Image by W. Scott Mitchell
The convenience store industry is growing, with total sales of $859.8 billion in 2023, Art Sebastian said on August 7 atCSP Outlook Leadership event in Rancho Palos Verdes, California, citing the National Association of Convenience Stores (NACS) State of the Industry 2024 report.
Sebastian is Chairman of the C-StoreTEC Advisory Board and CEO of growth consulting firm Nexchapter LLC.
Nearly 1,500 transactions are made in a store each day, and the average purchase value has increased 3.7% to $7.80, according to the report. But the c-store industry is under pressure from inflation, labor issues, food service competition, credit card fees and more, Sebastian said.
The customer base of C-stores is also changing. Generation Z consumers are more likely to shop in convenience stores, he said.
“They’re more likely to add more items to their order,” Sebastian said of Generation Z. “They respond positively to improvements in the food service industry and actually, eating at a gas station is pretty cool. And half of them are also trying convenience store delivery. This generation is different than the one we normally serve. They’re digital natives.”
They are also constantly on their devices and want things immediately, he said.
“They’re different,” Sebastian said. “And my question to us in this room is, ‘Are we ready to serve these customers?'”
Growth in technology spending has outpaced growth in retail sales, he said. Retailers are investing in areas such as customer experience, employee experience, store experience, enterprise systems, merchandising systems and information technology.
With so many technology options, c-stores are asking themselves, “Where do we spend the investment?” Sebastian said.
CSP The upcoming C-StoreTEC event is designed to educate retailers on this. “C-StoreTEC is focused on providing guidance to this industry in the technology space,” he said.
The year-round platform includes an advisory board chaired by Sebastian, a digital content series and a conference October 28-30 in Schaumburg, Illinois. For more information, visit cstoretec.com.
Retail media networks
A related topic is retail media networks, which are becoming more common as marketers grapple with challenges such as greater ad choice for consumers, stricter privacy regulations, the elimination of cookies, and more.
“Retail media is advertising driven by retailers acting as media channels by publishing ads on their own assets or with third-party advertisers,” Sebastian said. “This also includes media content based on the retailer’s first-party customer data.”
Retail spending on media is increasing, and retailers like 7-Eleven in Irving, Texas, and Casey’s in Ankeny, Iowa, and Wawa in Wawa, Pennsylvania, are already getting in on the action.
Retailers can learn more at CSP’s upcoming Retail Media Network Forum, which will be held October 27 and 28 in Schaumburg, prior to the C-StoreTEC event. For more information, visit cspretailmedianetworks.com.
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