According to a new Convenience Stores Market Size analysis, the convenience store business is expected to increase significantly in the next years, reaching a staggering USD 3.12 trillion in 2028.
Running a convenience store is challenging.
Running multiple store locations presents a completely different set of challenges altogether. While running multiple locations can be a financially wise decision because of different convenience store streams, it also has its unique challenges.
With these difficult factors in mind, choosing a specialized multi-location solution for your business is critical.
Convenience stores, with their extensive inventory, tight profit margins, and often long hours of operation, require a robust back-office system. Investing in such a system is crucial for managing tasks efficiently and optimizing revenue.
Choosing a convenience store management software that is sophisticated enough to handle the specific demands of multi-location businesses is more complex than it may seem. Multi-location operators require convenience store management software to sync changes across multiple venues at once, view the performance of all their locations in one place, and allow customers to redeem loyalty points and gift cards at different venues, among other things.
With this in mind, we've compiled the most comprehensive review of the best in class multi location; multi unit convenience store management software.
Best Convenience Store Management Software For Multi-Unit Business Operators
The following c store management software are known for their overall robust features, affordability, and a combination of different things that turn guess work into great work!
Later on, we have also discussed some of the important aspects of convenience store management through digital solutions, so that if it's your first time using one such program, you wouldn't have a hard time getting acquated with the right solution.
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1. Xenia - C Store Solution For Multi Unit Operators
If you’re looking for a powerful, yet intuitive, all-in-one operations management platform tailored for convenience store management, look no further than Xenia.
Designed to enhance communication, streamline daily operations, and provide actionable insights for better decision-making, Xenia takes multi-location management to a whole new level.
But how does Xenia do that?
Through the integration of field, store, and remote office operations into a cohesive system, Xenia helps drive efficiency, consistency, and superior customer experiences across all locations.
Some of our most prominent features to help stores scale include store task management, detailed store management templates and checklists, real-time communication, and up-to-date reporting.
Moreover, by scaling daily operations, improving communication, and providing valuable insights, the c-store software ensures high-quality and consistent customer experiences, ultimately driving revenue and business scalability.
Automate Daily Operations
Streamlined day-to-day operations are key to ensuring the smooth running of convenience stores across multiple locations. Digitized checklists and reports simplify these processes, giving GMs a better understanding of what’s happening on the store floor. This way they can enhance response time, simplify workflow, and gain a comprehensive view of store operations.
Here’s how these fully customizable checklists can benefit your convenience store:
- Store opening and closing checklists
- Product expiration checklists
- Damaged product template
- Store cleaning checklists
- Store maintenance checklist
By storing all your checklists digitally, you can easily retrieve data whenever it's needed.
For example, if your designated store manager asks for a certain procedure, such as a store cleaning activity performed on a specific date, you can quickly find the exact information in the application, avoiding the hassle of sifting through paper records.
This area is based on a recurring activity to maintain a certain standard of upkeep for the store - since it impacts the customer experience. Checklists, in this regard, offer a quick and efficient way of getting things done, daily, without relying on a paper-based trail of tasks.
Standardize Work Orders Across All Locations
Moving on, manage store work order requests seamlessly with this software.
From receiving and approving to assigning and tracking, our platform allows you to efficiently handle requests from team members..
Enable requesters to submit, track, and communicate with your team without accessing operations templates or unrelated work orders.
- Transparent Reporting: Compile and export detailed request reports for transparency and informed decision-making.
- Detailed View: Access detailed information about inbound requests, including status, location, and descriptions.
- Approve and Assign: Approve requests and assign them to the appropriate teams.
- Image Requests: Include image requests in the work order for due diligence.
Streamline Communication
Effective communication is the backbone of any retail operation.
Whether it’s from headquarters to store managers, HR, or department heads to the team, or convenience store managers to employees, this store management solution provides robust communication tools such as in-app chat and provides:
- Employee Directory: Easily search for team members' and managers’ contact details within the app, keeping personal and work contacts separate and up-to-date.
- Chat Groups and Channels: Facilitate efficient day-to-day communication by creating specific groups for each department, allowing you to separate work life from private life.
- Realtime Push Notifications and Updates: Keep everyone informed with both formal (team goals, new items, promotions) and informal (birthdays, weddings) announcements.
Ready to streamline your operations and manage work orders effortlessly?
Features
- Operations Templates
- Tasks & Work Orders
- Inspections & Audits
- Temperature Monitoring
- SOP & AI-Powered Writer
- Document & Records Management
- Reporting
Pricing
- Free Forever: For the first 5 users with access to all the basic features
- Starter: $99 / month for the first 15 users with access to core features
- Premium: $199 / month for the first 15 users with unlimited access to all the core & advanced features
- Custom: Need something tailored to your organization?
Available for up to 5 users
Premium for $99/month for the first 20 users (with free trial period)
Available on iOS, Android and Web
2. Zenput
Zenput enables operations at 50,000 sites across 40 countries for the largest restaurants, groceries, convenience shops, and other retail chains across the world.
Their technology for convenience store operations execution optimizes task, audit, and incident management to increase productivity and equip field and store staff to do their tasks effectively.
The platform provides multi-unit operators with strong operations capabilities.
Their data-driven platform lets you know precisely what's going on in each shop so you can make wise business choices and increase income. It also offers insights into top-performing workers and locations, highlights areas for development, and more.
Features
- Task Management: Gain confidence that tasks are carried out accurately and on schedule in the shops and fields. Equip staff to be more responsible and time-efficient by centrally assigning, monitoring, and reporting on recurring and ad hoc tasks across all locations.
- Audits & Corrective Action: Conduct efficient store audits to establish responsibility and uphold strict standards. With automatic follow-up tasks and resolution tracking, you can keep an eye on problems and avoid them falling between the cracks. Gain real-time insight into job completion rates and performance across all locations.
- Incident Management: Acquire incident reports from workers in the field and in shops instantly, set up alarms to alert management, and follow problems through to completion. Give your staff more authority by making it simple for them to use their mobile devices to take pictures, record information, and make reports.
Pricing
- Contact Zenput for a detailed pricing plan
3. Jolt
With Jolt, you can easily digitize and simplify convenience shop operations overnight by combining sophisticated label printing with a tablet-based POS software solution.
Businesses often collaborate with Jolt to convert from paper-based to digital checklists.
Jolt also has an effective training library, a drag-and-drop planner, and a face-recognition time clock.
The program provides company owners and managers with the necessary insights to establish and oversee a profitable convenience shop by including time stamps on each label that is created. With Jolt, inventory management is made simple, productivity is increased, and waste is reduced.
Key Features
- Jolt Lists: A task management system that is simple to use, well-organized, and allows users to create, assign, and monitor tasks—all of which boost employee responsibility and productivity.
- Streamlined Scheduling: An easy-to-use interface with customizable choices and seamless platform integration for managing productive work schedules across many locations.
- Jolt Time Clock: With GPS position monitoring assuring precise timekeeping, the integrated time clock function enables workers to punch in from a variety of devices, including mobile applications.
Pricing
- Jolt customizes its offerings depending on your exact needs.
4. KORONA
Cashiers can concentrate their efforts on delivering exceptional customer service since KORONA's POS claims the fastest checkout speed in the retail industry.
When to reorder and how to set up future orders to maintain ideal stock levels are two things that their POS system's intelligent inventory management can assist you with.
The cloud-based POS system from KORONA also has automatic order placing, robust product importation, and label and tag printing capabilities. In addition, KORONA can examine and recalculate the optimal reorder levels according to patterns, seasons, and previous purchases. To sum up, this program takes the uncertainty and time out of inventory management for your convenience business.
Key Features
- Mobile Retail Inventory Management: Use the KORONA POS inventory mobile app or do inventory counts straight from your point of sale to avoid spreadsheets and difficult imports.
- Detailed Sales Reports and Metrics: Obtain comprehensive store-specific reports or aggregate data to obtain a comprehensive understanding of your business activities.
- Prevent Overstocking and Understocking: In order to ensure that you never have an excess of any product, slow seller reports highlight which goods aren't selling. Additionally, KORONA POS will alert you to assist you in maintaining the proper stock level.
Pricing
- KORONA POS Core: $59/month
- KORONA POS Retail: $69/month
5. Leaf.Io
The LEAFIO AI Retail Platform, a leading convenience store software, empowers you to set up your replenishment system in the "empty warehouse" mode.
It allows you to build a multi-echelon supply chain, efficiently distributing stocks between stores to minimize balances and frozen funds.
The platform ensures optimal availability for each SKU with highly accurate forecasts and helps form product displays considering current balances, maintaining stock levels until the next delivery.
In addition to that, it automatically creates planograms to maximize the margin per meter or foot of shelf space. The platform also aids in selecting the optimum assortment under varying conditions.
Key Features
- Inventory Optimization: Maintain autonomous inventory balances at every stage of the supply chain to easily satisfy customer demands.
- Shelf Efficiency: Automate the creation of your planograms and take total control of your merchandising operation, from planning to execution.
- Assortment Performance: Make an assortment plan, then use deep analytics and an AI assistant to oversee and improve it.
Pricing
- Contact vendor for detailed pricing.
How are Convenience Stores Different From Traditional Stores?
Retail, grocery, and convenience businesses serve various purposes. In grocery shops, customers can get a variety of home or food items.
Convenience shops, on the other hand, serve customers who need just one or two items. There is no need for a trolley since most consumers will just purchase a few products by paying cash or having them logged in the register.
However, as retail enterprises shift to digital platforms, convenience store management software has become indispensable. It is also for convenience shops to include parts of retail and hospitality into their operations, where efficiency is critical.
Convenience Store Management Software
Robust convenience store management software is the foundation of today's most resilient and successful businesses, whether you operate a 500-location worldwide fast-food chain like Taco Bell or a 200 - locations convenience store chain like Timewise throughout Texas.
However, not all platforms are equal. The finest franchisee operations software is particularly created for multi-unit operators and is intended to serve different teams and roles within a company.
Instead of getting multiple-point solutions, consider investing in a single, centralized system that meets the requirements of everyone at every site, from junior employees to senior management. After all, the easiest approach to get everyone on the same page is to have everyone—at the store, in the field, and at headquarters—use the same system.
Platforms for convenience store operations execution (OpsX), like Xenia, do just that.
Moreover, they are scalable and made to grow with your business's needs, saving you from having to start from scratch each time you add a new location or increase the scope of your services.
If all goes according to plan, you could own 200 stores by the end of the year, and maybe even more.
Because everything is centrally controlled, readily configurable, and quickly accessible, a robust end-to-end operations execution software for convenience stores can help you effectively expand your reach.
This includes your standard operating procedures, training materials, safety regulations, and brand standardization, which is especially important in case of multiple branches that need to have a certain standard maintained.
Ultimately, businesses can streamline tedious procedures, expedite information flow, and enhance visibility and responsibility across their business with ease when using a single solution.
Key Areas To Consider When Evaluating Convenience Store Management Software
Three important factors need to be taken into account when choosing the right technology for your store: execution, communication, and improvement.
Here's why it's important to pay attention to these details and how to make sure the store management software system you choose is capable of doing the job.
- Robust Communication Channels
Trends evolve rapidly. One day you're trying to add an extra checkout queue in the first aisle, and the next, you're installing separators and spacing waiting lines six feet apart.
The need for real-time communication is the one thing that managing a pandemic has taught us.
The success of your business depends on your capacity to inform employees and customers about issues like updated health and safety procedures or recalled products.
Furthermore, it involves more than simply getting communications out fast; it also involves making sure that they are understood and responded to in a timely way.
What to look for
Choose a system or restaurant solution that you to:
- Instantaneously notify every store, department, or employee of important news, updates, and announcements.
- Whether you're updating a weekly food safety evaluation or introducing a new sanitization process, instantly implement or roll out a daily or weekly procedure to every shop.
- Configure mobile devices to send out automatic notifications to employees when equipment malfunctions, temperatures exceed limits, or in other situations.
- Drives Execution and Ensure Compliance
Corporate brands demand franchisees to consistently roll out and successfully execute new strategies and initiatives across dozens, hundreds, and even thousands of sites.
The chance of mistakes increases with the number of stores involved.
Zenput and Technomic polled hundreds of operators in 2021 on the daily execution problems they deal with.
Only 20% of franchisee operators characterized their businesses' compliance as "very effective," even though seven out of ten felt that adhering to SOPs was essential to provide a consistent customer experience.
Whether the work is a one-time event, such as replacing a damaged shop fixture, or it is planned and recurrent, such as daily HACCP inspections, excellent store management software makes it simple to assign, create, and track the fulfillment of tasks.
What to look for
Choose a system that enables you to:
- Create and modify digital forms, checklists, audits, and more.
- Immediately provide your teams with access to the most current versions from any location.
- Using your smartphone, track work order completion rates in real-time by store, district, or whole business.
- Get automatic notifications when tasks are performed or done improperly.
- Keep track of remedial measures to promote responsibility and guarantee prompt resolution.
- Take pictures to provide rapid visual confirmation of the quality of the completed store tasks.
- Remotely check for signs of food safety, such as label expiry dates and temperatures
- Prioritizes Opportunities for Improvement Through Corrective Actions
In the end, the shop management software system you choose should facilitate data-driven decision-making by the leadership team over how to enhance and expand the business's operations.
Accurate, up-to-date performance and compliance insights can assist in identifying possible problems before they become more serious and, in the process, can also highlight important coaching opportunities.
What to look for
It is essential that field teams can allocate, monitor, and evaluate audit outcomes across your business, and use this information to monitor advancements made against predetermined brand targets and goals.
Choose a store management system that offers:
- A dashboard that shows shop performance and compliance around the clock from anywhere.
- Reporting that is role-specific and targeted to help field managers monitor developments and spot functional patterns.
- Both quantitative and qualitative performance data, enable them to assess the frequency, speed, and effectiveness of job completion and make appropriate adjustments.
Over To You
And there you have it.
Some of the best convenience store management programs that you can sign up for easily - and that too, without chucking up a huge amount of money upfront.
By the way, if it’s your first time transitioning to a digital solution for your convenience store, we recommend going on a trialing spree.
Check each platform of your choice through a free account for evaluation purposes. Once you are satisfied with your desired c store software, simply move on to a paid plan that you feel comfortable with, and take things from there.
Good luck!
Unify Team Operations, Maintenance and Safety Compliance with Xenia
Xenia unifies daily operations, maintenance management and quality assurance to help ensure teams and facilities are effective and efficient.
Our customers love Xenia's robust use cases including:
Operational Execution
✔️ Checklists & SOPs
Create checklists, SOPs, Inspections and Data Logs to power accountability, training and staff clarity on every task.
💪 Team Task Management
Assign work digitally to defeat pencil whipping and disorganized teams. Complete tasks, chat with teams on any device, track time, collect photos, and ensure high quality work.
📆 Recurring Tasks
Create recurring schedules for daily opening and closings, performance review meetings, inspections, cleanings and more.
📲 Chats & Announcements
Centralize team communications with in task chats, one-on-one chats, team messages and company wide announcements
📊 Team Performance Reporting
Use Xenia's analytics dashboards to view staff work reports. Filter by asset, location, category or due date and export the report in PDF or Excel
Maintenance Management
🛠️ Work Orders
Create work orders with associated team, asset, location, priority, category and due date. View live progress reports on each work order, chat with teams, and review resulting template submission, images and notes to improve operations.
🧰 Preventive Maintenance
Create a preventive maintenance calendar to ensure asset uptime is not compromised. Attach images, templates, videos and notes to every task and assign to a team or individual for completion.
📲 QR Codes
Generate and attach QR codes to equipment and facility locations to enable fast and accurate inspections and data logs.
⚙️ Work Order Requests
Receive, approve and assign work order requests from tenants, regular customers and vendors. Enable requesters to submit, track, and communicate with your team, without access to operations templates or unrelated work orders.
📁 Equipment Work History
View work history for every asset and sub asset in Xenia. Review performance data and enable corrective actions to improve your operation.
Safety Compliance & Quality Assurance
👍 Concrete Brand Standards
Put your brand standards in a clear and operational checklist to be attached to work assignments.
🔎 Smart Inspection Workflows
Xenia's operations template builder has built in conditional logic into each step. This allows you to trigger actions based on a form response such as creating a corrective action on a failed inspection step, sending a notification to management for out of range meter readings, and much more.
✨ Corrective Actions
Operationalize inspections with fast work order assignment arising from a failed inspection step. All corrective data is stored in the checklist submission for auditing and accountability.
📋 Analytics and Reports
View live dashboard summaries of tasks, employee performance, template submissions and more. Filter, organize and export compliance reports to PDF and Excel formats to simplify compliance management.
Unify End to End Retail Operations With Xenia's Digital Solutions
Streamlining chaotic retail operations, multi location procedures and daily activities isn't easy.
We get it!
Xenia unifies everything with the help of dedicated iretail execution tools to maintain a consistent quality needed for your on-site assets.
Our customers love Xenia's robust use cases including:
🛠️ Store Task Management
Create any number of tasks with associated team, asset, location, priority, category and due date. View live progress reports on each work order, chat with teams, and review resulting template submission, images and notes to improve operations.
✔️ Checklists & SOPs
Create checklists, SOPs, Inspections and Data Logs to power accountability, training and staff clarity on every task.
💪 Inspections, SOPs and Logs Within Minutes!
Take the lead on your church facility management activities by creating detaild templates with unlimited steps and diverse reponse times.
📆 Plan Ahead With Scheduled & Recurring Tasks
Create recurring schedules for daily opening and closings, performance review meetings, inspections, cleanings and more.
📲 Dedicated Mobile App
Download and install Xenia's official iOS and Android app on your smartphone to centralized your on-site facility management activities.
📲 Chats & Announcements
Centralize team communications with in task chats, one-on-one chats, team messages and company wide announcements
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