Digital Ranking Profile: Chevron (August 2017)

SAN RAMON, Calif. --CSP Daily News continues its series examining the ranking of the digital capabilities of the convenience-store industry’s largest and most influential chains.

This month’s featured profile is Chevron Corp., currently placed at No. 32 with an overall score of 1.54 out of five as of Aug. 7, 2017. The ranking platform is managed by Stuzo, a digital-product-innovation company focused on the convenience-store and fuel-retail industry with headquarters in Philadelphia and offices in New York and Europe.

The ranking covers 92 c-store chains, measuring each chain’s digital presence, including mobile commerce, mobile employee activation, connected car, website and social media. Each company is ranked on a points-based system with a score between 0 and 5 for each metric. Each metric is calculated using four more specific metrics. While this article examines the details behind Chevron’s ranking, it is meant more as a profile than an attempt to compare it to competitors.

Click through for details on where Chevron stands in Stuzo’s C-Store Digital Ranking and information on the brand’s digital capabilities …

Chevron’s overall score for mobile commerce is 1.41. How it breaks down:

App Performance: 2.62
Mobile Payment: 0
Loyalty Program: 0
User Experience/Interface (UX/UI): 3

The company’s mobile-commerce score is carried by its mobile app’s simple, user-friendly interface and app performance.

Chevron has a rewards program, aFANity, that can be accessed through its mobile app, but at the post date of this article, a message on the rewards login page reads, “New Member Registration is Currently Closed.” It appears that existing members can login, but without the ability to add new members through the app, it will be difficult for the program’s user base to grow.

“Chevron, as one of the largest fuel retailers in the United States, has a huge opportunity to add mobile payments, loyalty and gas rewards to the app, which would increase customer visit frequency and average transaction value per visit at the pump and further differentiate their brand,” said Aaron McLean, COO of Stuzo.

Chevron’s overall score for its website is 2.83. How it breaks down:

User Experience/Interface (UX/UI): 1.33
Loyalty Program Promotion: 3
Personalization: 3.5
App Promotion: 3.5

Stuzo applauded Chevron’s retail site for its “abundance of information about the company's locations, products and reward programs,” but notes that the website is difficult to find online.

When users type “Chevron” into Google, the corporate website appears at the top and the retail site appears closer to the bottom of the page, which Stuzo said could confuse online visitors.

Chevron also received good ratings for the heavy promotion of its mobile app on its website. Users can also sign up for all of Chevron’s credit cards and manage their rewards accounts from the site.

Chevron’s overall score for its social-media use is 3.44. How it breaks down:

• Brand Responsiveness: 3
• Frequency of Posts: 5
• Creativity of Content: 2.25
• Level of Engagement: 3.5

Stuzo’s ranking system marked Chevron down for not promoting its mobile app on social media, but gave its social-media strategy high marks overall for the company’s frequency of posts.

Chevron posts often about its work in education, fuel and energy efficiency, and technological innovation. “The Fuel Your School Instagram particularly promotes Chevron’s work in education, posting images of children in the classrooms and Fuel Your School projects,” Stuzo’s rankings site reads.

The oil company also engages with users on Twitter by answering questions and replying to customer complaints.

Chevron did not score in either the connected-car or employee-activation metrics, but this is not unusual for any c-store chain on Stuzo’s list. These metrics are focused on the future, as Stuzo predicts chains will put more resources into such initiatives as the industry evolves and becomes more tech-focused.

The mobile-employee-activation metric measures how chains increase employee productivity and work satisfaction through mobile-based programs. Connected car measures the chain’s use of a car’s "infotainment" system on the dashboard, which will become more common as the capabilities of car platforms expand further.

Chevron Corp. is an American multinational corporation with headquarters in San Ramon, Calif.; it operates in more than 180 countries. As one of the world’s largest oil companies, Chevron is engaged in all aspects of oil, natural gas and geothermal energy industries. Chevron was founded in 1879 and now earns approximately $129.8 billion in sales. It ranked No. 9 in CSP’s2017 Top 202 list of the largest c-store chains in the United States.

Stuzo is a digital-product-innovation company focused on the convenience-store and fuel-retail industry with headquarters in Philadelphia and offices in New York City and Europe. Stuzo helps organizations humanize technology by designing, defining and delivering digital products that drive business outcomes.