Study reveals 7 important factors set to shape the future of convenience retail
Channels are blurring and C-stores now compete with an array of players that include quick-serve restaurants, drugstores and smaller formats of grocery and mass that increasingly focus efforts on fresh and fresh prepared/grab-and-go offerings.
Across the U.S. retail landscape, convenience stores are said to grow faster than all other offline channels over the next five years, according to a study released by Nielsen, Chicago, thus reflecting the hyper-focus consumers put on expediency. Convenience stores, however, are no longer just competing against other convenience store players. Channels are blurring and C-stores now compete with an array of players that include quick-serve restaurants, drugstores and smaller formats of grocery and mass that increasingly focus efforts on fresh and fresh prepared/grab-and-go offerings. Additionally, digital transformation and the consumer’s growing desire for frictionless retail continues to raise the bar for convenience retailers and their approach to technology adoption.
Here are seven important factors set to shape the future of the convenience industry: