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Industry Sheet · MDM for C-Stores/Retail
When consumers think of convenience stores, the words that resonate are fast and easy. This unique value proposition has resulted in higher global non-fuel C-store sales growth over the past several years, as consumers traveled more and were increasingly on the go. According to Grand View Research, the global C-store market size was $2.1 trillion in 2021 and is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 5.6% from 2022 through 2028.
The definition of convenience has changed and expanded well beyond the initial gas pump and grab-and-go items. With the adoption of digital channels for grocery shopping and delivery from traditional supermarkets, as well as more takeout food delivery via third-party apps, consumers are now more open to delivery of prepared food from C-stores.
C-stores now offer curbside pickup and have expanded to include local delivery options for meals, alcohol, beverages and other typical C-store products. A report from the National Restaurant Association projects demand to remain high, with 68% of adults planning to buy more takeout or delivery food than before the pandemic. Additionally, among all major product segments, foodservice is expected to see the highest CAGR of 6.4% from 2022 to 2028.
Convenience store operators are also diversifying their revenue and expanding trip types. In many markets, C-store operators have extended their offerings to generate additional reasons for customers to visit, in order to increase trip frequency. In areas with low banking penetration, some C-stores offer options for consumers to transfer money and pay bills to online merchants. In Mexico and other LATAM markets, over-the-top (OTT) media streaming services are also becoming a popular C-store offering as these services continue to gain share versus traditional TV/cable.
In addition to speed and convenience, there are a number of factors and trends driving growth and change in the C-store space, including:
Greater demand for home delivery and in-app purchases and checkout
Expectations for faster in-store experience, curbside pickup and contactless payment
Interest in healthier and higher-quality foodservice options on demand and at any time
Growing openness to new offerings such as financial and media services
Growth in electric vehicles (EVs), potentially changing the type, frequency and length of visits
Continued industry consolidation with increased corporate ownership and fewer independents
C-stores face an immediate need to find new reasons for customers to engage, visit, spend and return. This has led some to develop and implement new customer trip and revenue opportunities that are different from their traditional tobacco, alcohol and/or fuel related strategies.
Grand View Research
For C-stores, the ability to quickly and proactively respond to these and other future trends and opportunities depends heavily on access to — and the ability to quickly analyze and act on — accurate, updated information from across multiple data domains. MDM presents an ideal solution, enabling operators to, among other things:
C-store retailers have extensive geographic reach and distribution partners, including national and local suppliers/brands. With so many different organizations, effective product onboarding and approvals can be a challenge. Product MDM with integrated product data onboarding provides robust processes to manage and enrich product data more efficiently in a wide range of categories and services. Leading MDM providers have open architecture to integrate global data pools such as GDSN to accelerate onboarding and final enrichment. Supplier onboarding through MDM processes ensures that supplier data is managed appropriately to create a single, accurate view of suppliers for the organization and allow alignment of suppliers to particular geographies. Additionally, modeling supplier data with product data can help C-store retailers clearly manage and quickly expand local product assortments.
Establish third-party or in-house delivery service options
Expand QSR offerings to include healthier foods and/or in-store restaurants for longer stays
Apps and other digital services to build loyalty
Increase assortment of private branded products
Expand into telecom, financial services and media offerings
Increase efficiency and safety operations via curbside and contactless payment
Build trips through coffee and carbonated beverage subscription services
As traditional refueling slowly becomes less of a focus for operators and EV ownership grows, many are investing in higher-quality meal offerings and catering, with some developing in-store restaurants to support longer stays. A robust multidomain MDM solution aids in QSR menu management, ingredient transparency, nutritional panel and finished goods management. These capabilities provide the foundation to build complete and accurate product information to best serve B2C and B2B customers and improve marketing success.
Location is a primary reason many consumers visit this retail format. Therefore, operators need the best, most relevant location information to share with their customers. Location MDM enables detailed insights to help retailers stay ahead of disruptions from updated services, operational data and change of ownership/M&A to communicate quickly and clearly with customers. Detailed information about types of foodservice at store-level websites or in-app closes the information gap and drives traffic and sales conversions.
As digital communication and commerce increase, C-stores need to integrate all their customer information to create a single 360º view. Loyalty is more than an app; it must be earned with relevant messaging, privacy protection and service and value to the customer. Customer MDM provides a complete view to aid in understanding customers and help deliver more personalized information and offers based on their purchase and privacy preferences to drive loyalty. As data consolidation continues, retailers can reduce their technical debt and simplify their IT operations.
With long operational histories and multiple acquisitions over the years, C-stores can have complex IT landscapes and siloed applications and data. Regardless of infrastructure and architecture, MDM can integrate data across multiple enterprise systems, improving operational efficiency and data transparency leading to better decision making through clearer insights.
C-store customers can now have an omnichannel view of their preferred products in-store, online and in-app. MDM delivers high-quality product data with engaging imagery from a single source of truth that fuels better, more consistent experiences online and fosters increased trust and loyalty.
With a foundation of trusted information that intersects product, supplier, location, customer and other data sources, C-stores benefit from the ability to fuel innovation-enabling technologies such as AI and machine learning with clean, up-to-date information. An agile data foundation can accelerate expansion of digital touchpoints, support test-and-learn initiatives and deliver programs at the store level to accelerate success across geographies.
As digital interactions increase and many consumers operate in a digitally hybrid way (e.g., visiting stores and also buying at home), building digital competency and increasing the speed of transformation becomes critical.
Accelerating operational efficiency and customer relevance demands a multidomain MDM approach, enabling C-stores to centralize, enhance and extract greater value from their data.
The ROI can grow even more when different data types are managed together. For example, blending supplier and product data ensures efficiency in a common process and adds more context to support decision making.
Following is an example of how one major North American convenience store retailer leveraged its multidomain MDM initiative to drive success across its business ecosystem.
Learn more about our unique approach to maximizing the value of data in retail.
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