Transformative Technologies

Rethinking IT needs and embracing emerging trends can bring c-store retailers to the next level By Melissa Kress

CONVENIENCE STORE RETAILERS need to know two things to be successful: what they sell and whom they sell it to. Sounds simple, right? But not so fast; it may be a case of “easier said than done.”

Technology that taps into this information can transform the way a retailer does business.

“I think identifying previously anonymous customers, with permission, leveraging a check-in strategy — as frictionless as feasible — that gives customers an understandably fair exchange of value is super exciting,” said Jeremie Myhren, chief information officer for Road Ranger LLC, a Schaumburg, Ill.-based chain of travel centers, truck stops and convenience stores primarily in the Midwest.

“Rewards programs are great and have a very important place in our quiver, but in 2021, they aren't the only way for customer identification any longer. Traditional rewards leave a large slice of our patrons nameless to us,” he continued. “Leveraging sensors and other such technologies, we can segment and provide additional value and a more relevant experience to that important part of our audience.”

For Mike Wilson, chief operating officer at Omaha, Neb.-based Cubby's — which operates 36 convenience stores in Iowa, Nebraska and South Dakota — software that allows c-store operators to see real-time movement of SKUs and how categories are trending is some of the most exciting. The most successful chains have “terrific insight into what they sell,” he noted.

“Gone are the days of guessing what might sell. You can pull up a category today and see how specific flavors are doing; even see how locations affect those tastes,” Wilson explained.

Moving Forward With AI

With numerous SKUs, plus the countless number of consumers moving through a convenience store on any given day, retailers run the risk of missing sales opportunities and overlooking small inefficiencies — which can really add up, according to Matthew McAlister, vice president of marketing and business development at CB4.

The New York-based machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI) company has its roots in the AI Lab at Tel Aviv University. When it first made the jump from research project to business, CB4 started in the convenience channel.

One of the major influences in that decision was the fact that CB4 technology does not require any in-store hardware. It uses simple point-ofsale data that every retailer already has on hand. But it's more than that, McAlister pointed out.

“An in-demand item left in the stockroom or an inventory discrepancy that lasts even a few days has a surprisingly large impact on a store's bottom revenue and on the customer experience,” he said. “We started in the demanding

ACCELERATING THE TRANSITION TO FRESH FOOD OFFERINGS

A Q&A WITH RAY WALSH, SVP Sales, Food Service Technology BOHA! by TransAct

Convenience Store News: How does BOHA! by TransAct help convenience stores respond to industry changes?

Ray Walsh: An increasing amount of convenience store revenue, profit, and customer loyalty is coming from new and innovative fresh food offerings — prepared in-store. Operators like Huck’s have shared that they’d like to be known as “restaurants that sell gas.” We provide mobile-first technology solutions that make managing these fresh food offerings much easier and more profitable, with minimal-to-no training required in-store.

CSN: Can BOHA! help convenience stores manage the new responsibilities associated with a fresh food service program?

RW: Yes, BOHA! helps convenience stores in four key areas:

1. On-Demand Grab ‘N Go labeling — If you are still using pre-printed labels, this is a quick return on investment.

2. Food Safety and HACCP Logs — Digitizing these paper forms speeds up the temperature-taking process and provides detailed reporting to keep your customers safe and health inspectors happy.

3. Food Production and Inventory Management —

Food waste is a major challenge for c-stores. With

BOHA! Food Production and Inventory Management, we can provide production schedules and ensure DC write-offs are minimized.

4. Task Management — Store audits and daily task lists can all be digitized with advanced reporting, alerts and escalations.

CSN: What’s unique about your BOHA! Workstation?

RW: The BOHA! Workstation was designed specifically for on-demand grab ‘n go and date code label printing. There is nothing like this on the market today. Some key features make it the best solution for businesses:

1. A charging base for iPads lets you charge up to three devices. column and longer length labels.

3. Two printers in one station allow you to print grab ‘n go and date code labels from a single device.

4. Removable printers let you easily swap and service the printers at the location, giving your food service operation 100% up-time.

CSN: What is BOHA! Labeling?

RW: BOHA! Labeling is our labeling application. It’s native to iOS, which gives our customers the best app experience and allows the solution to work offline. Key features include:

1. Integration with ESHA’s Genesis nutritional database — Genesis is used by many c-stores to manage recipe and nutritional information. This integration allows our customers to make updates on one single database, and the information flows to BOHA! seamlessly.

2. Multi-menu functionality — For c-stores that have more than one concept, or have their own concept plus franchised concepts, switching between menus becomes simple. It makes prep and grab ‘n go labeling a breeze.

3. Adding pictures — This can help identify any menu item.

4. Batch Printing — Customers can print batches of labels very quickly for food prep and food production.

5. Multi-language menus —English, Spanish and

French are offered out of the box, and almost any other language can be added.

CSN: How do customers manage BOHA!?

RW: BOHA! is managed through our BOHA! Control Center, a web portal that allows users to make changes to pricing, build out new menus, create custom label designs, and view reports and analytics. As our customers adopt more solutions, having one central location to manage all updates and changes is critical. The BOHA! Control Center really simplifies the day-to-day management of our solutions.

To learn more about how the BOHA! suite of apps can improve your store operations, visit www.transact-tech.com/csn

convenience store space because we had very high confidence that we could move the needle for convenience retailers significantly with clear gains to revenue. That proved to be true, which is why we keep growing in the c-store space, even as we expand to other retail verticals.”

Since entering the channel, CB4 has formed partnerships with many leading industry players, including Kum & Go, QuickChek, Circle K, Quick Mart, Wilson's, Dash In, Plaid Pantry, and Wallis Cos.

According to McAlister, the use of AI is growing. As competition has increased and the bar for implementation has decreased, many c-store chains are moving to AI-based solutions to better serve their customers and to find that crucial measure of differentiation.

They're using AI, he added, to answer questions like: Does my store offer a selection of merchandise that's attuned to current customer preferences? Are we creating a better customer experience through best-in-class product availability? Are our store associates spending time in the places that offer the highest ROI and customer impact?

With pandemic-driven changes like working from home, less committing and evolving preferences, convenience retailers know they need to stay on top of emerging trends and fluctuating demand. They are looking to AI solutions for help, he said.

Among those retailers is Klamath Falls, Ore.-based FastBreak Convenience Stores.

“Our convenience stores seemed liked they were far behind when it comes to technology. Around 2015, I saw everything that was out there and knew we had to get onboard to keep up with the future,” recalled Jeff Chase, director of convenience store operations for the chain of approximately 30 stores.

FastBreak first came across CB4 at the NACS Show about four years ago, but as a small chain — roughly 20 stores at the time — the retailer wasn't ready for the platform. Fast forward to mid-2020 and Chase was ready to find a solution to measure what was happening within FastBreak's stores. The retailer began rolling out CB4 to its network in April 2021.

“C-stores want to make store IT management seamless, reliable and always on 24/7, while driving down cost.

— Nick East, Zynstra

some wrinkles that still need to be smoothed out, he said the platform offers an easy task-based solution for FastBreak's store managers.

“It helps the managers look at their product sets all the time. Once a week, they are doing the tasks, but hopefully their eyes are open to things like stockouts. It will take it beyond recommendations and create a mindset. That's what I am really hoping for,” Chase said.

“In the Pacific Northwest, there are not a lot of chains. There are some big ones — GPM [Investments LLC], Plaid Pantry — but there are a lot of mom-and-pop stores and no one really took advantage of the technology that is out there. We are trying to,” he continued. “We are trying to get ahead of the game. I feel like the customer service the tech companies provide is going to take us to a better level and make us more competitive with some of the major chains.”

Road Ranger also signed on with CB4, a move driven by the company's desire to improve both its employee and customer experiences, according to Myhren.

“The people that make up the Road Ranger workforce are our most valuable asset. It sounds cliché, but that doesn't make it any less true. Providing a positive customer experience centered around convenience is our most important deliverable. Naturally, one of our top priorities then is to enable the fantastic people of Road Ranger to spend as much time ensuring we deliver on our customer promise of convenience,” he said.

Employing technologies and tools like AI, and specifically CB4, supplements Road Ranger's team members and frees them up to spend more time with the customers.

“As well, AI doesn't rest and has no cognitive biases,” Myhren said. “We're very open to employing AI, MI [machine learning] and other such technologies to free up our people and give them additional powers and abilities, and we're constantly on the hunt for other areas in which such technologies can help.”

On the Horizon

McAlister sees AI as having nearly limitless use cases in convenience stores, from inventory management and replenishment, to enhanced loyalty programs, to pricing.

“In our view, the most important applications will be those that help the ultimate end user — the customer — have a better experience with the brand by ensuring that the right product is in the right place and at the right time,” he said.

As the bar for implementation lowers, more retailers will adopt AI, he predicts.

“In that way, I think it will be less 'revolutionary' and more of a democratized resource. We will see AI ubiquitously across all store chains of all sizes, in everything that they do to serve their customers,” McAlister explained. “I am sure that over the next five or 10 years, we'll all be shocked at the multitude of ways the technology is applied to stores. We're looking forward to building a few of those solutions ourselves.”

Aside from AI, a big change in retail technology is happening now around the infrastructure at the “edge,” across the whole store combining kitchen, fuel, store, loyalty and more, according to Zynstra, a provider of “intelligent infrastructure” for retail.

“C-stores want to make store IT management seamless, reliable and always on 24/7, while driving down cost. This software-defined approach can only be achieved by understanding the customerfacing applications in the store and the infrastructure that supports the application experience. Technologies need to deliver the right outcomes for the retailer and their guests,” said Nick East, CEO and co-founder of U.K.-based Zynstra, an NCR company. “Gone are the days of regularly sending store technicians out to resolve downtime issues caused by store IT equipment. Whether it's automation of patches and updates across devices in the stores, or the need to test and deploy new applications quickly, it all comes down to having an agile infrastructure deployed at the ‘edge,’” East said.

He acknowledged that retailers will always be nervous about investing in technology that may soon be out of date. “This is where the flexibility of edge technology comes into play,” he noted. “It gives businesses the opportunity to adapt their existing technology infrastructure, whatever stage of the digital transformation journey they are on.”

Rethinking Technology

Wilson believes smaller operators like Cubby's can benefit from embracing emerging tech trends.

“It is possible that small companies like ours can compete against the larger chains when they break out of the old-school mold and spend money on tech,” said Wilson, who was previously director of operations at Chapel Hill, N.C.-based Cruizers Convenience Stores.

By looking at IT needs in a new light, c-store retailers can transform their operations.

“AI, ML, IoT, frictionless are the buzzwords of the past few years and I think with good reason. These technologies and paradigms are true advances in the world of computing and customer experience, and we should leverage them where it makes sense,” Myhren said.

Studying and understanding how the c-store industry at large is leveraging such things, and applying that in the stores and in operations wherever it makes sense, is key to rethinking IT needs, according to the Road Ranger executive.

“Going forward, and getting into crystal ball territory, AR/VR [augmented reality and virtual reality] and bridging the physical world with the digital world are areas to watch,” he pointed out. “I'm not talking about in a Matrix-style sci-fi scenario, but with upcoming consumer products and platforms — particularly from Microsoft and Apple that are rumored to launch in the next few years — I think some of these devices and platforms may cause some rapid advances in how commerce takes place, and we should be ready to understand their impact on our stores and how we can continue that all-important customer promise of convenience, leveraging them.”

Also in the world of commerce, Myhren is watching emerging digital currencies.

“Your guess is as good as mine as to how this will evolve and what role it will play in commerce in the future, but I do suspect at this stage, it will have a role and we need to keep our eye on it and be ready to evolve as the desires and needs of our consumers do,” he said. CSN