ALEXANDRIA, Va.—A recent webinar hosted by NACS, “Unlocking the Power of Customer Data in C-Stores,” featured a roundtable discussion with Parm Singh, global head, retail analytics at NIQ (formerly NielsenIQ); Petros Petropoulos, senior vice president at NIQ; and Evan Shaver, vice president, category leadership at PepsiCo North America.

According to Singh, customer data traditionally came in through loyalty programs and was used for targeted marketing. But now data flows into companies from more sources and is used in more ways, including assortment analytics, sales planning, segment pricing and supplier collaboration. “All of that comes from customer data permeating across a business,” Singh said.

He identified three data trends in particular:

• Personalized pricing. Retailers are “working more and more towards getting to 1:1 pricing, for every single customer, every single product, having their own optimized pricing.”
• Geotracking for share of wallet. With new technologies retailers can see how customers move from location to location, allowing them to identify if they’re losing share of wallet to competitors.
• Integrating supply chain data to customer data to understand where out-of-stocks might occur.

Singh cited the growth of small-format grocery stores as a key reason c-stores should pay more attention to their own data.

Grocers, he said, have invested heavily in understanding customer data for years. As grocers build more stores that are in direct competition with convenience retailers, it’s critical for c-stores to stay competitive from a data standpoint.

Shaver spoke about how PepsiCo has used customer data to assist c-stores. He pointed to assortments as one example. “What you actually put in your stores—the products you have, the flavors, the amount of space you give it—that’s going to have the biggest impact on your success. Getting that right and providing the right types of products” has huge implications on building baskets and “more importantly, on loyalty. If your shoppers are coming in frequently and not seeing the things that they want, they’re going to say, ‘Look, this is not a store that really meets my needs.’”

The roundtable discussion also touched on how manufacturers gather and share data, key challenges for c-stores involving data and the initial steps a c-store might take to increase its use of customer data.

Click to watch a recording of the webinar.