How Omnichannel Sales and Frictionless Payment Help Convenience Stores?

By: Katie William, Retail CIO Outlook | Thursday, June 17, 2021

In today’s modern digital world, the prevalence of eCommerce has cemented convenience as a king among other consumers.

Fremont, CA: It would make sense if convenience stores that are the epitome of convenience were excelling in today’s economy, but that is not the way things have happened. The in-store sales among convenience stores have only increased by 1.7 percent in 2018, indicating at the fall in both new customers and automobile usage. The high emphasis on convenience has pushed the stores throughout the world to revamp everything starting from food service and retail to products on the forecourt in an effort to not only stay relevant in an extremely competitive market but also change the complete store brands, like Wawa, are shifting away from decades of strategy which concentrates on the cheap gas and made-to-order sandwiches to focusing on clean energy, healthy food options, and new ways to buy to stay at par with what the customers want.

However, the technological innovation taking place throughout the convenience store industry has exponentially increased the burden of product management, compliance, and shipping on businesses placing their stake in the omnichannel landscape.

Maintaining Inventory

Most of the conveniences stores are, at present, operating with some form of comprehensive business technology, in the way of POS software. As convenience stores adopt new channels, they will have to integrate the new systems in their existing work frame to not only support new channels but also to make sure that they can efficiently manage product and customer data throughout the systems.

Calculating Compliance throughout Systems

Compliance management is a task that many convenience stores are already struggling with, which has resulted in making them a primary target for tax audits. Because food products like tobacco, lottery tickets, and fuel that are sold in the convenience stores have taxing definitions which can vary widely by state or locality, it can be a difficult task for the stores to charge the right tax on many products. Hence, when additional channels are incorporated into a store’s selling strategy, the convenience stores instantly exacerbate the complexity that is attached to their compliance obligations. As a byproduct of the complexity that comes along with an omnichannel approach, it will be indispensable that the stores have the systems in place that can precisely calculate the tax for products based on the channel via which they are being sold.