OAKBROOK TERRACE, Ill. -- As 7-Eleven Inc.’s executive vice president and chief merchandising officer, Jesus Delgado-Jenkins talked to CSP in preparation for this week’s Convenience Retailing University (CRU) conference in Dallas, the theme of simplicity arose.
He was talking about how the Dallas-based convenience-store chain expanded its loyalty program from one specific drink to all drinks. Across coffee and fountain, customers who buy six, get the seventh for free. This is a case of a simple idea scaling up.
In recent studies on the potential for mobile payment, researchers say more people would use the option if the steps involved were simpler.
Then there’s San Francisco-based Uber, which has become the poster child for making payment for ride-sharing simple.
Raising the “Keep It Simple, Stupid” or KISS flag would seem like the most important step for technology implementation moving forward—or at least that’s how it seems.
If we’re talking about the end result being simplicity, the complexity behind the scenes may be where the challenge lies. Ankeny, Iowa-based convenience-store chain Casey’s General Stores Inc. recently partnered with Gaithersburg, Md.-based GasBuddy and its OpenStore platform to roll out the Midwest chain’s new app that provides gas prices, promotional deals and pizza ordering.
“Our mission is to always provide our customers with the most convenience and ease, so we are thrilled to offer a mobile app that will provide so much additional value,” said Casey’s chairman and CEO Robert J. Myers. “We look forward to working closely with OpenStore and creating a more robust digital marketing strategy.”
Let’s analyze this for a second. On the front end, consumers get “convenience,” “ease” and “value.” On the back end, OpenStore is providing “a more robust, digital marketing strategy.”
So suffice to say that sometimes what’s simple comes out of something complex.
Sometimes, simple is just that, simple. Sometimes, the end result is the appearance of simplicity. The trick is knowing which is which.
Angel Abcede, who writes the Mobile 2 Go blog, has covered technology in the convenience-store industry for more than two decades. Share your thoughts with Angel at aabcede@winsightmedia.com.
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