packages that allow Punchh users to update their mobile apps in a regular cadence so that they can quickly add new features as they need them to drive higher engagement and loyalty spend.
The release also features enhancements to the platform's new Campaign Performance Page, including an at-a-glance, simplified view of additional key metrics, such as average order value, email engagement analytics, open and conversion rates and more.
Finally, the summer 2021 release brings several new integrations to the company's growing partner network. New integration partners include GRUBBRR, a premier self-ordering provider; Tattle, an industry-leading customer feedback platform; Yext, a modern, AI-powered answers platform; and SMS marketing leader Attentive, to provide personalized text message marketing that leverages key loyalty insights.
"As we continue to innovate and stay ahead of evolving consumer expectations, we remain focused on key innovation priorities that deliver the most value, impact and competitive differentiation to our customers," said Shyam Rao, co-founder and CEO of Punchh Inc. "The Summer 2021 Release is a reflection of our commitment to create faster, frictionless experiences for both marketers and end-users while growing our network of partners to include new integrations that offer an even greater line of sight into the data needed to deliver 1:1 engagement between consumers and the 200+ brands we serve."
PEPSICO
Frito-Lay, a division of PepsiCo Inc., introduced a new, industrially compostable bag for its Off The Eaten Path brand. Debuting at Whole Foods Market and at other select retailers, the bags serve as an example of PepsiCo's investments in breakthrough food packaging technology and the overall pep+ transformation, the company said.
Producing the materials used for the bags creates approximately 60 percent lower greenhouse gas emissions than traditional packaging. The technology may be licensed to other companies at no cost to further the use across the consumer-packaged goods industry.
"Frito-Lay recognizes the important role we play in driving towards a circular economy and reducing packaging waste," said David Allen, vice president of sustainability, Frito-Lay North America. "We are investing in plans to scale circular food packaging that is recyclable, compostable, biodegradable or reusable and sharing that technology to build a more sustainable food system for us all."
Pep+ is an end-to-end transformation that puts sustainability at the center of how the company will create growth and value by operating within planetary boundaries and inspiring positive change for the planet and people. According to the company, pep+ will guide how PepsiCo will transform its business operations: from sourcing ingredients and making and selling its products in a more sustainable way to leveraging its more than one billion connections with consumers each day to take sustainability mainstream and engage people to make choices that are better for themselves and the planet.
SKUPOS
Skupos, the platform that powers smarter, more profitable retail by connecting independent convenience stores and consumer packaged goods brands, launched "Game Day Deals," its winter discount program. Building on the success of its "Summer Traffic Jam" program, the company seeks to provide opportunities for both brands and retailers to increase revenue during lower traffic winter months.
Running Dec. 1 through Feb. 28, 2022, "Game Day Deals" includes even more brand-funded promotions, which will help retailers increase revenue and repeat traffic through the beginning of 2022. Skupos will also help stores drive consumer awareness during the promotions by providing signage free of charge.
"At Skupos, we understand that the winter months can mean a slowdown in business for CPG brands and retailers, especially for our network of independent convenience retailers. With the 'Game Day Deals' program, our goal is to continue the flow of sales across the entire industry," said Chief Revenue Officer Christine Shriver. "Given the 'Summer Traffic Jam' promotions' success in increasing repeat customers by 30 percent, we're confident that the 'Game Day Deals' program will help both groups generate revenue during the holiday season and into 2022."