5 Great Convenience Store Promotion Ideas

You own or manage a convenience store and you’re looking for some easy and effective convenience store promotion ideas. We have just the solution!

What’s the point of running a promotion? Most customers are looking for a bargain. There’s no better way to incentivize potential customers to visit and shop at your store than a simple marketing campaign. It’s a great way to make them feel as if they’re being rewarded (monetarily or otherwise) for shopping with you!

It only takes one great convenience store promotional campaign to launch you and your business into the stratosphere. The best part is that launching and maintaining a simple campaign is easier than you might think. In most cases, it doesn’t require a marketing degree to get your first campaign up and running smoothly.

And with our convenience store point of sale (POS) system, you can easily deploy and manage most promotional campaigns from start to finish.

So what are the very best and easiest ways to implement promotional campaigns that you can run today? That’s where we come in.

The 5 Best Convenience Store Promotion Ideas for Your Business

To the uninitiated, a promotional campaign is a targeted marketing and communications effort designed to draw customers’ attention to a specific product or service offered by your store. 

You’ll need much more than in-store display advertisements to point customers to your goods! You see, other convenience stores, grocery stores, and even online retailers are vying for your customers’ business. In other words, if you don’t make a concerted effort to reach your customers, someone else certainly will.

POS Nation has helped convenience store owners and managers just like you launch wildly successful campaigns that are both easy to deploy and effortless to manage. As an industry-leading point of sale provider, we’ve seen the best and worst convenience store promotional campaigns. It’s this bird’s eye view that has put us in a strong position to share some of the top convenience store promotion ideas for your business.

1. Mix and Match Discounts

Your customer came in to grab a soda on their way home from work. Of course, you want to make sure they leave with the soda they came for, but wouldn’t it be great if they also picked up a bag of chips? This is where paired item discounts come into play.

A mix and match discount applies when your customers buy two or more specific items together. A soda by itself costs $2.50, and a bag of chips is $1.00, but buy them together, and the total is $3.00. Pairing items in this way draws your customers’ attention to the second item, encouraging them to buy both for a small discount.

The best way to decide how to pair items together is to review incoming data within your convenience store POS system. In fact, powerful reporting and data analysis is a feature of any modern POS system. Dive into reports to determine what items are frequently purchased together, as they would be great candidates for a mix and match discount. 

RELATED READING: 6 Must-Have Features of a Convenience Store POS System

2. Customer Loyalty Rewards

Winning new customers is a lot harder than keeping existing ones, so why not invest in the customer base you already have? A customer loyalty program is a great way to encourage your current customers to keep coming back. 

You can offer discounts or free items to customers in your loyalty program. If your loyalty program customers get a discount on items in the store, prominently list both prices to encourage new customers to sign up for your loyalty program so they too can enjoy the benefits. 

POS Nation can help you track your loyalty program members and rewards quickly and efficiently. That way, you don't have to worry about the little details getting in the way of running your customer loyalty or other similar incentive program.

RELATED READING: 6 Retail Ideas to Promote Customer Appreciation

3. Dual Pricing

Another promotion that can be effective for convenience stores is dual pricing, formerly known as cash discounting.  It’s exactly what it sounds like: Customers will receive a discount if they pay in cash rather than using a credit card for their transaction. If they do decide to pay with a credit card, you’re simply putting the processing fees on the customer for their own purchase, rather than covering the fee yourself.

In some cases, customers may actually prefer paying in cash for your goods or services, especially for smaller transactions at a convenience store.

RELATED READING: What is Cash Discounting?

4. Social Media Contests

Since the dawn of social media, businesses have found creative ways to leverage its power for marketing and promotion. Your convenience store can join in the fun by running a social media contest! 

There are a few different ways to promote your business through a social media contest, but they all have one thing in common: A prize. Maybe the award is a $100 gift card or free fountain sodas for a year. Whatever reward you select, ensure it’s enticing enough to motivate people to participate. 

Some ideas for social media contests you could run for your convenience store are:

Photo Contests: Provide a prompt and ask customers to post a photo related to that prompt. For example, if your store has a mascot, you could ask customers to post their best shot with your mascot. Just make sure they tag your profile or include a hashtag you can follow!

Caption Contests: Post a photo of something in your store and ask customers to comment their best caption ideas. The best caption wins the prize! 

Giveaways: These can be simpler than the other contests. Simply post a photo of the prize, and ask customers to comment and tag two of their friends to enter your giveaway.

Regardless of what contest you run, the point of a social media promotion is to get your business’ name out in the community.

5. Local Partnerships

What businesses are located near your store? Are there restaurants, car washes, or tourist attractions nearby? If so, you have a great promotional opportunity for both you and the other small businesses in your area. Work together!

Starting a partnership with another local business is a great way to increase the crossover in customer base to both companies. You could give coupons for the local car wash when a customer buys an air freshener from your store, or draw in tourists by offering them discounts on admission to a nearby popular museum. 

No matter what businesses are nearby, approaching them for a partnership is an excellent way for both your store and theirs to see a win.

Convenience Store Promotion Ideas

These five promotion ideas are excellent strategies you can use to take your convenience store traffic and customer base to the next level. Discounts are a great way to encourage customers to spend more in your store. Local partnerships and social media contests will help you win new business. Customer loyalty programs can help you keep the great customers you already have. To track all these promotions, you’ll need a great POS solution.

POS Nation offers point of sale solutions that can easily handle any convenience store promotion. Our software includes options for easy dual pricing, inventory management, customer loyalty programs, and so much more. Check out our Convenience Store Point of Sale Buyers’ Guide today to begin your journey.