AI in Convenience Stores: Why Data Quality is the Real Key

03/25/2025 | Comment

AI is everywhere these days. Everyone’s talking about it:

“AI will optimize prices.”
“AI can automate workflows.”
“AI will solve all of our problems.”

There’s no doubt that AI and business intelligence (BI) tools have the potential to transform the convenience store industry. The promise of automated insights, smarter pricing, and better decision-making is exciting. But here’s the reality: the AI tools and dashboards getting all the attention are just the tip of the iceberg.

What really drives meaningful insights and reliable performance lies beneath the surface — and it’s all about the data. The quality of the data determines whether AI tools deliver valuable insights or just noise. Without clean, organized, and integrated data, even the smartest AI models will fail to deliver real business value.

AI is Only as Good as the Data Behind It

AI and BI tools are NOT magic solutions — they are only as good as the data infrastructure that supports them. Clean, organized, and accessible data is the foundation for reliable insights and business success.

Why Taiga is Different

What sets Taiga apart from other BI and AI companies is the robust system we’ve built beneath the surface. Our platform seamlessly aggregates data from across your business — including POS, back office, loyalty, and more — ensuring that AI and BI tools have access to clean, accurate, and consistent data.

What the User Sees – The Tip of the Iceberg

At the top of the iceberg is What the User Sees — dashboards, self-service queries, alerts, and AI-powered applications that deliver business insights and support decision-making. This is where the business value becomes visible to the user — but these tools are only as good as the data and infrastructure behind them. If the data feeding these tools is incomplete, inconsistent, or outdated, the insights they produce will be unreliable — leading to poor decisions and missed opportunities.

Data Model and Storage – Organizing and Ensuring Accuracy

Directly beneath the user interface is the Data Model and Storage — the system that cleans, validates, and structures data to ensure accuracy and consistency.Clean data ensures that queries and reports reflect reality, not noise. Poor data quality leads to flawed outputs, unreliable predictions, and misinformed decisions. Proper data organization and storage make it possible for AI and BI tools to query the data effectively and deliver meaningful insights.

Integration & Aggregation – Connecting Data Across the Business

At the foundation of the iceberg is Integration & Aggregation — the hidden engine that pulls data from systems across the business (like POS, back office, and loyalty programs) in a timely and scalable way.Without strong integration, AI and BI tools can’t access the data they need to generate meaningful insights. This layer ensures that data flows seamlessly between systems and that the information driving decisions is both current and consistent.

Core Business Systems – The Source of It All

And it all starts with Core Business Systems — the systems that generate data in the first place (POS, Back Office, Loyalty, etc). If data isn’t flowing correctly from these systems or isn’t integrated properly, even the best AI models will fail to deliver value.

Interested in learning how we can solve your data challenges and set you up to leverage AI both now and in the future? Reach out — we’d love to show you how Taiga can help.

Five Years Into the Taiga Journey: Reflections and Key Learnings

01/13/2025 | Comment

The New Year is always a time for reflection, and this year, I found myself pausing to think about how far we’ve come—five years into the Taiga journey.

When I first started making cold calls to prospective customers, I’d mention that I was selling data analytics software. Back then, most people couldn’t get off the phone fast enough. Fast forward to today, and the transformation in this industry has been incredible.

Over the past year, attending conferences has been a stark reminder of how much has changed. Data has evolved from being an afterthought to becoming a strategic focus. Analytics is now a baseline expectation, and AI no longer feels like something out of science fiction—it’s here, knocking on our doors and demanding attention.

Reflecting on what I’ve learned through collaboration with our customers and partners, I’ve identified three key takeaways:

Data Analytics Relies on Connecting Across Your Technology Ecosystem

Many organizations are leveraging some form of data analytics, but fragmented data remains a significant hurdle. Without solving this fragmentation, it’s impossible to gain a holistic view of the business.

For example, one emerging trend is the use of electronic shelf labels to adjust prices and maximize margins. This pricing data is rich with insights but remains siloed without integration with other systems like loyalty programs, POS, and back-office platforms. The real value of analytics comes from connecting these data sources to uncover actionable insights.

Building In-House is Easier Said Than Done

One of the most common competitors we face isn’t another software provider—it’s the build-versus-buy decision. Many companies attempt to develop their own data solutions, but they often underestimate the complexity and long-term costs.

Over time, maintaining an in-house system becomes increasingly challenging. Markets evolve, technology advances, talent becomes harder to find, and costs increase. Meanwhile, SaaS solutions like Taiga have matured to deliver significant value in a much shorter timeframe without the escalating challenge of keeping in-house projects viable.

The Foundation of a Data Analytics Strategy Requires an Aggregation Platform

The phrase “garbage in, garbage out” has never been more relevant. High-quality, clean data isn’t just a nice-to-have; it’s the cornerstone for meaningful analytics and the gateway to leveraging AI and machine learning effectively.

An aggregation platform is the glue that binds disparate systems together, enabling real-time data connectivity. It cleans, catalogs, and analyzes data before presenting it in a user-friendly interface. Without this platform to create a single source of truth, businesses struggle to make sense of the overwhelming volume of data they generate.

A Journey of Transformation and Opportunity

The past five years have been nothing short of transformative—for the industry and for Taiga. We’ve seen businesses shift from questioning the value of data to embracing it as a strategic asset. But as data strategies mature, so do the challenges. Fragmentation, poor data quality, and the complexities of building in-house systems are obstacles we continue to solve alongside our customers.

Looking ahead, I’m excited for what’s next: helping businesses move beyond siloed analytics to fully integrated, AI-enabled solutions that drive real results. At Taiga, we remain committed to making data work for our customers, so they can focus on what they do best: running and growing their businesses.

Here’s to the next five years of innovation, collaboration, and success!

Use Your Year End Budget to Solve Your Data Challenge

12/10/2024 | Comment

Does This Sound Familiar?

Recently, I’ve been having the same conversation repeatedly with many of Taiga’s prospective customers: rapid expansion—especially through acquisitions—leads to data fragmentation. Each newly acquired group of stores comes with its own systems—different POS platforms, back-office software, and more. At the same time, demands for consolidated reporting across the entire chain are growing. Unfortunately, the technical complexity required to achieve that goal is frequently underestimated.

Some organizations have attempted custom-built solutions, only to discover how challenging integrations can be—and how scarce the expertise needed to execute them is. Others have proposals for custom builds sitting on their desks, while some are just beginning to explore how to address the issue. Regardless of where they are in the process, the roadblocks are consistent: fragmented data and the overwhelming effort required to aggregate and reconcile it make achieving a unified view of the business feel nearly impossible.

Taiga Simplifies the Complexity

Taiga’s platform is purpose-built for the convenience industry to tackle the data challenge head-on. Our off-the-shelf integrations connect directly to your store systems and aggregate, cleanse, and normalize the data in the cloud to enable seamless, real-time analysis and deliver actionable insights.

We understand that acquisitions often leave organizations with a mix of systems—four different back-office systems here, a handful of POS systems there, new car wash, diesel fuel—all operating within a single chain. While this complexity might seem like it would dramatically expand the scope of a solution, it doesn’t for Taiga.

Our platform is designed to handle these scenarios effortlessly because our integrations are part of our out-of-the-box solution. Whether your stores operate on multiple POS or back-office platforms, Taiga seamlessly connects to them, consolidating and normalizing your data without the need for costly, custom-built integrations.

Skip the Build, Choose a Proven Solution

While building a custom solution might seem like an option, the reality often introduces additional challenges:

Infrastructure and Monitoring: Ensuring all systems communicate properly requires robust infrastructure and constant oversight.

Data Quality: As the saying goes, “garbage in equals garbage out.” Without reliable data, reporting accuracy is compromised. Resolving discrepancies like mismatched UPCs and department inconsistencies requires significant effort to clean and normalize the data. Taiga’s platform handles this process automatically.
Resource Demands: Developing and maintaining such a system requires substantial time, investment, and dedicated team members.
Time to Value: Building an in-house integration platform can take months—or even years—to complete, delaying the insights and operational improvements your organization needs now.

For these reasons, a growing number of organizations are recognizing that “buying” a proven solution is better than “building” one from scratch. Taiga eliminates these complexities. We provide off-the-shelf integrations supported by robust infrastructure and an experienced team to ensure your data is available 24×7. We aggregate the data in the cloud, resolve data issues and catalog it according to the NACS standard to deliver reliable, consolidated reporting—without the headaches of managing it yourself.

Make Your Year-End Budget Work for You

By acting now, you can use your year-end budget to implement Taiga’s platform and achieve unified, accurate reporting in Q1 of next year.

Don’t wait! Contact us today to see how Taiga can transform your data into actionable insights and support your organization’s growth.

5 Common Category Management Mistakes to Avoid

07/11/2024 | Comment

Effective category management is key to convenience retail success. It optimizes inventory, boosts profits, and enhances customer satisfaction. However, many retailers fall into common pitfalls that can hinder performance. Here are five mistakes to avoid and how Taiga’s Category Management feature can help you navigate these challenges seamlessly.

1. Not Adhering to NACS Standard of Categorization

Impact: Inconsistent categorization complicates data management, hindering the ability to make accurate comparisons across stores. This can affect vendor negotiations, inventory management, and competitive analysis.

Solution: Taiga ensures that your products adhere to NACS standards, facilitating informed vendor negotiations, reducing out-of-stocks, and enabling agile marketing strategies. Our platform manages the heavy lifting of cleaning and cataloging your data, ensuring consistency and reliability.

2. Ignoring Data-Driven Insights

Impact: Relying on intuition or outdated data can lead to poor product assortments and missed opportunities.

Solution: Taiga’s real-time analytics provide insights from categories to individual SKUs, ensuring your product assortments meet customer demand and drive sales.

3. Overlooking SKU Performance

Impact: Neglecting individual SKU performance wastes valuable shelf space.

Solution: Taiga helps monitor SKU-level performance, optimizing space allocation and focusing on high-performing products.

4. Poor Space Allocation

Impact: Inefficient space use reduces sales and profitability.

Solution: Taiga’s platform provides growth and drain data for each SKU, ensuring effective shelf space utilization to maximize sales.

5. Failing to Adapt to Market Trends

Impact: Slow adaptation to changing consumer preferences leads to lost sales and dissatisfaction.

Solution: Taiga offers insights into market trends, helping retailers align their product assortments with current consumer preferences.

Avoiding these mistakes can significantly enhance your retail operations. Taiga’s category management feature empowers you with the data-driven insights needed to optimize product assortments and boost profitability.

See Trends and Maximize Profits

With our core Front Office Platform, all your category management questions are just a few clicks away. Whether you need information at the category, subcategory, brand, department, or SKU level, Taiga has you covered.

Benefits:

Improve product performance and optimize space allocation using SKU volume, growth, and drain data.
Drive profit through data-driven vendor negotiations.
Access key metrics by category to track the performance of brands and individual SKUs.

Success Story: Fuel City

Fuel City, a prominent convenience store chain in Texas, transformed their manual and time-consuming category management approach by adopting Taiga’s Front Office Platform. They now pull years of data across all stores in seconds, ensuring consistency in vendor negotiations and competitive analysis.

“Taiga is the category bible.”

– Ana Flores, General Manager at Fuel City.

Matching the Accelerating Pace of Business with Real-Time Data

06/26/2024 | Comment

Have you ever found yourself wondering, “Am I getting old, or is business really moving this much faster?” You are not alone. The reality is, the pace of business is accelerating at an unprecedented rate. As someone who has spent their entire career in tech, I can confirm that the speed of business is indeed increasing like never before.

Technology is driving much of this change. Zoom has replaced the conference room, facilitating decisions within hours rather than waiting weeks for a face-to-face meeting. Artificial Intelligence (AI) is evolving at an exponential rate, and its adoption is becoming more widespread. Social media and the 24/7 news cycle can alter consumer preferences overnight. Inflation is forcing customers to pinch pennies, and state governments are increasing minimum wages. Today, an event on the other side of the globe can empty your shelves by tomorrow morning.

Feeling exhausted yet? You’re not alone!

Your Next Technology Investment Should Make Your Life Easier

Capitalizing on Consumer Trends

Consumer trends are a moving target—they can come and go within weeks. Without real-time visibility into your data, you’ll always be playing catch-up. Your technology should enable you to quickly identify new trends and adjust your pricing, product mix or promotion strategy before the window of opportunity closes.

“The analytics software that is Taiga pulls data in real time. It is user friendly and what you can access in real time is unbelievable”

Dave Linder

Meyer Oil Co / Mach 1 Stores

Maintaining Your Margins

Costs are changing every month, and maintaining your margins on every product is a significant challenge. Let your technology handle the heavy lifting by sifting through data and highlighting key pricing decisions.

Instant Alerts

Leverage AI to detect anomalies in your data so you can resolve important issues within hours rather than days. For instance, if fuel sales drop by 25% at your busiest dispenser, your maintenance team will be alerted, allowing the issue to be resolved before it becomes a painful problem.

Don’t Put the Cart Before the Horse

Before adding new technology systems, ensure you can measure their impact on your business. Take self-checkout as an example—there are many stories about its successes and failures. Having access to the right data will enable you to adjust your strategy as needed to ensure successful implementation.

Lighten the Load and Embrace the Future with Taiga

In today’s fast-paced business environment, real-time information is essential for staying ahead of your competition. Taiga’s Front Office Platform delivers the critical data and insights needed for streamlined, informed decision-making and simplified processes. For more information about how we help our clients leverage real–time data in their operations, contact us for a demo.

Drive Success: Avoiding Software Lemons

05/22/2024 | Comment

Investing in New Software: Avoiding the Lemon

Investing in new software can feel like buying a used car—exciting but risky. The true risk lies not in the cost but in ensuring the technology delivers as promised. Product reviews and feature comparisons often fail to provide the necessary insights to mitigate this risk.

A common pitfall is purchasing a highly-rated product that doesn’t integrate well with your existing systems, leading to increased manual effort and low staff adoption.

Buying Software vs. Choosing a Technology Partner

Convenience retailers are shifting from merely buying software to investing in a Technology Partner that delivers a comprehensive, functional solution, ensuring full staff adoption.

At Taiga, we understand the importance of smooth implementation and continuous education for successful software adoption. Our approach ensures that convenience store operators not only implement our Front Office Platform efficiently but also maximize its potential through ongoing support and training.

Staff Adoption: The Key to Success

Retailers now recognize that staff adoption is crucial for realizing the expected benefits of a new technology system. They seek Technology Partners who prioritize this aspect.

Continuous education maximizes software utilization, keeps users updated with new features, and improves proficiency. Taiga offers monthly tours, biweekly email tips, and regular check-in calls to keep users informed, engaged, and skilled. This leads to higher user satisfaction and better software usage, translating to improved business outcomes.

Versionless Software and Continuous Evolution

Another critical factor in selecting the right Technology Partner is their commitment to ongoing enhancement. Retailers are not just buying a product for today; they are making a long-term investment with a partner that will evolve to meet future needs.

Versionless software continuously evolves without traditional version upgrades, akin to a car upgrading itself while you drive—no need to buy a new one every five years.

Taiga is dedicated to continuous improvement. Our development team incorporates user feedback and industry advancements into our software, ensuring it remains cutting-edge. Users benefit from seamless updates, enhanced security, and the latest functionalities without disruptive upgrades.

Implementation Success Story

FKG Oil, operating 83 MotoMart stores across six Midwestern states, needed a solution capable of handling vast amounts of data and making it accessible for informed decision-making. Taiga’s Front Office Platform quickly began providing MotoMart stores with actionable insights for data-driven decisions.

Conclusion

A successful software implementation, coupled with ongoing training and a versionless approach to software evolution, is crucial for maximizing the benefits of any technological investment. Taiga’s Front Office Platform exemplifies these principles, offering convenience stores user-friendly, continuously improving technology that supports their unique needs.

By prioritizing effective implementation and continuous education, Taiga ensures that its customers are well-equipped to leverage real-time data and drive business growth. Embrace the future of convenience retail with Taiga and experience the transformative power of our Front Office Platform.

Demystifying “Data Driven” Transformation: A Roadmap for Success

02/15/2024 | Comment

Over the past year, “becoming data driven” has been a central theme at industry events and in industry publications. The term “digital transformation” has been used to describe the journey from the manual, the analog, and the traditional, towards a future where data is not merely present, but deeply integrated and actively working for us. This transformation promises not just enhanced revenue, profit, and customer satisfaction, but also a profound change in how businesses operate. For many operators, it sounds too complicated or simply too good to be true – particularly after previous experience with technology vendors that have over-promised and under-delivered.

The purpose of this post is not to sell you on the concept, which has been done ad nauseam, but to make it approachable, understandable, and less daunting. Here’s how you can break down the process into manageable steps and key considerations for a successful digital transformation.

Steps to Digital Transformation

1. Selecting Your Partner

Choosing the right partner for your digital transformation is like choosing a co-pilot for a cross-country road trip. It’s not just about the vehicle but also about the company you’ll keep.

a. Cost – Consider the financial investment and the time commitment required from your team.

Is the cost justifiable based on the projected outcomes?

Will your team need to sideline other projects to implement and learn to use these new systems?

b. Capability – Investigate the full range of what the product can do.

Is it designed specifically for convenience retailers?

Does it have existing integrations with the systems that are already in use at your business?

c. Collaboration – Evaluate the implementation process, customer support and partnership you’ll receive.

Will your vendor lead you through this transformation step by stem or will they simply provide the necessary technology?

Will you have access to training, customer service, and technical support when you need it?

Our industry is evolving quickly and modern technology solutions have to keep up. Will you be charged for future enhancements and upgrades to the system that you have chosen?

2. Sorting Out Your Data

“Good Data” is the fuel for your digital engine. If it’s unrefined or improperly cataloged, it will cause your engine to seize up rather than increasing your horsepower and performance.

a. Real-Time Integration – Data that is days or weeks old will not allow you to take action and address issues before they become big problems.

b. Cataloging – The NACS Standard of Categorization allows you to perform analysis down to the SKU level.

c. Tailored Solutions – Look for a solution that was purpose built for the convenience store industry. Off-the-Shelf products require huge amounts of customization and integration work.

A convenience specific solution should enable you to analyze promotions, price items, analyze market baskets and prevent losses.

3. Getting Everyone On Board

Remember, technology is a tool, not a solution. The most advanced systems are worthless if your team isn’t using them.

a. Effort to Implement – How long will it take to integrate with your existing technologies and get the system up and running?

Assess how the technology will be adopted by the users. Your solution provider should have a proven process for implementation, training and the ongoing utilization for each of your user groups.

b. Automate Manual Reporting – Technology that can replace batch data extraction and manipulation in Excel will free up time and resources. So does this save time extracting and manipulating data and will it be in real time?

c. Simplifying Other Tasks – Consider what other business problems your new technology can solve. What other tasks could be made easier? Pricing? Inventory management? Can the solution help with these tasks?

Embracing digital transformation can be daunting, yet with the right partner, organized data, and user adoption, substantial benefits await within 90 days. Careful partner selection and data organization, coupled with driving user adoption, pave the way for success. Contact Taiga to discuss how we can partner with you on this transformative journey.

Decoding Trends: Navigating the 2023 NACS Show with Taiga’s Front Office Platform

10/19/2023 | Comment

Now that the 2023 NACS show has concluded and we have all returned home, I wanted to take this opportunity to reflect a bit on the show and themes our team saw while we were there. The NACS Show was a great place to learn and connect, as usual. It was also great to see so many of the Taiga team in person. While we were in Atlanta, my team and I had the opportunity to attend education sessions, connect with friends and clients, and walk the show floor to see the future of convenience retail. As we went through the week, we saw three pivotal themes that are reshaping the convenience store landscape: Digital Transformation, Artificial Intelligence and Customer Experience.

Digital Transformation: Powering Smart Retail

Digital Transformation is no longer a choice for convenience retail but a necessity, dominating discussions at the 2023 NACS Show. Consumer expectations are evolving almost as fast as technology and convenience retailers must keep up. Digital Transformation was defined in one of the education sessions with Alix Partners, Yesway, and Pilot as “the change and acceleration a company undergoes through the integration of digitally enabled innovations at scale”. This digital transformation is occurring as many convenience stores are fast-tracking their adoption of digital technologies; from self-checkout, to dynamic pricing, to personalized customer journeys to chatbots and voice recognition. A consumer study reiterated that digital innovations can impact each of the value drivers for consumers. In the study, Alix Partners found that consumers value innovations tied to payments and mobility (i.e., self-checkout, contactless payments, and mobile app/loyalty). However, listening to consumers feedback on technology investment is essential to ensure adoption of these new technologies. Consumers stated they are more likely to adopt technologies that are somewhat familiar AND that make their in-store experience better.

Artificial Intelligence: Revolutionizing Operations

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is a subset of digital transformation and was, in itself, a theme of the show. AI is becoming more prevalent in C-stores, from predictive analytics helping optimize inventory to AI-driven customer service chatbots. Some examples of how AI can help convenience retailers are with predictive analytics on loss mitigation, labor forecasting/staffing optimization, sales forecasting, and inventory optimization. One example given for AI was having AI track sales against predictive analytics to identify when an item was going to go out of stock and send an alert, just like Taiga’s Front Office Platform does with our Issue Detection module. The most important application of AI was in customer experience. Customer expectations for service and a personalized experience continue to grow. AI can help meet ever changing customer needs as it can provide you with real-time, relevant information on your customers and their habits so you can provide them with an optimized experience.

Customer Experience: Beyond Transactions

Customer Experience was probably one of the most important themes of the show. As I reiterated in several previous articles, customer behavior changed during the pandemic, with people looking to convenience stores to replace their grocery runs. The era of c-stores just being a quick stop for snacks is over. Convenience stores are transforming into community hubs, focusing on personalized experiences. As convenience stores are looking to enhance customer experiences, Taiga’s commitment to this theme is evident in our technology roadmap and will be available soon to our customers. We are using our aggregated data to decipher purchasing patterns, preferences, and demographic data in order to provide a detailed segmentation of customers for c-stores. This data will help convenience retailers tailor promotions to individual customers, fostering a sense of belonging and turning one-time shoppers into loyal patrons.

Now What? How To Take Action

So as a retailer, how do you take advantage of the NACS 2023 trends? As you look to implement digital transformation and AI to provide a better customer experience, make sure your systems are set up so you can see the data and results from these investments. You wouldn’t put money in the bank without expecting to see a return on it, right? The same goes for investments in technology – don’t put in self-checkout, promotions, or a loyalty program without ensuring you have systems in place to track performance and make sure you get a return on your dollars spent.

That’s where Taiga can help – our Front Office Platform can work with the other systems in your stores to aggregate and categorize your data, allowing you to see results easily and quickly. Say you install self-checkout – Taiga’s system can display the adoption rate, compare sales between self-checkout and cashier, and provide details on items purchased through self-checkout. The ROI will be right there for you to see, and if something needs to improve you can identify where to focus your efforts. Don’t worry about the Taiga platform being out of date for changes in technology. Our platform is versionless, so it is continuously upgraded for customer needs. This means that if you want to see a new dashboard view or adapt your platform for a new technology, we can make it happen without adding costs.

2023 NACS Show Recap

The 2023 NACS Show was a great experience for the Taiga team, and it helped us understand the priorities for the industry: Go digital, leverage the power of AI, and prioritize customer experiences. The good news is that Taiga’s Front Office Platform isn’t just keeping pace with what convenience retailers need; it’s leading the charge, enabling retailers to thrive in this transformative journey.

Capturing the Value Within Your Own Data to Maintain Margins

09/15/2023 | Comment

When inflation increases the cost of CPG products by 22% and consumers begin to exhibit recessionary behavior, retailers are left with a complicated problem to solve. The winning solution in the current economic environment is capturing the value within your data to measure and understand what is occurring and to form tactics and strategies that ensure you are meeting your customers’ changing needs.

“The key to success in times of change is gaining better visibility into your data,” said Bill Ivers, CEO at Taiga, an analytics company serving c-stores. “In order to do that, the first step is to have your data properly aggregated and cataloged so that you can analyze it at the subcategory level and drill down to the brand, supplier, SKU or basket level.”

Having clean data allows retailers to pick up on even the most subtle consumer purchasing changes and take action to mitigate any negative impacts. Effective category management comes from really understanding how consumers are shopping in your stores and ensuring you have the right products in the right places at the right prices when they are looking to purchase, according to Ivers.

“You need to be performing this type of analysis frequently because new behaviors are continuously appearing and then fading away every quarter,” said Ivers. “You could miss out on a trend altogether if you happen to sell out of the trending product or, conversely, you could end up holding a lot of excess inventory when an item’s sales slow down.”

Taiga’s Front Office Platform delivers real-time alerts on just about any metric a retailer chooses to track, according to Ivers. “When that metric gets outside of the normal zone, alerts are sent via SMS and email. The things I would be monitoring right now are unusual increases or declines in a specific category’s revenue or volume of sales,” he said. “Our platform runs your data through AI constantly, and it will realize, ‘In the salty snack category, they’ve now exceeded a 20% increase,’ and it sends an alert.”

Promotional Strategy Can Impact Changing Consumer Behavior

Once retailers are leveraging their data effectively, Ivers suggests they take a closer look at their promotion strategies. Taiga’s Front Office Platform gives retailers the tools to analyze each of their promotions, including the take rate, pool margin and other important metrics.

“I can’t emphasize promotion strategy enough,” Ivers said. “If promotions are the leading driver of your consumer purchasing right now, you need to go through your promotions and find out how they are really performing so you can optimize to attract more customers.”

Pricing Adjustments Can Drive Revenue and Margins

Ivers also suggests that c-store operators watch their pricing as consumers become more price sensitive.

“Pricing is a key lever in times of inflation, and looking at your data to see where you can optimize pricing to maximize both revenue and profit is very important,” he said. “With Taiga’s Price Optimization tool, our AI can recommend price changes, both increases and decreases, that will deliver the highest revenue and margins.”

Demand Forecasting Can Maintain Margins in an Inflationary Environment

Ivers says that convenience retailers should eventually consider demand forecasting as well.

“I think it’s vitally important to maintain your profits on quick-service food or freshly prepared foods, of course, but retailers should go even further and look at the demand forecast for some of their staples,” he said, adding that Taiga’s demand forecasting within its Front Office Platform can accurately predict the next 72 hours of sales demand for any product, category or subcategory at a specific store.

Ivers says that looking back at inflation over the past year, and how CPG products went up, retailers need to detect rising costs quickly and have a sound strategy in place.

“Taiga’s tools allow you to get your handle on market trends as well as pricing and margin impacts,” he said. “Instead of taking the hatchet and making big changes without knowing the outcomes, our tools allow you to get out your scalpel and precisely carve out the changes that will maximize margins and minimize losses.”

This article is was originally posted on the NACS website in September 2023.

Featured Articles

How CPG Inflation Has Impacted Convenience Store Shopping

09/12/2023 | Comment

The past year has not been easy for convenience retailers as CPG inflation has negatively impacted in-store margins, and there’s no clear end in sight. While there are multiple articles discussing that sales revenue has increased year over year, the real impacts of this inflation can be seen in shrinking margins.

Bill Ivers, CEO at Taiga, an analytics company serving c-stores, saw the impact of inflation on CPG product margins beginning in early 2022. That’s when convenience retailers increased pricing to maintain margins amid rising costs. However, the price increases resulted in changes in consumer behavior patterns that ultimately yielded smaller margins and were evident by Q3 2022.

CPG Inflation Convenience Stores Shrinking Margins

Inflation and CPG Margins

The driving factor for these changes in behavior was inflation. Over the five consecutive quarters ending in March 2023, CPG prices rose by a total of 22%, as retailers raised prices to maintain their margins. At that point consumer behavior began changing rapidly. The month of March was the tipping point where inflation peaked and a combination of other economic events, like the failure of Silicon Valley Bank, contributed to undermining consumer confidence to the point that NIQ described consumers as exhibiting “recessionary behavior.

“My research revealed that most convenience retailers were not keeping up with the rapid pace of inflation. I began to see CPG margin compression all over the place,” Ivers said. “The impacts of this continued from early 2022 all the way through the first quarter of 2023. In March of 2023, we began to see a crisis in consumer confidence, which led to a major change in purchasing behaviors. For example, consumers began to prioritize perceived value, buying on promotions and substituting private labels for name brands.”

While inflation rates may be slowing, we are not out of the woods yet. The aftershocks of this inflation-cased behavior are far reaching. Ivers says that once consumer behaviors have been altered, they don’t necessarily revert back. Some of the changes in consumer behavior that happened during the pandemic are still in place. Convenience retailers need to adapt for these changes and adjust promotion and merchandising strategies accordingly.

Increasing Consumer Value

“Customers are seeking perceived value with their purchasing power,” said Ivers. “Promotion strategy right now is extremely important.” Loyalty often goes hand in hand with promotions, and customers are wide open to joining loyalty programs if they feel they can receive special offers, he added. “It is good timing to grow your loyalty channel. Customers are more receptive to loyalty programs than they were just a year ago.”

Because customers are seeking value, they are buying more private label items. “We are seeing some consumers moving away from premium products and choosing products that they perceive as a better value,” Ivers said.

It’s one thing to understand what’s happening with consumer-buying behavior, but it’s another to implement strategies to address this in your business. This is where Taiga comes in. Taiga’s cloud-based platform, processes and expertise help retailers become more data-driven and take quick action on that data.

“It all starts with having the data. That’s the foundation for an effective strategy against inflation—and being able to accommodate the evolving customer,” Ivers said.