Global Convenience Trends in 2023
Significant transformation is taking place across the fuel and convenience retail ecosystem, from inflation and workforce challenges to changing consumer behavior and the increasing reliance on innovative technology.
Seven global thought leaders from PDI Technologies share their thoughts on navigating for business success and connecting convenience when it comes to consumer engagement, operational efficiency, cybersecurity, and more in the new year.
Bethany Allee, Senior Vice President, Marketing & Education
When it comes to consumer marketing and relationship management, omnichannel experiences will be the deciding factor for delivering long-term convenience customer value. Retailers and brands that can unify customer touchpoints into cohesive strategies-including loyalty-will win. AI-driven approaches will aid in customer relationship management success by increasing the personalization of marketing efforts. True 1:1 marketing now will have a more scalable angle, which hasn’t existed until now.
Vlad Collak, Vice President, Innovation & Web Services
We’re now in a world where ‘the norm’ is cloud solutions that are sold on a SaaS [software as a service] basis and fully accessible by mobile devices. This enables access to insights and workflows from anywhere at any time. Having seen the success of this approach in adjacent industries, convenience retail will increasingly demand the same access for their own operations. Similarly, from the consumer perspective, the mobile ordering and frictionless checkout experience available in the grocery and QSR [quick service restaurant] categories will now be expected in convenience as well.
Luis de Montes, Vice President, Sales, LATAM
Two of the biggest concerns among convenience and fuel retailers throughout Central and South America and the Caribbean region include cyberthreats and customer retention. Having a defined cybersecurity strategy will help you better assess and address risks. When it comes to retaining customers, retailers need to stand out with their engagement offerings like apps and products. The key to success will be understanding the full consumer experience and delivering what their clients want and need in a more cost-effective way.
Dawn Desai, Senior Vice President and General Manager, International
It’s clear that 2023 will require an even higher level of connectivity-connecting with your customers, connecting them with the products they want, and connecting across your extended supply chain. If we’ve learned anything during the pandemic era, the lesson is that connecting convenience involves using data as the thread that ties everything together. Data is at the heart of every decision, but you must be able to collect, access, and refine data more efficiently to gain insights that can impact and help scale your business. That starts at the Point of Sale, or POS, as the central hub of data. It’s the common point of connectivity that provides the data for loyalty, offers, insights, logistics, fuel pricing, and more.
Sam Henry, Director, APAC Operations
Businesses must remain agile in 2023. Leveraging technology can help with cost efficiencies, including implementing new technologies when the upfront costs are manageable. Innovations that enable data analysis and provide insights will be important in helping retailers manage the volume of data available to them. How can they utilise the data to inform decision making for operational success? Leveraging insights will be key.
Jeff Noska, Director, Product Development
With consumers using more apps while in-store to engage with loyalty programs and brand offers, there will be a need for more stable and secure connectivity. Simply put, retailers will need to offer better Internet connectivity and a more consistent online experience across their locations. When it comes to workforce and talent issues, technology can address challenges with both corporate and in-store staff. Enlisting the support of a MSSP [Managed Security Services Provider] with deep industry expertise can help protect your networks and data in a way that’s difficult to achieve on your own. Meanwhile, within the walls of your stores, innovations like AI and machine learning are powering video technology that lets you see when there is a spill or when a shelf needs to be restocked, for example, and can augment staffing to free up employees for other needs.
Sin Hin Wong, General Manager and Vice President Sales, APAC
When we think about Asia Pacific, convenience and fuel retailers are putting the customer experience at the heart of what they do more intentionally than before. Consumers have become more tech-savvy and have higher expectations in terms of cleanliness, merchandise, and quality of service. These trends, fueled by the digital transformation wave and accelerated by the pandemic, have found quite a few businesses lagging in terms of digital adoption and the ability to support consumer expectations. Understanding the full customer journey and focusing on data at the center of your technology stack are key differentiators that can create a competitive advantage for retailers in the near future.
Discover additional 2023 trends commentary from the PDI CEO and COO in a video recording of the “2023 Trends: Navigating the Convenience Industry” webinar, online at pditechnologies.com/trends.
