Dunnhumby has named Buc-ee’s as the top U.S. retailer in the Convenience Retailer Preference Index (RPI), a comprehensive, nationwide brand equity study that examines the approximately $860 billion U.S. convenience market.
Buc-ee’s outperformed the other 40 convenience stores surveyed, scoring 17 points higher than Sheetz, which ranked second on the RPI. Wawa, Kwik Trip and Walmart c-stores round out the top five c-store retailers, with each excelling through distinct strategies focused on quality, affordability, frictionless transactions, visibility and product variety.
The convenience RPI ranks U.S. c-store banners on their ability to deliver customer loyalty and growth beyond fuel. The retailers ranking in the top 13 (first tercile) include a mix of national and regional operators, as well as traditional c-store operators, chains that are extensions of core grocery chains or traditional gas brands, proving there are multiple pathways to success.
“We’re at an inflection point in convenience retail. The stores that are thriving aren’t just keeping pace – they’re reimagining what matters most to their customers,” said Matt O’Grady, dunnhumby’s president of the Americas.
“This report spotlights the successful retailers and provides c-store operators actionable insights to benchmark against the leaders, focus their efforts where they’ll have the greatest impact and build the kind of customer loyalty that translates to long-term growth.”
Key findings from the study:
- Top-tier retailers are growing nearly two to three times faster than bottom-tier retailers, and when the c-store industry contracts, the top-tier still manages positive growth. Five-year compound annual growth rate (CAGR) in foot traffic, based on Placer.ai data, has been 7.2 percent for the top tier and 2.5 percent for the bottom tier. In the past year, the top tier grew foot traffic by 0.8 percent, while the bottom tier contracted by 2.7 percent. Retailers with stronger customer value propositions – indicated by higher RPI rankings – grew up to two-and-a-half times faster over five years than retailers with lower RPI rankings.
- Top-tier retailers have adopted three main strategies to be at the top of the rankings:
- 1) Converting more than half of their customers to consider them as a meal destination;
- 2) Outperforming 90 percent of c-stores in terms of quality of products, food taste and store experience;
- 3) Maintaining clean, well-organized stores as well as providing core c-store needs such as fuel savings, while delivering affordable products.
- Frictionless transactions – easy meal customization, convenient ordering and pickup – is the third most important customer perception pillar. This is particularly vital for c-store shoppers who see these stores as meal destinations. Thirty percent of c-store customers say they usually visit a QSR within 30 minutes of leaving a c-store, and the QSR channel has been growing foot traffic for the past three years while the c-store channel has been flat. C-stores that are meal destinations today have superior meal item variety to QSRs, a strength they can continue to lean into.
- Top tier c-store retailers have superior personalization engines compared to bottom tier retailers. They are driving greater app adoption (33 percent of their customers use their app versus 19 percent for bottom-tier), greater loyalty program adoptions (51 percent versus 30 percent): two critical sources of data for delivering a personalized and, therefore, frictionless experience.
- A tale of two divergent paths emerges between the top-tier and bottom-tier. The top tier is full of c-store chains that are increasingly blurring the lines between traditional c-store offerings, QSR offerings and grocery offerings. In contrast, the bottom tier has been slower to change their established practices. The cost to retailers who do this is clear in this study.
The convenience RPI score is a measure of customer perception of the c-store offering, giving more weight to those dimensions that have a stronger association with sustainable retailer results. The study includes the largest 41 c-store retailers in the industry. The financial data used in the dunnhumby model comes from Flywheel, and the customer perception data is sourced from a survey of 10,500 convenience store shoppers in the U.S. The six drivers of the customer value proposition are in order: 1) Quality, 2) Affordability, 3) Frictionless Transactions, 4) Visibility, 5) Product Variety and 6) Traditional Convenience/Speed.
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