Ampol Woolworths Metro: powering better journeys in Australia

Ampol Woolworths Metro, the new customer-led store format launched by Australia’s largest transport fuel provider and the country’s number one supermarket, is on a roll.

In this special new feature we focus in on this ground breaking retail partnership development which is now rolling out rapidly in the Australian market. The format was one of a number of strong contenders in the NACS “Best of the Best” international award and will make a big impact.

While Skye Jackson, General Manager Merchandise at Ampol, is still riding the high off the recent wins, she’s completely focused too. “We are about to land another 20 of these stores,” she said.

With a 15-year career from operations to strategic projects and format development at Ampol under her belt, Jackson is more than up to the task of delivering this redefined convenience offer to the Australian market. She also featured in our recent Shop Talk LIVE Australia special.

Co-creation

Ampol Woolworths Metro is a premium store format co-created by the Ampol and Woolworths Metro teams. Debuted in Kingsford and North Ryde, New South Wales, almost 12 months ago, it focuses on key customer shopping missions; underpinned by new technology, loyalty and range enhancement.

“We’ve kept the customer at the heart of everything we do. It’s not an Ampol or Metro store but brings together two great Australian brands with an industry leading offer that pulls together the best that both brands have to deliver,” Jackson says.

Packing a punch

The store format packs a lot into a small space, as Jackson explains.

“We’ve utilised high bay shelving, which has enabled us to increase our range of grocery and top up shopping products. We have also expanded our food-to-go range with a much broader range of salads and sushi and ready-made meals. We’ve also managed to include a Boost and barista coffee offer.”

The layout is designed around customer missions with food-for-now to the fore and top up shopping and grocery items towards the rear.

A new fresh produce area at the front of the store has been a real winner.

“It’s disrupting the customer when they walk through the door. A produce stand with an abundance of bananas makes you instantly acknowledge that there’s something different here and sets the tone about what you can expect from the rest of the offer,” Jackson says.

“We’ve seen some great results with the produce area at the front of the store,” she adds. “The bananas here have really impressed our customers and we now sell over 500 bananas a week here at Kingsford. Our focus here is about getting the allocation of space right for this range across the seasons.”

Results success

The customer mission-led format is proving to be a hit with shoppers too.

“We are achieving some great results here at Kingsford,” Jackson says. “It shows that the right offer in the right location really helps to increase your customer visitation.”

Sales are reported to have increased above expectations and overall shop transactions have increased with shop-only customer transactions have increased by a substantial 66%.

The new format has driven positive changes in terms of customer purchasing and the product mix, Jackson adds. For instance, the number two category at Ampol Woolworths Metro is now chilled perishables versus beverages and the gap between the number one category and number two is now low single digits versus double digits, Jackson reveals.

While the new fresh categories have driven incremental sales at Ampol Woolworths Metro, the retailer has also grown sales of its core convenience categories, which Jackson describes as a “pleasing by product” of the partnership.

Self serve success

New self-serve checkouts have been integral to dealing with the increased customer counts the retailer has experienced. According to Jackson, 25% of all transactions go through the self-serve checkouts.

In addition to self-serve, Ampol has leveraged its fuel pay app, which allows customers who only want to purchase fuel to quickly pay within the app and not have to enter the store. This makes it convenient for them and gets them on their journey much faster, Jackson says.

Customer loyalty is also supported by Ampol’s ongoing relationship with Woolworths, utilising the supermarket’s Everyday Rewards Program. There are 12 million loyalty program members who can scan their Everyday Rewards card and earn points for every purchase in store.

And, for those customers who don’t want to come into the store, Ampol has got them covered too through its partnership with Uber Eats to offer its extended range of food-for-now, food-for-later plus grocery top up and essentials. According to Jackson, this convenient delivery service proved to be especially popular during Covid lockdowns.

“At Ampol, we are passionate about powering better journeys, today and tomorrow,” she says. “At our Kingsford store our ability to do this for our customers is heavily supported by our technology, payment systems and loyalty programs.”

People development and pipeline

People development and customer service have been a key aspect in Ampol’s ability to deliver on the new format too.

“You can’t land an offer like this and execute it well without a really strong team,” Jackson says. “We’ve really invested in the training and development of our people. Our team leads and store managers are put through an intensive six-to-nine month development program and we’ve leveraged our partnership with Woolworths to build training around some of the things that are new to us, for example, the management of fresh produce.”

Staff incentives have been heavily focused on the fresh range too, Jackson reports. These include sales challenges on specific products – hot cross buns at Easter, for instance.
“This gets our team excited about promoting some of the new fresh range items that we have and rewards them for their success,” she says.

The retailer has also focused heavily on its succession planning and increasing the capability of its team members on this new format.

“This means we have a great pool of talent to draw from as we start to expand the offer into more of our stores and bring more of these stores to the Australian consumer,” Jackson says.

Hear more from Skye Jackson and fellow AACS award winner by catching up on Shop Talk LIVE #30 Australian Convenience Excellence now.