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Retailers need to know the importance of building customer loyalty for their business. Even convenience store owners, grocers, pharmacies, and other specialty retailers experience the benefits loyal customers bring. Returning customers spend 67% more than new customers, according to business.com.Winning these customers can also increase awareness for your store, ultimately generating more foot traffic. Repeat customers are likely to recommended your business to a friend or write a review,...
By Morgan Tatum
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Top 6 Apps and Software to Help Build Your C-Store Business
In the past year, numerous apps and different types of software have been developed to help owners take their business to a new level of efficiency. As a hard working c-store owner, you need every piece of technology to save time, money, and keep your business running smoothly. Take a look at our top picks and consider implementing them into your store to help you run a productive and successful business.
This app allows users to find specific storage timelines for the refrigerator, freezer, and pantry. As a c-store owner, you can enter in new shipments of food, and it will alert you when it is time to take that product off the shelf. This can save you time and make sure you are never offering expired products to your customers.
Upside is an app that reaches out to different c-stores that sell fuel and negotiates fuel pricing. They will post the prices on their mobile app drawing in buyers to your store. Owners will get ahead of the competition because it only offers its services to one gas station in each geographic cluster, “making it harder for competitors to know what the true price of gas is at the station”. This app even offers exclusive discounts to users throughout the year, reducing the possibility of a price war occurring.
This tool, available exclusively for McLane's Premium Order Management Suite and Grocery Mobile platform Android users, can save owners who are already McLane customers the time and hassle of having to print shelving labels or waiting for vendors to supply labels. With this app, users can have access to a library of more than 10,000 product images and they can scan items and view a picture of what is inside of the box once it is delivered without having to open it. C-store owners can even see exactly where a pictured item belongs on the shelf by referencing the store’s planogram directly from the app. Apps like these are allowing c-stores the ability to manage their supply chain right from their phones.
The Mintel app can predict food and drink trends allowing owners to be ahead of the market. This app outlines key influences that are expected to impact the industry, with six key trends already predicted for 2017. Just a few trends include products that help customers calm down before bedtime and a variety of chocolate indulgences. This app will save you hours of trend researching that you can spend on growing your store instead of stocking it.
These software programs take the work out of owning a c-store. Not only do they help ensure that you only have profitable products on your shelves, but some programs now also allow retailers to print their own shelf tags when price changes occur rapidly or margins fluctuate. Although this kind of software can cost up to $8,000 to install, many owners are claiming that the technology pays for itself within the first year.
Cashmaster is new cash-management software that gives c-store owners real-time visibility of their cash, making financial reporting easier and more accurate. This new and innovative system provides owners a simple way to record all data from cash transactions accurately and efficiently in a matter of seconds. This removes any human error that may occur when dealing with cash in your c-store. By allowing users to automatically output till counts the system can instantly capture important cash data in an easy-to-read excel format.
Owning an efficient c-store does not have to be as time-consuming or stressful as it has in the past. Take advantage of the amazing technology that is available to you right at your fingertips saving you time, money, and allowing you to focus on growing your business for a successful future.
