How to improve “convenience” in convenience stores?

Convenience stores, c-stores in short, are lifesaver for people who need to buy something quickly and urgently. Nowadays, c-stores are open widely all around Malaysia and often found in strategic areas such as urban areas, residential areas, busy roads, petrol stations or even some campuses. Those places are occupied with a lot of people so the occurrence of c-store ready to cater the needs of people.

According to a report by National Retail Federation (NRF) in 2020, 83 percent of consumers shopping conveniently is more important to them now compared with five years before. Also, the report found 97 percent of respondents have rejected a purchase because the process was inconvenient for them. Convenience factors are the key in consumers’ shopping experience when people nowadays are busy working, taking care of children, catching up on schoolwork, dealing with family obligations, among other things.

Following convenience continues to grow in importance for consumers, c-store plays a large role in providing convenience for people. Therefore, to make sure c-store remains or improves its convenience level, here are four suggestions to put the “convenient” back in convenience stores.

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1. Allow self-serve option

Cashier is processing the customer's order.

Allowing customers to self-serve is one of the ways to improve "convenience" at a convenience shop. Self-service kiosks are recommended to be installed to enable customers to place and customise our orders easily. For example, self-service lottery machines or food ordering touchscreens. Basically, a self-service kiosk is an interactive tablet that enables users to access information or services in digital form without dealing with live people. According to Kiosk Group, the implementation of this service can make a business’s operation more quickly and efficient. From a customer perspective, this service saves our time to wait for a servant or a cashier to help us make orders. Also, this process may lessen the faults in ordering since it eliminates the necessity to relay our order to another person.

2. Prepare more food option

Hot Food Section at convenience store.

Most of the time, people visit convenience stores and often are just looking for a quick meal to grab and do when they are on the way heading to or back from study or work. For example, for myself, I always buy sandwiches or sushi at c-store to serve as breakfast before my morning class starts. Sometimes, I wish to eat some prepared hot food such as porridge, baked toast, mushroom soup or half-boiled egg on a cold morning. However, I found out that most of the c-store’s hot food selections are almost similar with less selection. Don’t you think so? By expanding the prepared food section at the c-store, it makes customers more convenient as they have more food selection and they can just buy it at one stop.

3. Get the basics right

Parking lot on the street where a convenience store is located.

According to a report by PWC, 59% of customers will give up on a business after several bad experiences. The primary reason why we shop from a convenience store is for “convenience” so it is important for c-store to put the convenience of the customers before everything else. Ari Weissman reported in UX Magazine Ari that customers' overall preference for goods and services which are convenient has a significant influence on their purchasing behaviour, based on a study in 2002. The Guardian also found out that the young people in their research like brands that make their life simplier and place a high value on convenience. For this reason, the majority like online shopping. Undeniably, these two predictions from many years ago are exactly what is happening now in 2023.

Many factors can go a long way in enhancing the good shopping experience. For example, the ease of parking, cleanliness of the environment, kindfulness of the staff, speedy service and high product availability. These all are the essential elements that will influence customer’s satisfaction. Therefore, it is suggested for c-store to invest more in landscaping, maintain cleanliness of the environment, hire friendly attendants and keep the products always in-stock.

4. Speed up the checkout process by using technology

Customers are queuing to wait for the check-out process.

Do you ever realise that most of the time, there is always a long queue in c-store as most of the time, there was just one cashier counter open for service. For myself, the reason I come to a c-store is because I can grab and go. However, I was stuck in a queue frequently.

Yes, customers hate waiting in line and there is nothing more inconvenient than having to wait an eternity to complete the checkout at a c-store. To prevent long lines, nothing is more convenient than being able to place a pick-up order from the mobile phone. With the change of time, especially after the Covid-19 pandemic, technology is widely used and increasingly adopted by a business. The adoption of this service will allow customers to quickly get the items they need without wasting time to wait in a line during checkout. Although most of the c-store in Malaysia had adopted this service, it is not yet widely used by customers.

From a customer’s perspective, there are several strategies to consider or improve for the implementation. First of all, c-stores need a separate entrance for picking up items and designated a pickup area inside the store. A study by Rimma Kats from a digital marketer website, Insider Intelligence, found that more than seven in ten respondents said they were interested in using a scan-and-go checkout method and 61% were at least somewhat interested in the idea of unmanned stores. Therefore, self-checkout counters need to be created.