AWS for Industries
NACS 2022: Reflections and top 5 takeaways
Las Vegas hosted NACS 2022 in the first week of October 2022. The size and scale of this conference was phenomenal, with a wide variety of sections catering to all aspects of running a convenience store, be it consumer packaged goods (CPGs) innovation, physical retail fixtures, the latest in commercial kitchen supplies, or customer-facing and back-office technology advancements. The trade show grouped each of these areas across the two vast show halls.
Reflecting on the time that we spent walking the aisles and chatting with vendors, the ever-changing role of convenience to shoppers and their communities continued to be a pervasive topic. We all remember the days before the COVID-19 pandemic, when convenience was just that—a store-and-fuel format where you could fill up your tank, tackle your cravings, quickly close a gap in the staples needed at home, or take a quick bathroom break.
When COVID-19 hit, many convenience-orientated retail stores had to adjust their store formats rapidly to accommodate the customer’s immediate mission changes from convenience missions to grocery-type hubs. As working from home became a way of life for many customers, convenience stores also began to serve as an escape from the isolation. On the other side of both the COVID-19 pandemic and soaring fuel prices (the price of gasoline increased more than 25.6 percent in the last 12 months ending in August 2022 in the United States), along with significant growth of electric vehicle (EV) demand (accounting for 5.6 percent of total auto market, up from 2.7 percent in Q2 2021 according to Forbes), shopper behaviors across all demographics are again changing.
This creates another evolution and inflection point for convenience stores: the opportunity for convenience to become synonymous with community.
“Community?” I hear you ask, perplexed… Yes, community. There are several communities that can be served by convenience stores. Talk to your communities. Understand what will reduce friction in their lives and remaining relevant will take care of itself.
To convenience stores that are embracing the EV evolution, not just for personal cars but for massive fleets of EV delivery vehicles, how does your convenience store become the “hub” where drivers choose to spend their 30-minute break—their dwell time—to charge their delivery vehicle? What services, with a convenience-focused retail experience, do you have that are appropriate for these individuals? How do you reward their loyalty in visiting your store multiple times a week?
What about the lone workers who are still working from home and need a break from their home at lunchtime? How do you adapt your product/SKU mix so that you provide healthy and tasty options or perhaps a serviced-office option when they need a more formal office environment close to home?
What about creating community connections? Some examples provided in the closing NACS session highlighted convenience stores that create community gardens—opportunities for teams to come together post–sporting games to celebrate in dedicated outdoor community areas. Others created tourist-type engagements, which are social media worthy, or music festivals, cocktail bars, and fishing competitions. Obviously, location and community relevancy are critical to hit the mark here.
Here are our top five takeaways from NACS:
1. Community, customer, consumer, and data
Seek to understand who your convenience offering is serving in terms of catchment—Is there an opportunity to fulfill needs that aren’t being met? Understanding your customer data is critical. Do you know who comprises your customer base? Do you know their mission today? More importantly, do you know what role they would love your store to fill for them? As always, experiment and learn. See what works and broaden your view of what you’ve always done, and challenge yourself to think outside of the convenience square of gas, confectionary, and unhealthy food choices.
2. The future of EV
With EV sales doubling in 2022, this trajectory creates an amazing opportunity to embrace these folks in your store and reimagine other profit-enhancing services. For example, have car washing services when vehicles are charging, offer EV folks a proper sit-down meal cooked fresh, or create entertainment spaces and activities for the kids. If the growth rate of consumers embracing EVs continues, we realistically forecast that this type of customer will be one out of every four customers coming through your doors in the next 3–4 years. Your environment will need to engage them for 3–4 times longer than typical gas-anchored convenience customers. See them, plan for them, make your space their destination where they can tick off many tasks and services at once, ultimately reducing life friction.
3. At the heart of your business, your brand experience is still convenience oriented—How do you reduce shopping friction?
It would be remiss of us to not mention Just Walk Out, powered by Amazon physical store capabilities that handle customer volume, minimize friction, and eliminate loss as the gold standard for convenience. Our key lesson from observing vendors in this space is that not all frictionless solutions are made equal. If your customers still have to pull out their phones to process a transaction, it’s not truly frictionless. Our caution is to think about the journey and experience you’re trying to deliver and select the right partner to support this.
4. Convenience stores need to think about IT modernization
This includes the forecourt, the store, and the back office—and how they bring together their full technology stack to enhance their customer understanding and operational efficiencies.
Some interesting and modern point-of-sale (POS) systems were on display at NACS, presented by AWS Partners. Two in particular are Fujitsu and GK.
Fujitsu showcased Fujitsu S3, which is a suite of innovative hardware and software designed to make self-service simplified for both shoppers and retailers. GK’s CLOUD4RETAIL provides convenience retailers with a unified platform delivering superior customer and associate experiences across all touchpoints including POS, self-checkout, mobile apps, forecourt and payments leveraging common APIs, application logic, data, and AI.
5. Loyalty
Keep customers coming back beyond just gas purchases. Consider structuring your loyalty program to encompass all aspects of what is purchased within your retail environment or even introducing gamification. What really drives brand experience in convenience is the convergence of mobility, loyalty-driven customer personalization, and a new level of engagement efficiency and transaction management that makes shoppers say, “This is where I want to go—every time.”
We’re excited about the convenience space and believe that there is a bright future for those that take this moment to imagine the future that is developing. If there are questions about which Amazon Web Services (AWS) Partners can help you solve specific challenges, feel free to get in touch. We partner with thousands of companies and can provide a perspective on who is leading the charge to help you solve your complex challenges.
If you’re interested in learning more about how AWS can help grow your retail business, contact our team.
AWS Partner spotlight
Fujitsu
Fujitsu offers in-store technologies for retailers with Fujitsu S3. S3 solutions are designed to simplify integrating, deploying and developing self-service solutions. With S3, retailers can easily deploy a consistent customer interface across all in-store technology, helping to increase adoption rates by minimizing the friction of learning curves.
GK
GK offers CLOUD4RETAIL, a unified cloud platform for the intelligent store. CLOUD4RETAIL is a flexible, full-service platform offering highly secure operations for retailers of all sizes. CLOUD4RETAIL is GK’s comprehensive retail platform that supports the most important services for unified commerce and empower brands with native services that connect your stores with a seamless omnichannel process. From mobile customer loyalty to mobile store merchandise management, AI-enabled personalization and more.