The Glory team just returned from a week in Atlanta, for the NACS 2023 show. We showcased our cash automation solutions and had great conversations with c-store owners and operators from across the world. Here are just a few of the takeaways we garnered from this experience.

• Self-checkout adoption continues to be front of mind for many c-store customers
• Staffing challenges are ever-present in the channel; including turnover
• C-stores want new and innovative ways to ease operations, improve store layouts and shorten transaction times for customers

Who’s Covering the Shifts? Optimizing your store in the face of Labor Challenges

The NACS State of the Industry Compensation Report revealed alarming turnover rates of up to 130% for full-time employees and 152% for part-time employees. Labor concerns remain as a top priority challenge for any sector, but this is hugely impactful for c-stores. What does this mean for your c-store and how can you help alleviate the strain of turnover? 

Ensuring you have a strong recruitment plan, onboarding strategy and ability to build the employee experience are essential tools to have in your overall hiring process. Alongside this process it is also important to consider ways to optimize the staff you currently have working in your store. Glory cash handling can give time back to employees through automating cash counting, offering self-service customer payment options and securing cash throughout the store. 

One of the most powerful benefits of cash automation is that it relieves the pressure of manual cash handling from your staff, freeing them to be more attentive to the customers and to better maintain the store environment. This allows you to retain the same level of service in your store and deliver the experience you want for your customers even when labor is short.

Being Resilience Ready and Built for Breakthrough Growth

Do you know what attracts customers to your store? Welcoming design, family friendly atmosphere, appealing décor and up-to-date technology are the main four areas that can help you not only earn customers but keep them.

While there may be slight variances in the importance for these factors, they all hold a strong place for all three of the main consumer generations in the channel today. Keeping your store tech-friendly drives not just consumer satisfaction, but revenue. Providing payment options and technology that enables self-serve capabilities should be front of mind for any c-store. Keeping technology on the cutting edge will make your store resilience ready and built for breakthrough growth.

Customer Engagement 2.0: The Power of Digital Innovation

For retailers to become an essential part of their community they need an experience that meets their customers’ expectations. 

To achieve this, many retailers focus on making the experience memorable. But for c-stores, with limited space at a premium, this can be difficult. What the experience should be for customers in the c-store is easy, comfortable, convenient. 

This means creating an inviting, pleasant atmosphere with appropriate technology that benefits and smooths the customer journey. Achieving this can happen through a few different means, like optimizing staffing on shift for maximum face-to-face time with customers, removing barriers to ease of ordering and payments, and making customers feel truly welcome into the space. Of course, as we already know staffing has been a key challenge for c-stores, but when we remove unnecessary tasks from employees, we can give them back time to spend with the customers. 

Filling the Tank

We learned a lot about the current state of the c-store channel and the important role of customer service, employee enablement, strong strategies for future resilient processes and so much more. We are proud to be a provider of solutions that can drive this for c-stores. Glory’s closed cash loop secures cash from front to back end, automates cash handling to give time back to critical staff in stores to better engage with customers, and provides them self-service and all payment options.

If you have any questions for our Glory team and how they can help your c-store build a future resilient c-store that is truly ready for breakthrough growth, contact us!