Liquid Barcodes

Resources

Flagship Brand Update: 7-Eleven

Paula Thomas, Chief Content Officer, Liquid Barcodes

08/09/2020

It seems incredible to me that its now two years since I first began writing case studies about how the world’s greatest convenience stores drive customer loyalty, with 7-Eleven the brand I’ve actually written about the most, mainly because of the incredible ideas that it continues to deliver in dramatically different global markets, but most especially the great work its doing for customers in its home market, the USA.

In May 2018, I wrote about 7-Eleven’s two key transformation platforms in the US, firstly “Re-defining Convenience” when I explored the 7Now app which was focused on home delivery, mobile orders, pre-payment and skip-the-line features, and equally importantly, an article called “Winning with Points” which showcased the transformation of the 7-Eleven loyalty program 7Rewards from a simple stamp card in 2015, through to a comprehensive points-based loyalty strategy. So two years on, I’m excited to update you how this flagship brand’s digital and loyalty strategies have performed and progressed. Let’s begin!

Safety First

When the 7Now app was first launched in December 2017 with just ten trial stores, its key purpose was to ensure speed and simplicity for users. Back then “time was the most precious commodity” to win customers. But as we all know, life is very different now. Last week, 7-Eleven “officially expanded” the 7Now Delivery app with a clear focus on getting back to basics with consumer health concerns taking centre stage. The upgrade was described as “meeting customer’s needs to be in and out of stores quickly with minimal touchpoints and increased physical distancing”, so the app now offers the ability to pre-order, pre-pay, track the entire order through the “picked, packed and ready for pickup” stages, then simply head to the store to pick up their order.

Even more exciting for customers is that the “delivery” option now includes the ability to order from over 3,000 items, from essential household supplies, to treats such as alcohol, candy, Slurpee® and Big Gulp® drinks, as as well as pizza and sandwiches, delivered in “about” 30 minutes. Speed and simplicity, 2020 style.

Impressively, both the pick up and delivery experiences will “soon” be available to 60 million households in over 1,300 cities across nearly 2,000 stores, and with $7 off their first order until March 2021, 7Now looks like it could well prove to be the single best solution imaginable for current market conditions.

Mobile

7Now is the multi-channel platform for customer orders in 7Eleven USA

7Rewards Reaches New Heights

Already the largest convenience store chain in the world, it’s amazing to note that the brand has continued its extraordinary growth since our articles in 2018. Store numbers at that stage boasted over 66,000 and yet these have grown almost a further 8% to over 71,100!

7Rewards was also celebrating 33% growth of its loyalty programme base from 9 million in 2015 to over 12 million in 2018, but incredibly it has now soared another 175% to an incredible 33 million members, so its strategy to combine points with stamps, as well as the addition of a wallet and skip the line functionality are all driving superb marketing momentum.

With so many enhancements rolling out, we’ve chosen to focus on our two favourites which illustrate what direction the programme is following strategically and which I believe are the most important.

New Feature – Fuel Loyalty

The biggest news is the addition of fuel loyalty as a new category within 7Rewards. Like other prominent fuel retail brands such as RaceTrac, leading fuel retailers are each focused on positioning themselves as the best value brand in this ultra-competitive category. For now, the 7Rewards fuel loyalty option is only available in selected stores in Florida, Texas and Virginia, with the following proposition for 7Rewards members:

  1. A discount of 11 cents per gallon on the first seven fill-ups (each limited to 20 gallons per transaction, perhaps the richest in the marketplace right now.
  2. A 3 cent per gallon discount on all other fuel purchases.

Again, importantly, the per-gallon discount will automatically show on the pump display for “instant gratification” and to build trust with customers.  

Our second favourite feature within this app upgrade is the introduction of Siri as a voice assistant to support contactless payments. I’ve previously predicted this in two articles about using audio as an effective way to build loyalty either through voice assistants like Alexa, or on the forecourts of the future. Clearly Covid-19 brings a whole new compelling use case for consumers and it’s exciting to see that 7-Eleven is educating customers how to create a Siri shortcut to pay for their fuel, alongside the existing mobile payment options available. I for one, am keen to try “Siri, fuel now” as a way to quickly and safely re-fuel.

While this operational enhancement may have already been in development pre-Covid, I believe its one of those key features that will become essential for more and more retailers as they try to win back customers’ confidence, and it’s once again exciting to note that 7-Eleven is “the first retailer to offer this convenient and frictionless Siri functionality…. to use voice commands to pay for gas.”

Mobile appThe 7-Eleven App scores an impressive 4.8 out of 5 with 167,000 reviews.

7-Eleven Worldwide

In other global news, we’ve previously written about 7-Eleven internationally including an interview with Victor Paterno in 7-Eleven in the Philippines, their award-winning team in Denmark as well as some great innovation from 7-Eleven Australia on their pricing strategy. Most recently, we also saw confirmation of a new country of operation – it’s 19th worldwide – Cambodia, as well as some exciting ideas from the team in Korea, crediting Covid for accelerating the launch of their latest innovations. A great post on LinkedIn mentions palm recognition technology as well as data from floor sensors that monitor in-store traffic patterns to understand dwell time and key areas of interest in their new staff-less store.

With so many innovative ideas, I have no doubt that 7-Eleven will continue to be one of our favourite flagship brands to keep you updated on for years to come.

7 eleven

About Us:

Liquid Barcodes is a leading global loyalty and digital marketing technology company specialising in the convenience store and foodservice industries. Our proprietary cloud-based technology platform allow retailers to create and manage their digital marketing campaigns with a proprietary process we call the “customer connection cycle’ to engage, promote and reward customers activities in real-time across digital and media channels.

How we do it:

We have developed the most advanced loyalty and digital marketing technology platform specifically for convenience store and foodservice retailers globally.

Retailers use our self-service dashboard to create and manage loyalty driven marketing campaigns that increase purchases with their existing customers, as well as effectively target and acquire new customers through partners or paid media channels.

One core component of live loyalty is gamification. We have gamified branding, loyalty and promotions. We believe this approach is essential in order to get customers’ attention and ultimately truly engage them with repeatable actions thereby winning their loyalty.

Check out some of our exciting/proven results here:

www.LiquidBarcodes.com

About Me:

Paula Thomas

Chief Content Officer, Liquid Barcodes and Independent Loyalty Consultant

With over twenty-five years marketing experience, I specialise in loyalty marketing consulting, managing consumer loyalty propositions, strategy and operations. In addition to working with Liquid Barcodes, my clients have included Telefonica O2 Priority, Three Mobile, Electric Ireland, Allied Irish Bank and The Entertainer Group (UAE), as well as Avios – the global points currency for some of the world’s top airlines. I am also a former judge for the Loyalty Magazine Awards and host of the “Let’s Talk Loyalty” podcast.

—————————————————————————————–


Blog post

Circle K Norway Wins NACS Convenience Retail Technology Award 

Circle K Norway wins the prestigious NACS award for its innovative car wash subscription program powered by Liquid Barcodes. NACS awarded Circle K Norway’s leaders with the NACS Convenience Retail Technology Award at this week’s NACS Convenience Summit Europe recognizing the industry’s first global car wash subscription program. Circle K’s pioneering car wash subscription program, […]

Blog post

Maxol Wins Customers and Awards With Loyalty App

Irish retailer Maxol celebrates a year of success with their award-winning loyalty app. Maxol’s loyalty app has been rewarded for excellence with the prestigious “2023 Loyalty Launch of the Year ” award at this year’s Irish Loyalty & CX Awards. The Irish Loyalty & CX Awards 2023 recognise excellence, innovation, and achievement in loyalty and […]

Blog post

Record-High Sales Coupled With Record-High Credit Card Swipe Fees Perplex Convenience Industry

NACS releases 2022 data for the convenience industry and retailers report record-high sales, fuel prices, and credit card swipe fees. In a year of record-high gas prices, retailers recorded record-high sales and credit card swipe fees, according to the 2022 NACS State of the Industry data that was recently released. The $906.1 billion dollar U.S. […]

Blog post

Sunshine Gasoline Leads Industry in Technology Adoption

Florida retailer Sunshine Gasoline leads the U.S. convenience industry with app solutions for customer convenience and loyalty.   Sunshine Gasoline Distributors, based in southern Florida and established in 1987, supplies fuel to 536 gas stations and operates nearly 400 of those sites, earning the twentieth place on CSP’s Top 202 Convenience Store Chains in 2022. […]

Blog post

Everyone Wins With App Games

Games reward customers for visiting an app and encourage them to visit the store. Customers love to feel appreciated, they love a good deal and they especially love winning.  Customers are excited when they get a good discount or coupon. And, they truly feel like winners after playing and winning a game. It is easy […]

Blog post

Liquid Barcodes Connects With Convenience Industry Leaders in Texas

The Liquid Barcodes team networks and learns at 2023 NAG Conference in Austin, Texas. Last week, Liquid Barcodes attended and exhibited at the US convenience industry conference held by the National Advisory Group (NAG). Among those present from the Liquid Barcodes team were Saurabh Swarup, General Manager of North America and Jose Santiago, Head of […]

Blog post

5 Cs of Summer: Cold Coffee, Clean Cars & Convenience

Subscription programs are a great way to secure long-term customer loyalty and revenue. Whether you are providing a subscription for beverages or car washes, securing recurring monthly revenue is imperative to stay competitive.   Summer is around the corner and retail marketers are crafting sunny campaigns to increase customer traffic to the store. Help those […]

Blog post

Circle K Makes a Splash With Car Wash Subscription Program in Europe

Circle K has extended its highly successful car wash subscription program to Norway after successful implementations in the United States, Canada, Denmark, Sweden and Estonia. Circle K’s vast global network of car washes has digitally transformed operations with its revolutionary car wash subscription program. First launched in Denmark and the U.S. in 2020, the program […]

Blog post

Newly Redesigned Brezelkönig App Accepts Payments and Rewards Loyalty

Swiss foodservice chain Brezelkönig releases app update which offers customers the convenience of earning rewards and paying for products with the app in stores.  The recently-updated Brezelkönig app allows pretzel-loving customers to enjoy recognition and rewards for their loyalty. Additionally, the Brezelkönig app accepts payments to make the customer experience even more convenient.  Brezelkönig is […]

Blog post

What Is C-StorePay?

Liquid Barcodes’ proprietary C-StorePay makes paying for fuel, in-store merchandise, and subscription programs convenient for customers, reduces credit card fees for retailers, and integrates easily into existing loyalty programs Announced in October 2022, the revolutionary Liquid Barcodes C-StorePay product rose to the top of retailers’ 2022 wish lists at the NACS Show, even achieving a […]

Blog post

Polish Retail Leader Żabka Launches Coffee Subscription Program

Polish retail giant, Żabka introduces a monthly coffee subscription program across its vast store network. With its new coffee subscription program, Żabka Polska will certainly dominate the beverage category in Poland’s unique convenience market. In July 2022, Dr. Adam Manikowski, Managing Director of Żabka Polska, was featured on the popular Global Convenience Store Focus video […]

Blog post

Loyalty Apps Engage Customers

98% of loyalty app users love using a loyalty app and want more features from it. In September 2022, NACS published a report examining customer engagement with convenience loyalty programs. Unsurprisingly, customers feel most engaged, appreciated and valued by the stores to which they belong in a loyalty or membership program – nearly ¾ of […]

Blog post

Save Thousands in Credit Card Fees With ACH

Visa and Mastercard announced an increase in interchange fees earlier in the year and retailers are taking action and sending a message by migrating their customers to new solutions, including mobile app-based ACH payments, and in the process increasing profits by not only reducing credit card fees but also boosting loyalty via innovative app-based incentive […]

Blog post

Maxol Launches First-of-Its-Kind Loyalty App

Maxol, Ireland’s largest family-owned forecourt and convenience retailer, announced it has launched a new customer loyalty app with never-before-seen features in the Irish market. After more than a century serving Irish customers, Maxol’s 240+ stores and service stations are located throughout Ireland and have enjoyed global recognition for their best-in-class operations, store design and offers. […]

Blog post

Delivering Personalized Content With Machine Learning and Image Recognition

Build personalized customer connections, improve efficiency, and make intelligent, data-driven decisions using machine learning and image recognition.   It’s 7:15 in the morning and a customer – Amy – is on her way to work. She is on the hunt for coffee and breakfast and stops at a convenience store. She opens her store app […]

Blog post

Circle K’s Use of Beacon Technology to Activate Car Wash Subscription Program

Beacon Technology and Car Wash Subscription Programs Beacon technology used in tandem with a customer-facing car wash subscription program revolutionizes the customer experience by providing a quick, convenient experience. Innovation is the key to continued growth and ensuring a frictionless customer experience should be top of mind for any retailer. Circle K’s vast global network […]

Liquid Barcodes

Put a rocket under your loyalty program

With our loyalty platform, we help design and operate world-class, tailor-made subscription and reward programs that make sure your customers always come back.

Book a Demo →

We are trusted by global brands.

Convenience retailers all over the world have engaged and rewarded consumers with our tailor-made loyalty programs.

To our case studies →

Liquid Barcodes
Liquid Barcodes
Liquid Barcodes
Liquid Barcodes

Convenience retailers all over the world have engaged and rewarded consumers with our tailor-made loyalty programs.

To our case studies →

Liquid Barcodes
Liquid Barcodes
Liquid Barcodes
Liquid Barcodes