Introduction
In the fast-paced world of fuel and convenience retail, staying ahead of the competition requires more than just competitive pricing — it demands a robust, user-friendly loyalty program that keeps customers coming back.
For Major Oil retailers, implementing a successful program often requires multiple vendors and creates endless technical and logistical challenges.
At PAR Retail, we understand the unique challenges faced by major oil retailers, and we’ve developed purpose-built solutions to meet these demands head-on.
In this post, we’ll dive into large-scale migration, versatile app development, frictionless enrollment processes, mobile payments, effective in-store discount systems, and tobacco loyalty.
Migration at Scale
PAR Retail has demonstrated experience supporting our Major Oil partners through their Major Program Migrations. It’s critical to find a partner that understands the importance of minimal customer disruption, clean data transfer, and complex retail operational dependencies.
PAR Retail has consistently delivered on time and above expectations for our Major Oil customers. While not required, it’s beneficial to find a partner who can deliver both the front and back end of your program experience to ensure as you move toward your future business objectives, you have a cohesive customer experience that ties back efficiently to your vendor’s tech functionality, as well as a direct path for the data moving through your systems so that it can be programmatically actioned upon in real time.
Migrating programs at scale can be a huge factor in elevating your program growth and value, but it doesn’t come without risk. Ensure you find a partner who has proven experience and will partner with you to ensure success.
Single Code Base for Progressive Web Apps and Native Apps
Our Experience is built on a single code base, using Ionic Capacitor for hybrid mobile app development. We don’t have to build three separate Android, iOS and web apps, but instead can deploy the same code base to each app store, creating a unified experience across all devices. There are many benefits that come from utilizing this technology, including:
- Reduced development time and costs, as there is a single React team vs an iOS, Android and Web team, and all new features only need to be developed once, instead of separately on different platforms
- Consistent user experience across platforms, so there aren’t features that are available on iOS but not on Android or vice versa
- Ability to update items in flight and release much faster, given that we can bypass many of the complexities of testing and deployment with native applications
- Ability to enhance automated testing using PlayWright & Storybook with only one code base to test
For our Major Oil partners, this results in a unified experience across families, partners and friends, as well as the ability to quickly address bugs across all devices.
Phone Number Enrollment and Progressive Profile Build
For Major Oil retailers, your moment to engage customers is at the pump – so program enrollment needs to be fast and simple. That’s why PAR Retail creates loyalty programs that enable customers to enroll using just a mobile phone number at the pin pad on the fuel pump, the pin pad at the POS in-store, or on a retailer’s website. This removes barriers to entry, boosts member enrollment, and gives instant access to your loyalty benefits with minimal effort.
Phone number enrollment provides a quick start, while Progressive Profile Build allows for a more comprehensive understanding of each customer over time. Instead of overwhelming customers with lengthy forms upfront, you can gather valuable data at the customer’s pace. Each interaction—whether it’s redeeming a reward, updating preferences, or engaging with personalized offers—provides an opportunity to enrich their profile. This approach builds trust by showing that you’re focused on providing value rather than just collecting data.
Ease of Mobile Payments: QR-Based Payments and Single Scan Flow
The ability to offer quick, secure, and efficient payment methods can significantly enhance the customer experience and drive repeat business. QR-based payments and single scan flow are transforming the way customers interact with Major Oil retailers. QR-based payments offer a seamless, contactless payment experience. By simply scanning a QR code at the pump or in-store, customers can quickly and securely complete their transactions without the need for physical cards or cash. This not only speeds up the payment process but also reduces the risk of fraud.
The single scan flow takes this convenience a step further. With just one scan, customers can identify themselves, apply loyalty rewards, and complete their payment – all in one fluid motion. This streamlined process eliminates the frustration of multiple steps and separate loyalty card scans, making every visit quick and seamless.
Providing In-Store Discounts
For customers that do go in-store, providing in-store discounts is a crucial strategy for Major Oil retailers to maintain customer retention and loyalty. By incorporating in-store offers and mechanics within the program, you give customers a compelling reason to travel from the pump to the store. When customers redeem in-store offers, they’re more likely to identify themselves as loyalty members, enabling you to collect valuable data on their purchasing behavior beyond fuel. This data can be monetized through CPG-funded offers and retail media networks. These offers can turn your loyalty program into a profit center by attracting additional revenue streams from CPG brands eager to promote their products within your stores.
Tobacco Loyalty
Bringing a robust tobacco loyalty program to dealers and store operators via a brand’s national initiative can significantly boost consumer engagement and store-level value. By allowing dealers to participate in Altria’s full digital trade program, retailers are able to maximize earnings, offer the best prices on tobacco, and create personalized incentives so customers shop with you versus your competitors. PAR Retail allows you to take advantage of everything Altria offers including scan data, multipack discounts, EAIV, retail digital coupons, and Personalization+. Increasing tobacco value for consumers at the store level means more trips and more gallons.
Conclusion
In an industry where customer loyalty can make or break success, having a powerful and flexible technology solution is essential. PAR Retail’s purpose-built technology equips major oil retailers with the tools needed to create and sustain an effective loyalty program. Whether it’s migrating large customer bases seamlessly, offering versatile app experiences, or simplifying mobile payments, our solutions are designed to drive customer engagement and satisfaction. By integrating these technologies, you not only meet the needs of today’s customers but also lay the foundation for long-term loyalty and growth.
Interested in learning more about PAR Retail’s purpose-built technology can take your program to the next level? Get in touch.
