5 Great Convenience Store Promotion Ideas

Let’s face it: Convenience stores have a lot of competition — and while the right promotion idea can help you stand out from the pack, a slapdash or uninteresting promotion could drive your customers right into the enemy’s arms.

So, what’s the difference between a dull convenience store promotion idea and a great one? 

In this post, we’ll lay out some ways to refine your marketing strategy and give you some promotion ideas that will knock your customers’ socks off. 

Let’s jump in.

Before You Run a Promotion, Know Your Customers

Convenience stores that don’t find ways to stand out risk being forgotten. There are over 152,000 convenience stores across the U.S., and surviving takes a keen understanding of your unique strengths and customers.

That same understanding is a must for crafting promotions that actually resonate with your customers. So, start by looking at the areas where your convenience store excels:

• Are you based near a neighborhood full of families or apartments with students? What are your customers’ demographics? What types of products are they interested in?
• Do you offer any specialty or local products that aren’t commonly found at other c-stores or grocery stores? 
• What are your bestselling items, and do they change throughout the day? For example, do you see a spike in cold drink or alcohol sales during rush hour, or sell more ready meals around lunchtime?
• What’s your nearby competition like? Are there gaps in their offerings? 
• Is your store known for being a quick, convenient option or for its friendly staff and quirky product selection? 

Back up your observations and intuition with the sales reports on your convenience store point of sale (POS) system. Not only will this data indicate that you’re on the right track, it might uncover opportunities you didn’t even think of. 

Second, before you run a promotion, make sure it has a clear goal. For example:

• Running a flash sale on select snacks to clear out some slow-moving stock
• Creating a buy one, get one (BOGO) or mix and match offer to upsell lunch rush customers
• Trying to bring in new customers with free samples or discount days
• Using exclusive discounts for loyalty members to entice existing customers to come back 

By combining your knowledge of your customers’ shopping habits with clear goals, you’ll lay the groundwork for promotional success.

5 Effective Convenience Store Promotional Ideas To Try Today

Now that you understand the thought process behind a great promotion, let’s dive into specifics. Here are five ideas you can roll out today.

1. Local Product Spotlights and Deals

Carrying high-quality, local products is a great way to draw in customers — and if they’re coming specifically for those local treats, why not lean into it?

Run rotating sales on popular local items or create BOGO deals to upsell customers on items they’re already buying. Local items tend to have higher margins, so this can be a great way to boost profits. 

If a local brand releases a new product, feature it on your endcaps and put up signage to promote it — you can also announce an introductory discount over social media or your newsletter.

You can extend your local pride to your customers, too. If there’s a big sports game, offer a small freebie for any customers wearing your team’s jersey or hat. 

2. Rush Hour and Lunchtime Meal Deals

Many people pop into a convenience store because it’s, well, convenient. If you’re near an office building or on the way of someone’s commute, chances are you’re getting customers looking for ready-made meals during lunch hours and for snacks or quick dinners after work. 

Upsell these customers (while giving them a great deal) by creating mix and match meal deals. For lunches, this typically takes the form of sandwiches, chips, and drinks (a classic for a reason), but feel free to get creative based on your selection and customer preferences.

These deals don’t strictly need to apply to ready-made meals, either. Look at the sales reports on your POS system and see if any sales for certain types of products spike at different times of the day. These items are a good starting point for setting up time-sensitive promotions.

3. Off-Peak Promotions

Crafting promotions around what people are buying when the store is bustling might seem easy enough, but what about when the store isn’t as active? 

Off-hours promotions, when done effectively, encourage customers to come in at times they wouldn’t normally by using time-sensitive deals and discounts. If you haven’t already, check your POS system to see when your peak hours are (which is also useful for staff scheduling).

If your slowest hours are before noon, try offering daily discounts on select items between 8:00 a.m. and 11:00 a.m.

The key to making these off-peak promotions more appealing is to put discounts on items customers actually want (e.g. cold drinks in the summer, coffee in the mornings, etc.). 

Related Read: The Crucial Retail Industry Performance Metrics To Track

4. Point-Based Loyalty Programs

Whether you’re managing one location or several, a loyalty program is a great way to incentivize customers to choose you over the competition.

In a point-based program, customers earn points on every purchase, which they can redeem for freebies and discounts. You can customize how many points customers earn based on average transaction size and what the rewards are (e.g. free drink, 10% discount). 

A point-based program only works if it doesn’t take too long to earn a reward. Most convenience store customers generally don’t spend huge amounts of money at a time, so making the target too high means they won’t be very incentivized to come back.

If you’re worried that a loyalty program might be too complicated to run, don’t be — most modern POS systems have loyalty management built in, so you can sign up customers right at the POS and apply discounts automatically.

5. Hold Contests and Random Drawings

Everyone loves a little excitement, especially if it leads to some discounted or free stuff. Contests or drawings are a great way to engage the community and keep people checking back with your store to see who’s won.

As far as specifics, try to tailor it to your neighborhood, leaning into local sports rivalries, holidays, and community events. 

Here are some ideas to get you started: 

• Hold a drawing for a $10 store credit for any loyalty members who spend over $60, then announce the winner(s) at the end of the month.
• Create a poll on your social media page for two popular snacks and have customers vote on their favorite — the winner gets discounted for the week.
• Post a fun photo on social media and ask people to comment with a funny caption, then pick three lucky winners to get a 15% discount. 

Contests admittedly take a bit more effort and need a highly engaged customer base to work, but if you’re already killing it with your online presence, a contest can lead to your customers doing the marketing for you. 

How The Right Technology Supports Smooth C-Store Promotions

Regularly running promotions is essential to keep customers curious and coming back for more. However, if you’re having to track and apply discounts manually, your great promotion idea could turn into a traffic jam at the register. 

That’s just one of the reasons why a modern POS system is a must-have for your convenience store. A convenience store POS system allows you to plan promotions in advance, so any time-sensitive offers, customer loyalty points,  and other promotional discounts are applied automatically or easily in reach on the touchscreen.

More importantly, your POS system allows you to monitor how promotions perform. You can use the sales reports built into your POS to see if your promotion helped you turn a profit or whether you need to go back to the drawing board.

Just remember: Not all systems are built the same, and you don’t want to be stuck with a system that comes with fluff you don’t need or lacks vital features like ID scanning and advanced inventory tracking. 

Talk with one of our experts today to find the perfect system for your store.