With retail media networks becoming more common, retail media is set to exceed $100 billion by 2027 and convenience stores have a right to win in retail media, Art Sebastian, said in an education session at the NACS Show in Las Vegas.
Sebastian, a convenience-store technology expert and industry veteran who is now CEO of NexChapter Inc., a growth-advisory firm, told a room full of c-store retailers that “they have the scale.”
“A retail media network is when retailers set up an advertising platform that enables brand advertisers to leverage the retailer’s first-party data to run ads on onsite, offsite and in-store ad inventory,” Sebastain said.
The education session Harnessing the Power of Retail Media in the Convenience Store Industry included actionable insights from panelists Fidaa Mohrez, senior director of operational systems at Orange, California-based H&S Energy Group, and Abigail Cerra, loyalty marketing manager at Chestnut Market, New Paltz, New York.
H&S Energy Group is No. 50 on CSP’s 2024 Top 202 ranking of U.S. convenience-store chains by total number of company-owned stores. Chestnut Market is No. 93.
Sebastian said that first-party data is essential, which starts with loyalty data.
For many c-store retailers new to their digital journey, data from a loyalty program can be the first step when it comes to retail media, said Cerra.
“With a loyalty program you are collecting data on your customers and you’re able to engage with them and it is a great foundation for retail media network,” she said.
When it comes to building retail media, loyalty data is an essential building block, said Mohrez.
“Data is the backbone of any loyalty system,” he said. “Loyalty is an opportunity which allows you to build a long-term relationship with your customers, he said. “
As for the timeline of setting up a retail media network, Mohrez said it does not happen overnight.
“It is a long-term process,” he said. “It takes a lot of research, analysis and studies. The technology itself is not easy to choose, you can’t just go somewhere and buy it and sell in your stores.”
Mohrez said the timeline is at least from one to three years to seeing something in stores.
When it comes to launching a retail media network, Cerra said its important for retailers to understand where they want to end up at.
“You have to know what you want your entire program to be to set it up correctly,” she said.
As a retailer looking to launch a retail media network, Cerra said having long term plans laid out in advance will help.
Retailers having their three, five or even ten-year plans laid out in advance will help them and will end up making the building and launching so much smoother, she said.
“It will also give you insight into which of those pieces will be most impactful,” she said.
CSP has announced the launch of Retail Media Network Forum, an event focused on exploring the potential of retail media networks (RMNs) in the convenience-store sector. The forum will be held at the Renaissance Schaumburg, in Schaumburg, Illinois, Oct. 27-28, just ahead ofCSP’s C-StoreTEC.
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