While gas prices are expected to rise on news of Saudi Arabia and OPEC cartel members voluntarily pulling back petroleum production, 7-Eleven has alerted app users that a four-day fuel-price freeze is in effect.
The feature locks in a gas price for four days, allowing consumers more flexibility in deciding when to refuel their vehicles.
The feature works this way: In the fuel section of the 7-Eleven app, users search for the lowest price on fuel at a nearby 7-Eleven location and lock in the price. When they fill their vehicles at the location within four days and pay with their phones at the pump, the app uses the locked-in price.
The feature helps app users save, especially in periods of large price fluctuations. But it also helps the retailer, said Jeffry Harrison, co-founder of Rovertown, a retail-tech company specializing in loyalty programs.
Harrison likes the idea of a fuel-price freeze for app users but said a four-day price lock might be excessive.
Rovertown works with convenience-store chain United Dairy Farmers Inc. (UDF), which allows app users to lock in a fuel price until midnight, to allow people to refuel when it’s most convenient, Harrison said.
A fuel-price lock is “used as a tool to get people to use the app or join the loyalty program. We want the app to be the tool that gives them the notice,” Harrison said Tuesday. Information about rising prices is valuable to app users, and it’s likely to encourage more app use, he said.
Offering a fuel-price lock might persuade more app users to allow push notifications, because many don’t, Harrison said. “I don’t know about you, but I usually don’t say ‘Allow,’ because I don’t want to get spammed with ‘Happy Cookie Day,’” he said.
But saving money on fuel, especially when other consumers aren’t, is a valuable reward for using the retailer’s app. “It’s a win-win for the consumer and the retailer, because it creates value with their digital strategy,” he said.
Messages about rising fuel prices are sent according to the users’ location, Harrison said. “It’s very rare all fuel prices are going to go up at the same time,” he said.
Besides notifying users when gas prices are about to rise, Cincinnati-based UDF’s new loyalty program offers registered members 6 cents off per gallon, plus the ability to stack rewards with special offers.
7-Eleven’s 7Rewards program offers consumers 11 cents off the per-gallon gas price for their first seven refuels and then everyday savings of 5 cents off per gallon of gasoline. Both programs were recognized in Newsweek’s 2023 list of America’s Best Loyalty Programs.
While not all of 7-Eleven’s 13,000 U.S. convenience-store locations offer fuel, the company partners with the major fuel brand, including Sunoco, Chevron and ExxonMobil, to offer fuels at more than 7,500 locations, according to information on the company’s website.
7-Eleven, based in Irving, Texas, didn’t respond to CSP Daily News’ request for comment by posting time.
- 7-Eleven is No. 1 on CSP’s 2023 Top 40 update to the 2022 Top 202 ranking of U.S. convenience-store chains by store count.
News of Saudi Arabia’s plans to cut more than a million barrels of output daily starting in May is expected to push up gas prices. On Monday, crude prices rose 6.3% to $84.93 per barrel on news OPEC cartel members would join Saudi Arabia in the voluntary production reduction, The Wall Street Journal said Tuesday.
The latest reduction will bring to 3% the amount of oil pulled from the market over seven months, the Journal reported. The latest news follows an October 2022 reduction of 2 million barrels per day by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and Russia.