ALEXANDRIA, Va.—Convenience retailers now have a new tool to help them succeed in the increasingly complex and digitally-driven retail landscape. NACS and SOCi, a marketing platform for multi-location brands, have announced the launch of THRIVR™ at the NACS Show in Las Vegas.
THRIVR is an exclusive localized market solution that can help NACS members create a streamlined and amplified localized marketing strategy. THRIVR enables members to manage each of their locations’ local pages and local listings across digital platforms, while also providing insights on search, social and reputation management that are essential in improving marketing strategy and location visibility.
THRIVR unifies digital and convenience retail by providing NACS members with a single place to update and manage key location information that streams to over 100 of top search directories and networks like Google, Facebook, Waze, Apple Maps and Yelp. THRIVR provides the tools and functionality to create, market and promote relevant local information and content to help retailers better serve and reach customers in their unique market area.
“For nearly 100 years, location has been fundamental to the convenience store offer. In today’s digitally driven retail landscape, local search increasingly plays an important role in how consumers find and select fuel, food and convenience offerings. THRIVR allows retailers to combine the best of traditional retail excellence with powerful digital tools that will amplify a store’s reach into all the ways that customers engage with brands today,” said Henry Armour, NACS president and CEO.
More than 85% of customers say they use social channels for discovery and consideration or purchase, according to the global market research company Forrester. In addition, 70% of consumers turn to social media for customer care issues, according to Social Media Today/Market Force.
“Retail’s success today is predicated on digital customer engagements. SOCi enables the simple management of the shopper’s journey, even as it continues to evolve through various channels,” said Afif Khoury, founder and CEO of SOCi. “We are thrilled to power THRIVR with tools, resources and strategic insights from the SOCi platform, enabling the delivery of a localized marketing strategy at scale for convenience and fuel retailers.”
Localized digital marketing drives higher traffic, engagement and sales-conversion potential than corporate content alone. Businesses in Google’s 3-Pack, where only three businesses are showcased in the initial local search results, receive 126% more traffic and 93% more actions (calls, website clicks, directions) than businesses ranked immediately lower, according to SOCi’s 2022 Localized Marketing Benchmark Report.
Additionally, a new NACS national consumer study found that consumers are using digital platforms to make purchasing decisions. Two in three consumers (67%) say they use voice-operated personal assistants like Siri and Alexa, and more than one in four say they use these assistants to search for products (27%) and search for stores or businesses (26%). Most consumers (58%) say they write online reviews of companies, and 52% say that positive reviews make them trust the store more.
Convenience retailers will be able to visit the THRIVR booth at the NACS Show. More information on THRIVR is available at www.convenience.org/THRIVR.