SAVANNAH, Ga. -- Greg Parker's employees just got smarter--with help from a couple of peripherals. Where other convenience store cashiers may or may not remember the marketing calendar and what item to push, Parker's employees consistently upsell promotions and affinity products that are based on sales history, market-basket analysis and even time of day. [Watch the related CSPTV video in this issue of CSP Daily News.]
Forever intent on increasing sales and margin, Parker's focus these days is on customer service. He is testing a hardware-software solution [image-nocss] at the point-of-sale (POS) that simultaneously prompts cashiers to suggest the proper affinity or marketing-calendar promotion, while the customers see a visual of that same promotion on a digital screen.
"Our No. 1 expense is people," the president of Parker Cos., a 21-store chain out of Savannah, Ga., told CSP Daily News. "We'd better be sure to pay a lot of attention to sales per labor dollar and sales per labor hour."
For a look at how Parker is driving profits in his stores, watch for the November issue of CSP magazine.
With profitability in mind, Parker began tests with a provider, LIFT Retail Marketing Technology Inc., Atlanta, that he met in 2009 during the NACS convention. The company had a management history in c-stores, with its founders honing in on the gap between the promotional message and the cashier communicating that message to a customer.
"We saw an opportunity...to give a message to customers based on what they're actively buying," said Doug Kruep, CEO and co-founder. "So we're [reaching out] to that one customer."
The software ties into the store POS. Then drawing from the marketing calendar, sales information and market-basket analysis, it produces two visuals, one for the cashier and one for the customer.
On a screen facing the cashier, the system gives a simple, easy-to-say message that informs the customer about a promotion. At the same time, the customer sees an image of the promotion on a display screen facing him or her. If the customer agrees to the additional sale, the cashier rings it up and instructs the customer to grab the product on the way out. Kruep said the process allows the extra sale to occur without creating any holdup in the check-out line.
The software program builds upon its analysis over time, said Wells Burke, president and co-founder of LIFT, "learning" affinity by store, by day-part and by day of the week. "If [a customer] comes in the morning and you scan a coffee, it might suggest breakfast or a Danish, or in the afternoon, water. At night, buying patterns move to pure caffeine, and so energy shots show up as a top affinity product."
In addition to affinity products and the chain's marketing calendar, margins are also a factor. Though declining to name a percent, Parker said his storesalready profitable against national numbersexperienced sales increases.
The testing done at Parker's was "rigorous," involving control and test sites. Having run a successful pilot, Kruep said the company has received confirmation that Parker intends to roll the LIFT technology out to all his locations. "Greg is an industry advocate," he said. "We had to prove [our product] before he supported it."
Parkers Cos. is a network of more than 21 Parker's Convenience Stores and Parker's Market Urban Gourmet stores in six counties throughout Georgia and South Carolina. The company also includes an oil jobbership, which distributes branded fuels to dealers throughout the Southeast. Other company businesses include Spin City laundromats and Urban Attic self-storage facilities.
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