The future of c-store engagement: how Liquid Barcodes drives foodservice frequency and customer loyalty

Dan Munford caught up with Liquid Barcodes CEO, Mats Danielsen to explore the Future of C-Store Engagement and how Liquid Barcodes are helping convenience retailers increase foodservice purchase frequency and drive customer engagement.

Mats, for our global audience, let’s dive right into Liquid Barcodes: what exactly is your company, and more importantly, what innovative edge makes you stand out in the competitive loyalty landscape?

What truly makes Liquid Barcodes stand out is our track record of bringing new innovations to the industry, such as subscriptions, prepaid mechanics, gamification, and concepts designed to boost visit frequency, ultimately helping retailers get their customers back sooner.

As the leading loyalty platform developed specifically for convenience stores around the world, Liquid Barcodes specializes in convenience retail. We power customer programs for prominent European and US convenience retailers, including brands like Circle K, 7-Eleven, Maxol, FEMSA, Sunshine Gasoline Distributors, and Moeve.

Convenience retailers utilize our technology platform as the engine for their loyalty and subscription programs. Our platform integrates with their existing infrastructure, such as POS systems, car washes, petrol pumps, and charging stations. Additionally, our app platform offers a world-class user experience, with many customers also using Liquid Barcodes for their customer loyalty app.

Our goal is to make loyalty and subscription programs engaging and easy to use. Through our comprehensive cloud-based platform and experienced customer success professionals, we provide flexible and complete loyalty solutions.

These solutions are designed to drive member engagement and retention, facilitate seamless digital experiences, and achieve measurable gross profit growth for convenience retailers. We have been serving the industry for over a decade, working with industry leaders and actively contributing to the industry’s advancement as NACS and Conexxus members.

How does your approach to loyalty fundamentally differ from the more traditional programs we’ve seen in the past within convenience retail?

Traditional loyalty programs have historically been very transactional and heavily focused on fuel. We believe in engaging customers and categories such as food and beverages, which allows for much more engaging content and innovative mechanics.

A core component of our differentiation is gamification.

We believe this approach is essential to capture customers’ attention and ultimately engage them with repeatable actions. Research has shown that incorporating gamification into loyalty programs can lead to significant improvements: a 47% increase in customer engagement, a 22% boost in brand loyalty, and a 15% rise in brand awareness.

What makes us unique comes down to how we leverage our loyalty and subscription platform to maximize member engagement and retention to drive real business results. This is achieved through world-class features including gamification, automation, sequences, and 1:1 rich push notifications and subscriptions, all of which drive value for retailers.

While our approach emphasizes these innovative elements, we also ensure our platform covers all the basic functionalities that a loyalty program should offer. This includes traditional features like points or tier-based schemes, stamp and club cards, gift cards, coupons, and cents off per fuel gallon.

We can activate various machines such as pumps, car washes, EV chargers, coffee machines, or vacuums to facilitate a smooth payment flow for users. Additionally, our platform supports purchases of subscriptions, prepaid items, and the use of stored value wallets via credit cards or ACH debit.

In the U.S., we further support age verification, tobacco offers, and scan data reporting, and can integrate with third-party partners and aggregators for delivery and mobile ordering, like Vroom Delivery.

How does your platform work to empower convenience retailers and bring these strategies to life?

Our loyalty platform allows retailers to create and manage their program foundation and campaigns real-time.

We guide our customers through what we call the Customer Connection Cycle to help them put in place the right tactics and set up the right automation and sequences to recruit, engage and reward their loyalty members and subscribers.

We guide them using proven loyalty mechanisms to ensure customers return sooner, becoming habitual purchasers. The key principle is simplicity, ensuring their program is easy to understand, easy to join, and easy to earn and redeem rewards.

Let’s shift our focus to foodservice. Why is foodservice becoming so important for convenience stores?

Foodservice is becoming increasingly important for convenience stores for several strategic and market-driven reasons. Foodservice delivers significantly higher profit margins compared to traditional c-store categories like fuel, tobacco, or packaged snacks.

With the gradual shift toward EVs and more fuel-efficient cars, c-stores are preparing for a future where fuel is not the primary traffic driver and foodservice offers a new reason for daily visits. As fuel sales decline or become less profitable, foodservice becomes a vital revenue and margin driver.

Offering quality fresh food helps c-stores stand out in a crowded market.

Retailers like Wawa, Sheetz and Casey’s have built strong reputations around their food offerings, creating loyal customer bases that go beyond convenience. Today’s consumers value convenience, speed, and fresh food options, many retailers are replacing traditional quick-service restaurants with c-stores for on-the-go meals, making foodservice a must-have offering.

Also, foodservice enables c-stores to capture multiple dayparts — breakfast, lunch, snacks, and dinner — significantly increasing the customer’s lifetime value and basket size.

Lastly, a strong food offering increases visit frequency. Customers come back not just to fuel up or grab a drink, but to grab a favourite sandwich, pizza, or coffee. This builds habit and loyalty.

Liquid Barcodes has recently launched something called the “Foodservice Frequency Booster.” Can you tell us about this innovation?

Yes, we’re very excited about our Foodservice Frequency Booster.

It’s a program specifically designed to help convenience retailers increase foodservice purchase frequency and drive customer engagement. The program integrates into the retailer’s mobile app and includes three key components, with more to be launched later this year at the NACS Show.

First, there are Week Card Foodservice Category Value Deals that reward individual frequency within a week. Buy a breakfast or lunch combo once and receive a better deal for the next purchase. Buy that combo twice that week and lock in an even better deal for the remainder of the week.

Second, we offer the Prepaid Foodservice Bundle Concept, which leads to increased visit frequency. Customers purchase items in advance and can help evolve that prepaid program into meal or beverage subscriptions. And third, we employ Personalized Mechanics like 1:1 rich push notifications and time-sensitive offers to entice customers to come back for more, sooner.

How does this program integrate with retailers’ existing systems?

The Foodservice Frequency Booster features plug-and-play integration with existing point-of-sale and loyalty systems, allowing for implementation in weeks rather than months. The platform offers retailers complete customization options, real-time analytics, and dedicated support from our customer success team.

We understand that convenience retailers need solutions that can be implemented quickly without disrupting their operations, so we’ve designed it to be as seamless as possible.

Many convenience retailers are exploring subscription models. How do these tie into foodservice strategies?

Subscription programs ensure recurring revenue for retailers and lots of value for their most loyal customers. There are some very interesting tweaks happening as we speak to subscription models in convenience and foodservice.

Retailers are innovating in new ways to secure a recurring revenue stream balanced with giving back value to their most frequent customers. We believe the best subscription programs for foodvenience combines food and beverage into meal deals, breakfast or lunch combos. Done right, a subscription also ensures systemic upselling of the subscriber.

What advice would you give to convenience retailers who are looking to enhance their foodservice offering through loyalty and digital engagement?

Start by recognizing that loyalty is far more than just offering discounts.

It’s about creating engaging experiences that make customers feel special and connected to your brand. Make sure every customer interaction counts, whether through gamification, referrals, surveys, or sharing rewards with friends. It is also about creating seamless experiences, making your customers’ lives easier. That should always be a priority for digital engagement.

I’d recommend exploring prepaid and subscription models. They’re transforming convenience retail by enhancing customer lock-in and driving recurring revenue for retailers. Start with beverage offerings, as that’s a natural fit for subscription programs and can lead to additional foodservice purchases. And finally, make sure the program is easy to understand and use. Simplicity is key to customer adoption.

What do you see as the future of convenience retail loyalty, especially as it relates to foodservice?

The future is definitely in creating seamless, frictionless, and innovative loyalty solutions that drive growth by creating sustainable customer engagement and retention. We’re seeing the convergence of loyalty programs, payments, and subscriptions into unified mobile experiences.

Technologies like artificial intelligence will play an increasingly important role, enabling us to better personalize timing of offers, the way we message with each individual shopper, and the required individual discount level to nudge the shopper to come to the store for a meal, a drink or maybe to try your new foodservice innovation.

We believe AI will play a big role also in next level gamification in loyalty, too. We are working on some exciting new ideas for our Foodservice Frequency Booster, too. Follow us on LinkedIn and be the first to find out!