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3 Ways To Help Increase Traffic At Your C-Store
Published: January 28, 2025
Explore our tips to help bring more customers to your c-store operation.
Convenience stores are an essential part of our daily lives, offering consumers quick and easy grab-and-go items, service speed, extended hours and convenient one-stop shopping. As QSRs and larger chain c-stores ramp up their offerings, staying competitive is more challenging than ever. Stay competitive with these three easy to implement strategies designed to help drive more traffic and profits.
Tip 1: Appeal to Customers' Love for Exciting New Products
It’s no secret consumers love trying new things. On the hunt for new and different flavor combinations, customers want something novel they can’t get everywhere—and they’re willing to pay more for unique, high-quality protein options that appeal to their adventurous palates.
Larger c-store chains and QSRs have long capitalized on consumers’ interest in global and trending flavors—as well as highlighting new products through LTOs or in-store promotions.
As your partner, Tyson Convenience is constantly innovating to meet your needs, with both your store and your customers in mind—by continually developing products to help you streamline your back of house, manage your costs and stay relevant with consumers. Visit our Latest Product Page to discover our full portfolio of options designed and curated specifically for convenience.
42% of consumers make c-store foodservice purchases at least once a week.1
Tip 2: Lean Into Holidays In A Big Way
From Memorial Day to Thanksgiving and Christmas, holidays mean road travel, and road travel means more opportunities for consumers to satisfy their cravings for grab-and-go products.
Offering deals and promotions during holidays and major travel time periods is a great way to boost traffic at your store, especially as 60% of consumers report having a favorite convenience store and nearly 80% will drive out of their way to visit their preferred store—even if it means passing other options.2
Consider a coffee and breakfast sandwich combo meal during Thanksgiving, or a pizza, breadsticks and fountain drink special during The Big Game in February. Customers will count on your location as a valued destination for special holiday deals—giving them one more reason to pull into your store instead of the QSRs.
Another promotion idea—one that the large c-store chains and QSRs have successfully mastered—is capitalizing on the many “Food Holidays” throughout the year. These food holidays create a shared sense of culinary celebration you can leverage in your store.
Consider celebrating these popular food holidays in your store with daily promotions or bundle offers.
Don’t forget to promote these special deals on your website, social media platforms and in-store signage to generate excitement, increase foot traffic and encourage repeat purchases.
Explore our c-store products to see how they can benefit your store for food holidays and beyond.
59% of consumers consider foods that are easy to eat on-the-go to be one of the most important attributes of convenience store foodservice snacks.1
Tip 3: Leverage the Loyalty Program
C-store customers love their loyalty programs. Not only do they visit at a rate that far exceeds restaurants, they also consistently outspend non-loyalty members by greater amounts than restaurant loyalty members.
And because these customers most likely visit you in the morning, engaging them through a loyalty program gives you a big advantage over QSRs in the morning coffee and breakfast categories.
Loyalty programs help you build relationships with your strongest customers by leveraging the channels they use most.
Employing a digitized program using your company’s mobile app, website, email and text functionality is a strong way to entice customers with exclusive content, rewards and a streamlined shopping experience—and to reach them in the channels they use the most.
If you’ve yet to capitalize on the increased profit potential a loyalty program can bring to your business, it’s never too late to start. It’s a perfect way to build your relationship with your strongest customer base—while presenting your store as a viable alternative to QSRs.
Of the top 100 largest c-store chains, 79% have a loyalty program in place.3
Sources:
1 Technomic, Q1 2024 C-Store Consumer Market Brief
2 CSNews, Summer Travelers Willing to Pay For Preferred Convenience, July 2024
3 C-Store Dive, How to drive traffic by leaning into loyalty, June 2024
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