Digital Ranking Profile: RaceTrac (September 2017)
By Jackson Lewis on Sep. 14, 2017ATLANTA --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 RaceTrac Petroleum Inc., which placed at No. 38 with an overall score of 1.36 out of 5 as of Sept. 14, 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.
The ranking covers 93 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 of 0 to 5 for each metric. Each metric is calculated using four more specific metrics. While this article examines the details behind RaceTrac’s ranking, it is meant more as a profile than an attempt to compare it to competitors.
Click through for details on where RaceTrac stands in Stuzo’s C-Store Digital Ranking and information on the brand’s digital capabilities …
Mobile commerce: 1.86
RaceTrac’s overall score for mobile commerce is 1.86. How it breaks down:
App Performance: 3.69
Mobile Payment: 2.0
Loyalty Program: 1.75
Mobile Ordering: 0
RaceTrac’s well-designed app, complete with a mobile payment option for gift-card users, carries its mobile-commerce score.
“RaceTrac’s app includes a loyalty and rewards program that allows customers to collect points; however customers have reported issues redeeming these earned rewards in both the iOS and Android app store,” said Aaron McLean, COO of Stuzo. Still, users have rated the app poorly online. Of the 2,400 reviews in the Google Play app store, 990 users rated the app with one star. “Technical issues reported mainly include difficulties signing up with Facebook or Twitter, inability to redeem points and coupons, and extremely long load times while opening the app,” said McLean.
Website: 2.5
RaceTrac’s overall score for its website is 2.5. How it breaks down:
User Experience/Interface (UX/UI): 2.76
Loyalty Program Promotion: 3.33
Personalization: 0
App Promotion: 3.5
RaceTrac’s website promotes its app and loyalty program, which gives it high marks in the loyalty-program promotion metric. But the website provides little navigation. A small menu listed at the bottom of the screen provides limited options. There is another menu hidden on the left side of the website, but McLean said it is hard to find and use.
Social media: 2.56
RaceTrac’s overall score for its social-media use is 2.56. How it breaks down:
Brand Responsiveness: 3.5
Frequency of Posts: 2.0
Creativity of Content: 2.25
Level of Engagement: 2.5
RaceTrac does not post on social media often, but when it does it is mostly humorous content, including pictures, videos and live tweets, McLean said. Despite the company’s fun content, RaceTrac’s Facebook posts receive only about two to four comments per post, which McLean says is low considering its more than 100,000 followers. He also said the company could promote its products and deals more often on its social-media channels, which could potentially drive traffic.
Connected car and mobile employee activation: 0
RaceTrac 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; 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.
Atlanta-based RaceTrac Petroleum’s corporate tagline is “Making people’s lives simpler and more enjoyable.” The company operates stores under the RaceTrac brand, with most featuring 20 to 24 fueling positions and a more than 4,000-square-foot convenience store. RaceTrac has 430 stores and was ranked No. 20 in CSP’s 2017 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. It helps organizations humanize technology by designing, defining and delivering digital products that drive business outcomes.