Concierge services: the new 'c' in c-stores?

Cashpoint

★★★★

Footfall ★★★★★

Profitability ★★★★★

Incremental sales potential ★★★★

upfront cost ★★★★

Hassle-free maintenance ★★★★★

Used by 58%

A cashpoint was offered by 58% of those questioned by Him!, making it the most popular service on the list. And it rated well, with an overall score of 3.5 stars.

Cashpoints score well for footfall and incremental sales potential - little surprise when a customer walks in skint, fills up with cash and can then be tempted by a canny c-store owner to spend it. Retailers also said cashpoints make a tidy little profit.

 

 

 

Click & collect
★★★★★

Footfall ★★★★

Profitability ★★★★★

Incremental sales potential ★★★★★

upfront cost ★★★★★

Hassle-free maintenance ★★★★

Used by 12%

The major multiples are all over click & collect, yet uptake by indies is slow. Just 12% of our snapshot sample offer customers a click & collect service. And those that do scored it an average three stars.

In short, while the major multiples love click & collect, it’s not a service that appears to chime with an independent convenient store, which explains why trials by The Co-op Group, and symbols including Costcutter, have failed to take off.

 

 

Collect+
★★★★★

Footfall ★★★★★

Profitability ★★★★

Incremental sales potential ★★★★★

upfront cost ★★★★

Hassle-free maintenance ★★★★★

Used by 35%

Collect+ has gradually built up a network of nearly 6,000 outlets in the UK, including Costcutter, Nisa, Spar, McColl’s, The Co-op Group and Asda, and has come into its own during the e-commerce boom. Whether their customers use the service to send an armful of eBay deliveries to bargain hunters, or to send back ill-fitting clothes, the Collect+ service was offered by a healthy 35% of the sample questioned by Him! and they suggest it’s a service worth having.

 

 

Dry cleaning
★★★★★

Footfall ★★★★★

Profitability ★★★★★

Incremental sales potential ★★★★★

upfront cost ★★★★★

Hassle-free maintenance ★★★★

Used by 8%

Dry cleaning lacks glamour. Yet for the 8% of c-stores offering the service to its time-poor customers, it is proving to be a real winner. Scoring solidly across all categories, dry cleaning picked up four stars on average, putting it high in the table. Although only a fraction of the sample questioned by Him! offered the service, it drove footfall, profits and incremental sales, required minimal upfront cost and it wasn’t a hassle. So who needs glamour?

 

Food to go
★★★★★

Footfall ★★★★

Profitability ★★★★★

Incremental sales potential ★★★★★

upfront cost ★★★★★

Hassle-free maintenance ★★★★

Used by 28%

Of course, all c-stores offer food to go in one form or another, even if it’s just a sad-looking sandwich. But offering a tempting food to go offer that goes beyond a pasty in a microwave is right on trend. It’s not an easy thing to get right, but the 28% of our sample that have taken the plunge approve. It scored four stars on average, was brilliant for footfall and was profitable. And it’s tipped to get more popular every year.

 

 

 

Home delivery
★★★★

Footfall ★★★★

Profitability ★★★★★

Incremental sales potential ★★★★★

upfront cost ★★★★★

Hassle-free maintenance ★★★★

Used by 15%

Thanks to burgeoning outfits like Hubbub (above) and other similar operations, which offer a straightforward third party home delivery service specifically for indies, e-commerce is now a realistic prospect at least in urban areas. Just 15% of those questioned offered the service, but those that do found it a positive experience, scoring it three and a half stars overall, with profitability scoring four.

 

 

PayPoint
★★★★

Footfall ★★★★★

Profitability ★★★★★

Incremental sales potential ★★★★★

upfront cost ★★★★★

Hassle-free maintenance ★★★★

Used by 57%

PayPoint has been in the news after a spat with retailers turned ugly. Paypoint capped commission for retailers who, in turn, claimed offering the service wasn’t profitable. Analysts weighed in to suggest retailers would make about £200 a year from PayPoint, while PayPoint itself would make £1,423. According to our survey, 57% of retailers offered PayPoint. It scored highly (four stars) for footfall, and was average for profitability (three stars).

 

 

Post Office
★★★★★

Footfall ★★★★

Profitability ★★★★

Incremental sales potential ★★★★★

upfront cost ★★★★★

Hassle-free maintenance ★★★★★

Used by 23%

The Post Office was a service offered by 23% of those questioned. And it scored highly, one of the six services to score four stars or higher. An oldie but a goodie, the Post Office has competition these days, but its high scores suggest it is capable of holding its own. And it has recently forged strong links with One Stop, the Tesco backed c-store, opening its 200th Post Office in One Stop’s 750-store estate earlier this month.

 

 

 

Quality coffee
★★★★★

Footfall ★★★★★

Profitability ★★★★★

Incremental sales potential ★★★★★

upfront cost ★★★★★

Hassle-free maintenance ★★★★★

Used by 28%

Scoring highly and offered by 28% of c-stores, that number is set to rise as quality coffee from the likes of Tchibo, Nescafé and Costa hits more c-stores. Costa leads the way, with machines in 500 c-stores and 2,500 forecourts. “Convenience plus coffee equals cash,” Clive Sheppard, director of the Chartman Group, which operates nine Spar stores in the South West, told The Grocer in May. And our 60-strong snapshot agree, giving it four stars all the way.

 

 

 

Mission-based layout

★★★★

Footfall ★★★★

Profitability ★★★★

Incremental sales potential ★★★★

upfront cost ★★★★★

Hassle-free maintenance ★★★★★

Used by 3%

Making the most of shoppers on a mission is a big trend in convenience that offers retailers huge potential, but to embrace it requires a holistic rethink of the way a typical c-store does business, from layout to range to promotions.

As a result, transforming a store into a mission-based layout, with a floor plan dedicated to food to go, food for tonight and top-up shop, remains something done by the few rather than the many.

Yet those that have entered this brave new world of convenience retailing are reaping the rewards.

 

Just 3% of our respondents said they had introduced a mission-based layout but it scored the highest scores of all the services included.

And though it’s perhaps not a service in the way dry cleaning is, understanding the missions c-store customers are on is crucial. Saving them time, money and thought by pulling together two ready meal lasagnes, a garlic baguette, a bottle of red wine and a couple of chilled tiramisus, then offering the lot as a meal deal for an attractive round £10, is precisely what a time-pressed c-store shopper is after - and exactly what a concierge store can provide.

Amazon Lockers

★★★★★

Footfall ★★★★★

Profitability ★★★★★

Incremental sales potential ★★★★★

upfront cost ★★★★★

Hassle-free maintenance ★★★★★

Used by 7%

Among the more interesting scores was the one for Amazon Lockers.

The allure to an independent store is clear: aligning yourself with a business like Amazon delivers instant brand enhancement. In addition, Amazon does a roaring trade (UK sales last year topped £5bn) and never mind the fact it’s not as profitable as it might be, sales of that magnitude mean millions of parcels flying around the country. And if an independent store can open itself up as an Amazon hub, that means footfall.

 

 

So, unsurprisingly, footfall scored highest. Yet, surprisingly, it still only received three stars. And the associated incremental spend simply wasn’t there for the admittedly small (just four of 60) sample of retailers currently offering the service (the low number reflects the fact that Amazon lockers are still in their infancy - there are only around 350 dotted around the country).

Perhaps that’s why Amazon Lockers scored just one star for incremental sales potential and also scored low for upfront cost, hassle-free maintenance and profitability.

In short, despite being the service with arguably the most brand appeal, it achieved the lowest overall score of all from those retailers.