Casey’s Undergoes a Digital Transformation

Casey’s boosts sales and betters the guest experience with technological innovations.

Emily Boes • Senior Editor

Convenience store retailers are taking action to implement new technology programs that are changing the c-store business, and Casey’s is among the chains leading the charge.

Casey’s General Stores, which operates 2,400-plus stores in 16 states, has been increasingly innovating with technology, including developing an order fulfillment app, leveraging artificial intelligence (AI) and offering delivery. For this and more, CStore Decisions is awarding Casey’s with one of our 2023 Technology Awards.

FIVE YEARS AGO

Just five years ago, Casey’s loyalty program Box

Tops involved ordering a pizza, tearing off a piece of cardboard and, once a customer had 10, turning them in for a free pizza.

“A lot of our ordering was done through telephone where customers would call us, we’d take the order, write it down on a notebook, tape it to a wall …” said Art Sebastian, vice president of digital experiences, Casey’s. “And then we’d put (the pizza) in a box and hope the guests would pick it up and pay appropriately at the register.”

At that time, Casey’s had just celebrated its 50th anniversary.

“We took a moment to reflect and looked at ourselves deeply and asked, ‘How do we stay relevant for the next 50-plus years?’ And one of the answers … was that it was time for a digital transformation,” said Sebastian.

Digital Upgrades

Casey’s decided to install an Application Programming Interface-led technology stack and brought in user-experience and user-interface teams to design the interfaces. It also partnered with companies to create “a tech stack that is world class,” according to Sebastian.

The chain launched a new website, mobile app and loyalty program, as well as a marketing stack to reach customers through emails, in-app messages, etc. In addition, Casey’s centralized and unified its data through a customer data platform, which it uses for personalized marketing.

“And the results are we’re selling a whole lot more pizza,” said Sebastian. “Our rewards members have surpassed 6 million members, and 50% of them are active each month. So a lot of goodness there.”

On a different track, Casey’s is piloting self-checkout and further developing its retail media network, Casey’s Access.

Order Fulfillment

A year and a half ago, Casey’s piloted its order fulfillment app, which then launched companywide six months ago.

“So just like a grocer, the items show up on the app, and then you go pick the item, you scan it, you stage it, and it helps us ensure order accuracy with our guests,” said Sebastian. “So Ben & Jerry’s ice cream, your Casey’s bag of chips, your Mountain Dew, all of that is accompanied with the pizza, and technology has enabled that to be an accurate order.”

Store team member utilization of the app has increased, and order accuracy has improved dramatically, according to Sebastian.

Since the technology guides the picking and staging of items, items aren’t forgotten. This has led to greater overall satisfaction scores (OSAT) and net promoter scores (NPS) from customers.

“Ultimately … when you see good OSAT and NPS, the virtual cycle continues, and the guest continues to order with us. So we get to earn their business,” said Sebastian.

Casey’s also now offers delivery through DoorDash and Uber Eats, and it launched curbside pickup, too. Additionally, Casey’s has its own delivery drivers.

“We’re sort of agnostic to delivery drivers. … we’re flexible with whatever way we can serve our guests,” said Sebastian.

Further, in the kitchen, Casey’s has an order management system (OMS), which serves as the “brain of the kitchen.” When an order comes in, it prints a ticket for the kitchen team members, letting them know to prepare the order. The OMS also orchestrates Smart Promise Time.

“When you order a pizza from us, Smart Promise Time is looking at everything in the order — pizzas, pop, ice cream, complexity of pizza — and then it’s looking at labor hours assigned to the store, and it kicks back what we call a Smart Promise Time (an estimate of how long the order will take). So that’s technology doing the work,” said Sebastian.

Ai At Work

Casey’s also piloted automated voice ordering using AI at many of its stores. AVA (Automated Voice Assistant) will interact with the customer and take their order. At this point, the order goes into the OMS.

With AVA, Casey’s has been able to shift labor toward pizza-making as opposed to answering phone calls.

Prior to AVA, Casey’s leveraged AI to optimize its marketing techniques. For different segments of customers, email blasts are sent out based on the times the customers typically engage with email. Even better, the AI helps determine which platform customers are more likely to use and will target its messages accordingly.

This AI can also alter emails that have already been sent based on real-time data to optimize the open rate.

“We serve rural communities; half our stores are in smaller towns. And so, in one way, I think we bring things that happen in Silicon Valley, and we bring it here to the rural heartland of America,” said Sebastian.

Cash handling can be a huge time and labor commitment – something convenience store operators don’t have enough of. SafePoint is comprised of smart safe or cash recycler technology, change order management, armored transportation, and our customer reporting platform, and is designed to make your in-store cash handling quick and easy. Leave it to the pros!

download