Convenience-store chains Yesway and Nouria Energy are investing in digital platforms to better serve their customers. Yesway is launching a new version of its app with Stuzo, and Nouria has seen benefits from digital additions in-store, like interactive kiosks.
- BW Gas & Convenience Holdings LLC/Yesway, Allsup’s is No. 18 on CSP’s2023 Top 202 ranking of convenience-store chains by store count. Nouria Energy Corp. is No. 48.
Darrin Samaha (pictured above on the left), vice president of marketing at Yesway, and Joe Hamza (pictured above on the right), chief operating officer at Nouria Energy Corp., shared their digital journeys at the 2023 NACS Show in Atlanta.
Yesway, Allsup’s Rewards
Yesway, and Allsup’s, which it acquired in November 2019, each have their own versions of its rewards loyalty program and app. Samaha said the current program has limitations, so the company is working on its next iteration of the program.
When Fort Worth, Texas-based Yesway partnered with Philadelphia-based technology company Stuzo for their new app, they completed a 360 review on the current program, Samaha said. Here are the five changes they decided to make:
- Enrollment: Customers will be able to sign up for Yesway and Allsup’s rewards programs with only their phone numbers.
- Choice: The company is getting rid of physical rewards cards and instead using apps and progressive web apps.
- Real time: Yesway is moving from email as its primary communication channel to customers to SMS, or short message service, commonly known as texting. “This is the future. This is how customers want to engage with us,” Samaha said.
- Relevant: The new program will have more personalization, where offers are tailored to each type of customer.
- Brand love: Yesway is looking at examples outside of the category, like Starbucks and Ulta, to try and mirror programs that customers talk about with reverence and love.
There are about 425 Yesway and Allsup’s stores in Texas, New Mexico, South Dakota, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Wyoming, Oklahoma and Nebraska.
Nouria’s Customer Focus
Worcester, Massachusetts-based Nouria is very early in its journey of a digital transformation, Hamza said. In addition to its loyalty app, it has invested in in-store automation, like self-checkout machines and self-ordering kiosks.
“The introduction of our foodservice kiosks increased our revenue by 10%, and that’s been extremely helpful,” Hamza said.
The kiosks help to showcase Nouria’s menu. Items that may have been slow sellers are now jumping to the top of the list in terms of sales, he said.
Nouria, which has more than 170 c-stores, also offers Friday Freebies, or free promotions to its loyalty members. The company works with its vendor partners to do this.
“We also give away some of our private-label products to ensure that our customers taste our products, and hopefully they come back and buy,” Hamza said.
When Nouria evaluates what new technology it wants to use, it makes sure it makes sense for its employees and customers. New technology should enhance customer convenience, he said.
“This is not a journey so that we install technology that we like, we want to understand and define what the customer value proposition is before we do anything,” Hamza said.