Reimagining Loyalty: Circle K’s enhanced Extra program sets new European standard

Circle K has launched an enhanced version of its Extra loyalty program and is aiming to offer the best convenience loyalty proposition in Europe.

That’s according to Circle K’s Head of European Loyalty, Ann Kirstine Havsteen.

The new program introduces a unified, visit-based model, which rewards customers for every interaction – fuel, EV charging, convenience shop or car wash. Historically, Circle K operated fragmented frameworks in its markets, which evolved in different directions and more centred around fuel, Havsteen says.

The new Extra proposition is a holistic programme, which is designed to be easy for the customer to understand and more engaging.

“Our strategy was to look for the optimal solution and define the best possible program across the business,” Havsteen reports.

Ease of use was key, she says.

“It’s visit-based so every visit counts. After five visits, customers receive a reward. And, the more they refuel or charge, the higher the discount so it’s a tiered program across fuel and EV charging,” Havsteen explains.

The new program also lets customers choose their own reward, so it is both personalised and engaging.

With 4 million active loyalty customers in Europe, that provides a big opportunity to build stronger engagement with customers moving forward, Havsteen says.

For Circle K’s B2B customers, they will earn a personal reward just like a B2C customer, when they fuel or charge with their Circle K B2B card.

Further, it’s European-wide, which enables members to benefit from local fuel EV discounts or Extra shop offers when they travel abroad. 

Planned roll out and first impressions

Following an initial pilot in Sweden, the enhanced Extra program was launched in Poland in September, followed by the Baltics and Denmark. Norway and Sweden will launch in the new year and Ireland is planned for a future rollout, with the timeline still to be determined.

In Circle K’s four mid-European markets, acquired almost two years ago, groundwork is underway to enable future roll-out.. “It’s a different journey because they don’t have the same history of loyalty programmes,” Havsteen says. “Our teams are working hard on the IT side to create the systems needed to drive loyalty,” she explains , anticipating launches in Germany and Benelux in 2027.

While the framework of the Extra program is standardised, each market has flexibility to adapt the program to local needs,, Havsteen adds.
This is key since markets are different in offer and pricing. And for instance on EV the penetration is quite different across Europe too.

The new concept for  Extra is more than a program upgrade, however. It’s underpinned by a completely new loyalty platform on the technology side, which Havsteen likens to switching from “a very old car to a modern Mercedes”.

“It’s two different worlds and enables different things – in real time and a more personalised journey,” she says.

While it is still early days to draw any substantive conclusions based on the roll out, Circle K has become the first or second most popular app in the App Store in the Baltic markets since launch.

“We are extremely pleased – the Circle K app is the hub for the new Extra concept and – customers can see and choose their rewards so it’s a different digital journey,” Havsteen says. “We are excited to see the activity rate – engagement has more than doubled since the same period last year and downloads have significantly increased.”

Car wash and EV Charging

Car wash and EV charging are both included in the new loyalty programme. While subscription is a different aspect of driving loyalty, Circle K will reward every visit subscribers make  to car wash, just like any other visit and is digitally integrated into the app to offer a more refined customer experience.

“It ramps up the whole digital experience for the customer. The Circle K app will be a hub for the customer to engage and see great offers and rewards and sign up for subscriptions,” Havsteen says.

EV charging is an equally important part of the programme and will become more intrinsic when Extra is rolled out to Norway, for example. “We want to make our customers’ EV journey as easy and convenient as possible. We need to ensure that we can provide a great customer experience for EV charging as well as fuel and shop customers. We have listened to our customers’ feedback and look forward to launching in the Scandinavian market, where catering for the EV customers will be more key than in less penetrated markets such as the Baltics and Poland,” Havsteen says.

Circle K is poised to benefit from providing a good convenience store experience for customers who are charging their EVs, she adds. “On many charging locations you don’t have anywhere to go while charging but with us you can grab a coffee, sit down and have a snack or buy  your lunch and relax while charging- it’s part of the same experience and you get rewarded. That’s attractive to EV customers,” she says.

German potential

Roll out to Germany, one of Circle K’s largest acquired markets is expected for the first half of 2027 and will be run in tandem with other IT projects in mid-European markets, Havsteen reports. “It’s important to sync everything and follow in the right order. There’s huge potential in Germany because they have not had a loyalty programme before but there’s many things happening at the same time – ramping up the IT on the back end and introducing the Circle K brand on the customer side. Most sites still carry the TotalEnergies brand so we will be syncing Extra with the roll out of the Circle K brand in the market.

“The fantastic thing about loyalty is that it goes across our business – you get to engage in EV charging, fuel, food  and merchandise and understand how the business works. The key is to identify solutions on how to grow value towards our members through effective 1-1 communication and building an attractive loyalty concept. Based on sales data and customer insights we can then continuously track whether we are making the right decisions” Havsteen says.

“I have lots of great colleagues who are really good at driving our categories and different lines of business, so within loyalty we try to ensure that all our customers in Extra understand all the great things Circle K has to offer in a way that is relevant for them, tapping into their needs  at the right point in time.”

Future outlook

Circle K strives to create the best convenience loyalty programme in Europe.  Havsteen expects offers will become even more personalised and fit each customer’s needs and travel habits.

The business also plans to continually refine the programme to make it easier to earn rewards, whether you are a B2B or B2C customer; and to keep investing in the programme.

The company will also test and learn. “That’s the great thing about loyalty – it’s all about data. We will do a lot of testing and partner with vendors and engage them into our loyalty programme and see what works and what doesn’t and then keep iterating and improving the programme. We are also sharing and learning from our teams in North America who rolled out a loyalty program a few years ago,” Havsteen says.

The move to electric mobility will be a big opportunity and loyalty driver – tapping customers into the shop and car wash side of the business, she adds.

On a personal level, Havsteen says she appreciates how doing loyalty well is a massive cross functional task.
“The learning I have taken is how much it is about making every part of the business play at the right time – like an orchestra – making everyone synchronised and engaged behind the ambition of wanting to drive loyalty.”