Using Loyalty Data to Drive Sales
Convenience store shopping behaviors shifted dramatically during the pandemic, upping pressure on brands to discover new ways to drive traffic and revenue in their stores. Those with robust loyalty programs had a leg up, mining this data to gain quick visibility into these new needs and buying trends, and applying those insights into their businesses.
Others moved quickly to introduce or level up loyalty programs of their own. Nearly two-thirds of U.S. c-stores (64 percent) had a loyalty program in 2020, according to PDI, and at least 60 percent planned to invest in them moving forward.
Those experiences reinforce the growing importance of loyalty data in helping c-store brands better understand their customers. Loyalty data is increasingly seen as an essential tool to develop insights to drive decision-making across the enterprise.
“If you’re getting into loyalty because you think it’s going to be a big win for you, you’re not getting into loyalty for the right reasons,” said Daniel Kahan, loyalty lead for W. Capra Consulting Group, a Chicago-based consulting firm. “Loyalty at its heart is a way to collect data.”