10 Best Convenience Store Ideas To Inspire Your Business

Quick Insights: The Modern Convenience Store Shopper

Here are some interesting quick facts about C-store shoppers:

• In less than four minutes, the average concentrated C-store shopper passes by 606 unique product category displays, averaging 0.3 seconds for each display, according to the most recent research!

• Store cleanliness is a deciding factor for 84% of customers who stop for a fill-up before making a further purchase.

• 36% of fuel consumers visit the store to buy a snack, and 45% buy beverages.

• During a shopping trip, 46% of customers at C-stores buy just one item.

• While C-store customers are aware that there won't be as many special offers and discounts as they would at a grocery store, they still prefer to feel appreciated and like they received a good bargain.

• Surprisingly, only about 25% of shoppers make stops to pick up jerky, alcohol, and petrol.

• 11% of consumers say they go to a convenience store to prepare a meal, 17% say they go for food to go, and 55% say they visit for a top-up.

• Thirteen percent of C-store sales are beer.

• 95% of decisions made when buying at C-stores are made unconsciously.

10 Best Convenience Store Ideas

Let us discuss a few strategies that can come in handy to highlight the products and raise sales in convenience stores.

1. Create Mobile-driven Experiences

You cannot get the information you need to make wise business decisions for retail just by using Excel, email, or paper since they are slow and prone to errors. 

Instead, utilize Xenia, a cloud-based application that automates audits, action plans, and activities. Implement and check brand guidelines, assignments, and remedial measures on your websites with ease. Obtain reports, videos, signatures, and photo verifications in real-time.

Consumers in the digital age are constantly searching for tech-driven and digital experiences. Your sales and bottom line will both significantly increase if you can incorporate mobility into the C-store convenience store customer experience. 

2. Practical Convenience Store Interior Design

For a great convenience store customer experience, you need to focus on branding in addition to the more practical aspects of your store's design. For instance, you should leave adequate space for coolers if you plan to carry fresh foods, chilled goods, and cold beverages.

Additionally, make sure there is sufficient room for inventory and supply storage. If you frequently run out of popular products due to limited storage space, customers may decide to shop elsewhere.

It’s also wise to consider product placement. For example, convenience stores often position items like candy, pretzels, and gum at the checkout to encourage impulse buys.

Lastly, you must follow all health and safety laws for the benefit of both your clients and staff. 

Ensuring that your staff cleans the store regularly can have a significant impact on how customers see the quality and safety of your offerings.

3. Get Local

C-stores are strategic because they cater to the needs of the people in the region. Therefore, if there is something you want your clients to see, such as local news, weather channels, or sporting events, displaying these on the in-store TVs makes it impossible for customers to ignore the content.

You want to create a household name as a convenience store brand. Additionally, it's critical to remember the local language for that.

Let's imagine that your convenience shop is located in a Spanish-speaking area of the US. Consequently, you want to think about displaying your digital signage content in both English and to become relevant to your local customers.

3. Add Interactive Elements

Convenience stores can provide self-service through interactive digital displays. This lowers the projected wait time for checkout and shortens queues significantly.

Furthermore, implementing interactive digital kiosks can streamline the process of browsing products. Customers can view loyalty programs and rewards, compare similar products and brands, learn about planned product launches, and much more. 

Additionally, you can add QR Codes to screens to enable interactive features on any non-touch TV or LED signboard. These interactive convenience store displays can also gather insightful client input to enhance the offering.

Another strategy that can help reduce perceived wait times is to install interactive digital kiosks with informational and entertaining content where clients can wait. For instance, using mini-games, trivia, or product promotional videos on the screens can help occupy customers and make them less conscious of the time they spend waiting. Additionally, you can present updated information on the queue, the estimated waiting time, and more, which helps manage customers' expectations and enhances overall satisfaction.

4. Wayfinding & Store Navigation

An internal wayfinding map featuring all aisles and sections is displayed on a digital sign suspended in a convenience store.

The negative impact that inadequate navigation can have on the customer experience has become evident to numerous retailers in recent times.

To assist consumers in navigating the store and finding the products they're looking for, digital signage in convenience stores can be readily converted into digital wayfinders. These maps can provide directions to various store sections.

Interactive wayfinding kiosks are also useful for assisted store navigation, particularly for elderly people and new customers, who may find them especially helpful. 

5. Side Revenue from Ad Space Renting

C-stores stock millions of brands, many of which are local brands without a recognizable channel through which they can market themselves.

This is an ideal opportunity for convenience stores to make additional sales. You can lease out your in-store digital signage TVs to non-competing enterprises, such as restaurants, theaters, or product suppliers, who will advertise their products and services.

This arrangement is mutually beneficial, as suppliers and other businesses gain visibility, while convenience stores generate extra revenue.

6. Digital Signage as a Virtual Salesperson

Digital signage in convenience stores can be used to suggest products based on past purchases, consumer preferences, and current trends, making upselling possible. By utilizing modern data analytics, digital signage can offer highly customized product recommendations and real-time offers tailored to specific customer preferences. For example, a regular customer can be offered exclusive discounts on newly arrived organic merchandise as soon as they walk into the store.

It is also possible to display a variety of information, including cost, ingredients, nutritional values, special offers, and more.

Videos demonstrating how to use, assemble, or prepare particular products may also be shown, leading to well-informed purchases and overall customer satisfaction.

7. Digital Product Catalogs

A convenience store's hanging digital signage screen displays digital product catalogs next to the goods shelves.

Digital product catalogs with comprehensive product descriptions—including cost, ingredients, potential health benefits, and other details—can be displayed on digital signs.

If a product runs out of stock or if there are new arrivals, store owners can effortlessly update these digital catalogs.

8. Customer Reviews & Social Walls

Content from social media feeds on product surveys and positive customer evaluations are essential for your convenience store displays.

These reviews could be arranged so that they are positioned strategically above the shelves that hold the products in question. These evaluations contribute to the purchasers' enhanced confidence and undoubtedly boost sales.

Customers are also encouraged to leave favorable reviews because it might be amusing to see one's name next to their comments.

Using a social media wall, you can additionally showcase various hashtag competitions and posts from your brand's Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter accounts.

9. Recipes and Food Combos

Easy, step-by-step cooking tutorials featuring products from the convenience store can be an excellent way to encourage both experienced and inexperienced home cooks to buy the items being featured. Anything attractively garnished will entice anyone! A well-garnished dish can tempt anyone!

Additionally, aesthetic images and videos can be used to suggest various food pairings. For example, you might pair coffee with cookies or pastries, or showcase different salad dressings and dips alongside a variety of visually appealing vegetables and greens.

For this application, a digital menu board system might be ideal. You can also display reruns of popular cooking shows and challenges to pique the interest of food enthusiasts.

10. Trends of the Season

To provide your customers with a suitable atmosphere, you can personalize the signs at your convenience store to showcase seasonal themes.

For instance, during the summer, movies of people pouring iced tea or any other refreshing beverage from elegant cups could be the main focus.

Similarly, different gift ideas can bring the Christmas season to life.

11. Use the Right Technology

Convenience businesses are changing the way they engage with their customers through mobile apps. 

Thanks to advancements in convenience store technology, data analytics software has become increasingly popular. 

Various technologies, including mobile applications, are now being used by convenience store owners to streamline operations, capture customer experiences, and monitor business outcomes. These tools also allow companies to manage inventory, cash flow, and other key business metrics effectively.

With data analytics technology, you can enhance business outcomes by integrating and leveraging relevant information for decision-making. For example, you can analyze which snack items have been the most profitable over the past three months, conduct demand forecasting, and maintain an inventory that aligns with customer demand.

Data analytics also enables you to understand consumer behavior better. Once you accurately identify customer preferences, you can tailor your merchandise to their tastes. This approach can lead to increased sales and improved customer satisfaction.

That’s why you need  Xenia to take your convenience store operations to the next level! 

Our software empowers convenience stores of all sizes to optimize daily convenience store operations, maintain brand standards, and enhance customer experiences through a comprehensive, digital platform. 

By implementing digital checklists and SOPs, leveraging task management with real-time tracking, and automating recurring tasks and preventive maintenance, Xenia focuses on consistent execution, so that you can benefit from seamless operations.

And to help you take your convenience store operations one step further, Xenia helps maintain your brand’s integrity with digital inspections, audits, and corrective action workflows, while ensuring compliance with advanced features like temperature monitoring for food safety. 

Enhance efficiency and elevate customer satisfaction with streamlined work order management, centralized communication channels, and efficient request and approval workflows.

With Xenia, drive accountability, improve coordination, and achieve operational excellence across your entire organization.

7 Examples of Successful Multi-location Convenience Store Management

1. Buc-ee’s

With some of its stores almost the size of modest Walmarts, this Texas-based company, well-known for creating the largest gas stations globally, is still hardly a blip on the screen by industry standards.

It's famous not just for being a convenience store but because each of its large-format shops has an authentic Texas-style barbecue joint in the center of the store. 

This well-managed business offers everything from house-brand snack items (those Beaver Nuggets, wow) to smoked sausages on sticks, Texas-sized drinks, home goods, and cookbooks. 

2. Wawa

Wawa is more than just a spot for the best made-to-order sandwiches and coffee in the business; it's also a place where life happens and offers delicious iced teas, house brews, ice creams, soft pretzels, and slightly crave-worthy morning sandwiches. Wawa has been a part of the glue keeping the region together for decades.

3. Sheetz

One of the state's most popular convenience stores hosted one of the more talked-about beer releases in Pennsylvania. In collaboration with Evil Genius in Philadelphia, a famous blueberry muffin from Sheetz was used to create a delicious blonde beer. 

The extensive round-the-clock menu of this Altoona-based chain features a lot of food items, including quesaritos, totchos, and fried macaroni and cheese bites. It almost seems as though the menu is meant to over-excite the masses of enthusiastic customers who find most other convenience stores dull.

4. Parker’s

Parker's is the ultimate Southern convenience store, with over fifty locations throughout the region and in the South Carolina Lowcountry, where you can always find an urn-sized cup of sweet tea and some of the best chicken tenders around (fresh, never frozen). 

The company's downtown Savannah flagship features a full array of serious, available 24/7 Southern home cooking (wow, those biscuits).

5. Maverik

The closest thing we'll probably come to a convenience shop with a REI theme is Maverik, which is based in Utah naturally. This facility exhorts you to spend time outside; in fact, its rewards program is named Adventure Club. 

To join, though, you don't need to be heading to Moab to crush it—all you need is a hunger for some seriously delicious breakfast tacos, skillet dinners, and some seriously amazing raspberry fritters.

6. Turkey Hill

Although this beloved Lancaster County, Pennsylvania store has recently undergone some changes, the fact that it is now owned by a British conglomerate hasn't lessened the locals' admiration. What has always made the chain exceptional is its selection of bottled beverages—especially its iced teas, which are perfect for a summer day—and its excellent ice creams, now available in supermarkets across the Northeast.

Fun fact: The Turkey Hill Experience, located at the corporate dairy outside Lancaster that runs entirely on renewable energy, allows you to sign up to make your ice cream flavor and even eat it. Discover more about this delectable Lancaster custom here.

7. 7-Eleven

It's not a tough thing to keep up with the competition and to do much when you're the biggest and most successful convenience store brand in the world.

But that didn't stop 7/11 from differentiating themselves. Their tacos are a great option and the reasonably priced, humble pizza is a great quick meal for those looking for a comforting meal on a low budget. 

Final Words

Making your C-store profitable and competitive comes with its fair share of challenges. Giving customers a smooth and enjoyable experience, however, can significantly increase their loyalty and rate of retention. Make sure your C-store continuously provides "convenience" to your customers by following the above-mentioned convenience store ideas.

‍