Top 5 Fuel Retail Trends That Drove 2021 And Beyond

Posted on November 29, 2021 by Aditi Aggarwal

Globally, the evolution in the Fuel, Oil and Gas industry has begun. Marketers have adapted their brand and business strategies to the shifting fuel retail paradigm between drivers and forecourts.

Accelerating this change, the non-fuel retail business took the lead this year exhibiting potential in QSR, drive-through services, additional car care services, last-mile delivery, etc. Of course, the fuel sales dropped by 50 percent during 2020 but the fact that it recovered its ground soon was a welcoming sign for many fuel brands. While the tumultuous journey was a lesson learnt the hard way, new explorations were simultaneously made in the fuel retail business. As we bid goodbye to this year, let’s review the year that has been for the fuel retail sector and what charged the marketers to stay ahead in their game. Here are 5 top fuel retail trends that soared high globally in 2021 and are all set to continue from here.

Trend #1: Accelerating forecourt experiences

By far, this is the biggest bet that many fuel brands are placing on their business and marketing strategies. It has been established post COVID-19 pandemic that forecourts are no longer seen as fuel-only stations. Fuel retailers must view them as convenience stores that sell fuel and other fuel related products. In fact, to avoid crowding supermarkets in malls during 2020, many people moved to stand-alone convenience stores like the ones at fuel stations to shop for their daily needs to practice social distancing.

Fuel retailers may try to outshine competitors by fabricating a good ambience at pumps with comfortable seating, parking lots, electric vehicle charging points, convenience stores offering a gamut of products, to modernize customer engagement. A recent study by KPMG on forecourts experience tells, ‘The total market size of the forecourts is predicted to reach $274 billion by 2029.’ It could thus be stated that fuel stations that would not include Non Fuel Retail goods might have to face a stiff competition in the market.

Trend #2: Shifting gears to alternative fuels

Government implications and early adopters had already set the stage for renewed mobility options. In one of our fuel retail blogs, we had also spoken about how aggressively companies and economies need to meet the targets set by the Paris Agreement. Stringent reforms on emissions, preference to alternative fuels like that support a sustainable environment has enabled a new era of electronic mobility across the globe. Even the advent of newer fuels (like LPG, Bio and Hydrocarbon Fuels) in some countries was a table turner for this sector that proved its valiance post pandemic. In fact the overall spike in the sales of battery-operated vehicles and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles in 2020 is a testament to the forthcoming change. Its full adoption in comparison to the conventional mode of transport, however, is still a questionable argument. Many global fuel brands are also providing premium fuel with additives to reduce emissions and increase engine efficiency, in order to move towards customization of offerings and personalization of experience, and yet targeting fuel loyalty.

Trend #3: End-to-end digitization route

Data in silos has done no good to any brand. Fuel retail is not an exception too. A single step in the digitized direction can help brands open new avenues. Moving from a card-based loyalty program to a digital mobile app is not only a convenient feature for a customer but it is also a credible piece of customer information from a brand’s perspective. The ease of digitized app is far superior than carrying a physical card. Eventually, digitization would also create a shift in consumer’s perception about mobility. The growing popularity of MaaS or Mobility-as-a-Service in a few nations is also driving the world with renewed mobility options. This broader ecosystem includes ride sharing, ride hailing, a one way or a two way vehicle sharing options allowing users to move from asset ownership to shared mobility services. Digitization could be a big enabler in helping consumers and retailers to adapt to this new trend.

Trend #4: Enabling a convenience-first model with gusto

Burgeoning consumer trends that have come forth owing to the changing lifestyles and technological advancements post pandemic are here to stay. This has enabled fuel brands to think from a convenience standpoint. The all-in-one fuel app allows consumers to not just transact and keep a tab on their vehicle’s fuel intake but has become a mandate in a contact-less world with digital payments taking the front seat. Enabling a digitized customer journey, tracking customer data to study customer needs and behavior is a pedestal to design targeted CRM campaigns. This also helps marketers and retailers focus on more up-sell and cross sell opportunities through the App. Another convenience-centric trend is the pick-up and delivery option that enables people to save on time while they fuel up their vehicle tank. This ecommerce enabled functionality is touted to come in a big way focusing on stations located at the nearest points. In the Middle East for instance, a popular fuel brand offers fuel delivery option. This could be a major game-changer especially for consumers caught up in the SOS situation.

Fuel retailers are moving into convenience and alternative retail offerings to diversify their revenue streams. Collecting the right data set and drawing meaningful insights about consumer buying preferences and behavior from it, will help upgrade the customer engagement. This data can be utilized to drive constant improvement of the loyalty program and its offerings like more customized encounters, products, services, and benefits to the consumers. Customer needs are prioritized.

Trend #5: Customer loyalty takes the center stage

Although each fuel retailer could implement similar strategies, creating differentiation in this industry is a challenge. Hence fuel retailers are considering other value-added services like opting for consumer-centric loyalty programs to create a quantifiable difference. Value proposition is at the core to encourage loyalty and build brand affinity, especially in an undifferentiated product category like this. A highly motivating value-proposition will enhance consumer involvement. The value-proposition for the loyalty program should be distinctive and easy to understand for the customers. This can be enhanced by providing incentives to consumers such as personalized rewards, providing additional loyalty points which could be easily redeemed, occasional rewards like birthday wishes to make customers feel special, periodic and seasonal offers, etc. Geo-location-based rewards can be provided at nearest petrol pumps so that customers stay loyal to a fuel brand.

A well-crafted fuel loyalty program could thus prove to be a strong tool to increase brand affinity, engage customers, be on top of the mind recall and reduce customer churn. Interacting with customers at multiple touch points increases hyper-personalization and builds customer engagement. A portion of your fuel retail loyalty program configuration should be a communication strategy that guides out when and how you will communicate with your consumers. Our team of fuel retail loyalty experts have closely reviewed the market trends to create loyalty marketing strategies for some of the leading global fuel brands. Get in touch with them and drive your fuel brand sales and revenue.

6 CPG Loyalty Programs That Wowed Customers In Indonesia

Posted on November 22, 2021 by Keerthana Tiwari

Imagine when your brand’s network of distributing partners and customers is sprawled across 6000 islands! Reaching out to them isn’t really a welcoming task by marketers. And now imagine the mammoth task of CPG brand marketers who not only have to navigate through several parts of Indonesia but also ensure that their marketing strategies work well leading to an increase in overall brand revenue. Did you know that the Indonesian landscape was once largely dominated by small-time retailers? However, with larger CPG brands foraying into the region, the need to establish a strong partnership with distributing retailers became an ideal for marketers.

Amid customers, an instant-gratification culture is now on the rise, thanks to the influence of the internet and social media that addresses their needs with just one swipe. Given that CPG products are purchased frequently, brands offer several rewards, through targeted channels at regular intervals. Therefore, loyalty programs have become the right medium to catch up with this fast-paced trend and meet customer expectations.

In our previous blog, statistics revealed how CPG loyalty has now become a space ripe with opportunities for brands to explore. We also witnessed that brands could run loyalty programs for both customers and distributing retailers. In this blog, let’s take a look at what brands have wowed Indonesians with their CPG loyalty programs, and how these brands have experimented with both D2C and B2B loyalty programs in Indonesia.

1. Nestle Indonesia

To promote the use of Lactogrow, a nutrient supplement powder for toddlers, the multinational CPG company started a loyalty program called the Gro Happy Club, targeted at parents. Through the Grow Happy website, the customers can register and win 250 welcome points. Nestle has enabled online purchases where customers can collect ‘Happy’ points every time they purchase Lactogrow since it’s a frequent purchase by parents. While redeeming their points, customers can choose gifts from a large collection of items including vouchers and toys for children. The website also includes educational and other articles about childcare.

Nestle offers another loyalty program called DANCOW Parenting Rewards. Similar to the Gro Happy Club, the program is built to reward parents who are regular buyers of DANCOW, a milk powder fortified vitamins and minerals for children. Parents can redeem points to get rewards such as home appliances and toys, and even get free pediatrician consultation. Customers can claim points on customer microsite or Whatsapp by submitting codes found in the product.

2. Frisian Flag

Frisian Flag, a legacy dairy brand in Indonesia, hosts several activities that engage customers of all ages. While recipe contests are directed towards adults, the company encourages teenagers and young adults to participate in selfie contests on social media. For younger children, the brand offers e-comic and games based on two beloved characters called Zhuzhu and Zhazha. All these contests and games give customers the opportunities to win rewards and stay connected to the brand.

Frisian Flag also has a loyalty program called ‘Primagro Points Mothers and Toddlers’ that offers points and rewards to mothers buying nutrition and milk products for toddlers. Targeting customers who are keen on buying sustainable products, Frisian Flag provides many articles on their websites describing their pledge towards sustainability. In this portal, the brand transparently shares its processes starting from the grooming of cows up to the production of various dairy products.

3. Indofood

While launching their chicken-flavored instant noodles Pop Mie, Indofood had chosen to ride the mobile gaming wave. They launched 2 gamified advertisements that involved short and simple games leading customers to win vouchers to buy the new product. The vouchers were easily redeemable and the game was sharable on social media to expand the engagement to more mobile users.

Indofood has also built a tiered B2B loyalty program called Grow Together that supports SME businesses that are particularly dependent on the brands’ products. The members of this program enjoy exclusive benefits including monthly rewards, health insurance, exclusive promotions and a portal to help them with bank funding. The program also assists the SME partner with halal certification that helps their business grow. The loyalty program named the Grow Together program has three tiers – silver, gold and platinum. Members can also use their Boasari Mitra loyalty cards while shopping for Indofood products.

4. Wardah Beauty

One of the country’s top cosmetic brands, Wardah Beauty encourages the women doing business with the brand to join the Wardah Womenprenuer Community. This B2B loyalty program promises an 18% discount on the highest retail prices on products and free delivery even on minimum purchase. Members can get 1 point for every purchase at IDR 150,000 and 2 points by selling 30 news products. The points can be exchanged for attractive prizes and vouchers. 4 lucky members of the community also stand a chance to win a home appliance or a smartphone through an end-of-year raffle contest.

With almost 85% of Indonesia’s population being Muslim, Wardah is also known to be one of the biggest halal beauty brands in Indonesia. Through its latest marketing campaign ‘Beauty Moves You’, the cosmetics brand has launched a line of products made from sustainable processes. On the D2C front, Wardah has an ecommerce channel where customers can make online orders and receive loyalty points on their transactions. The points can be redeemed in a tender mode on the next transactions.

5. Coca-Cola

To strengthen the partnership with more than 400,000 sellers of Coca Colas’s beverages, the CPG giant started a new loyalty app called ‘Klik Toko’. The app enables points’ collection and redemption by B2B partners for distributing Coca-Cola products. The initiative was started to stay in touch with all the distributors, especially during the Covid-19 pandemic. The app gives the partners real-time information and updates from Coca-Cola. The company hopes to introduce newer features on the app to attract more distributors across the country.

6. Nutricia

Nutricia’s MyNutriclub loyalty program completely focuses on providing a lot of information to parents of young children including immunity, nutrition, growth and development. While enabling points’ redemption for every purchase of Nutrilon, the program also provides other exclusive services for mothers and babies like consultations with experts and access to webinars, podcasts and videos on the early child growth period. The loyalty program portal also offers quizzes to detect the child’s allergies, learning stages, tools like budget calculators and so on to keep customers thoroughly engaged.

Every transaction matters…

We can clearly see how some of the top brands in Indonesia have given importance to customers and partner relationships alike. While digital channels have given brands the opportunity to dive into D2C rewards programs, a fragmented landscape like Indonesia certainly requires companies to nurture their distributors and incentivize them to boost sales growth. In fact, Capillary’s Loyalty+ has been upgraded with additional new features to provide brands more opportunities to reward their partners. Get in touch with our experts to find out more and transform your brand’s digitization journey.

Conglomerate Loyalty In India: A Beginner’s Guide

Posted on November 17, 2021 by Aditi Aggarwal

47% Indian consumers remain loyal to a favorite brand even after a bad experience, reveals a study by KPMG.

Indeed, India hails with sheer loyalists – an untapped and remarkable consumer market for brands to build a strong ground for loyalty. Marketers! Read through this blog to know how you can surge your brand revenue through loyalty. We all know that COVID-19 pandemic seeded drifting consumer preferences, newer brands on the shelves and non-availability of branded products in India in 2020. In our recent report on Indian retail industry, a thorough analysis of all the post-pandemic trends raging in this industry is highlighted. The report also narrowed down how loyalty-first environment was cultivated amongst many individual brands and conglomerates as a long-term marketing strategy to retain consumer loyalty.

As much as loyalty is relevant for individual brands, it proves to be more beneficial for the multiple brands that are run under one common group. Hailing from the land of big conglomerates like BIRLAs and Reliance; Indian conglomerates must catapult this segment by tapping onto each other’s’ synergies. For instance, when travel and hotel or automotive and finance partner together, they can create one single loyalty program that would benefit both the parties during the consumer purchase lifecycle. The partnership amongst similar category brands deliver a memorable and fulfilling experience through targeted promotional offers.

Conglomerate Loyalty in India: The Big Picture

In a split second search on Google with the keyword ‘conglomerate loyalty India’ a rather inadequate result page is published. The list of articles are all dated B.C (Before COVID-19) and thus do not address the term that deserves more attention by conglomerates post-pandemic. This glaring fact further builds on the unexplored potential of loyalty in India. As we pondered, we inquired this with our sales maverick Rahul Ramachandran to offer a closer look on the conglomerate loyalty scene in India.

Industry experts have observed that conglomerate loyalty offers many benefits for its program members. However, at the same time it can be quite intricate to implement as the conglomerate has to look at each participating brand’ customer engagement strategy and accordingly enroll them for the loyalty program. It is thus crucial for brands to choose and partner with complementary brands to stay aligned in the longer run. Here is a checklist that brands must keep handy when opting for a conglomerate partnership loyalty:

Choose the brands first that would be participating in the loyalty program
Weigh and measure the mechanics of the participating brands in your loyalty program – get an expenses breakdown from each of them.
Organizations need to choose between a single technology partner or multiple technology partner collaboration to enable this transformative journey.
Identify and set aside time to market the loyalty program. This entails how many brands should be taken live in phase one and beyond, if any. It is better to create a go-live plan with the right brand mix timely.

5 Reasons Why Conglomerate Loyalty Is a Win-Win for All Brands

1. Improves overall footfall

More shopping options will eventually lead to garnering better store footfall. When different brands come together under one loyalty program, customers have more reasons to walk-in and shop. This approach definitely creates a more fulfilling and memorable shopping experience for customers as they have the option to earn and redeem points under one roof.

2. One enrollment, many benefits

Customers are often drained by enrolling through different loyalty programs during their shopping spree. As much as Indians love discounts, they also refrain sharing personal information to every individual brand. Hence, when similar brands team together under one loyalty program, it offers customers the shopping opportunity to avail more benefits from the loyalty program. For instance, Shoppers Stop offers their

3. More rewarding offers

It is always more rewarding to avail promotional offers that are more in number and rewarding as well. A classic case is that of booking a flight ticket and getting a promotional discount percentage on hotel booking using a common loyalty program. This partnership not only connects with customers at different touch points in their purchase journey but also advances further by understanding customer needs.

4. Seamless shopping journey

Customers earning and redeeming points with different brands also creates a unified profile view. The purchase history offers a peek into the customer needs that enables different brands to target promotional offers accordingly. Since customers can be easily identified through AI and other data-led technologies, the shopping journey becomes seamless and more rewarding.

5. Reduces acquisition cost

One of the most crucial benefits of venturing into a conglomerate loyalty program is the fact that it reduces the overall marketing acquisition cost. The nudging to cross-brand promotion will be lesser with one common loyalty program.

6. Plays the gamification card well

Teaming up different brands together allows myriad options to run gamified loyalty campaigns via social media channels, email and text messages, customer reviews, etc. This also assures more rewards leading to a better customer engagement strategy.

Conglomerate Loyalty in India: The Road Ahead

Shopping malls, plazas, outlet centers, airports, hypermarkets – conglomerate loyalty offers potential benefits to all the brands nestled under one group. Looking at the bigger picture, the ease of shopping experience it offers, the number of preferences the members experience in conglomerate loyalty is unimaginable. In India, The Future Group offers the option of Future Pay Wallet that allows seamless shopping experience across stores like Big Bazaar, FBB, Central, Brand Factory, Ezone, Heritage Fresh and Easyday. Another ambitious conglomerate loyalty program is India’s leading digital conglomerate who will be offering a single loyalty solution for the popular brands in its consumer portfolio. This one of its kind digital-first loyalty program will offer reward programs and benefits to all its existing and new customers. If you would like to enroll for a similar loyalty strategy, connect with our expert team to know more about conglomerate loyalty program strategy.

Capillary Technologies Partners with Petron to Power Philippines’ Largest Fuel Loyalty Program

Posted on November 12, 2021 by Capillary Marcomm

How To Enhance Fuel Retail Experience With Loyalty Programs

Posted on November 12, 2021 by Aditi Aggarwal

The challenging dynamics created by COVID-19, has destabilized the demand in oil and gas industry, along with the supply shock due to Saudi Arabia and Russia’s disagreement on production costs which has initiated a price war, further reducing the prices. This could negatively impact countries such as Iran and Venezuela, who are economically and financially dependent on oil production and export. India’s fuel consumption declined by 9.1% in the FY 2021 because of plummeted demand of around 40-60%.

Other factors like crude availability, high transportation costs, price fluctuations, government norms, etc. are beyond control, and does affect the supply chain and demand. 197 countries have signed the Paris Agreement, to curb the Greenhouse Gas Emissions by 33-35% by the year 2030. And to add to that, the current fuel retail market is largely moving from a vehicle-centric market to a customer-centric one. This radical shift is disrupted by 3 key drivers:

Evolving Consumer Expectations: Putting forth customer convenience
Advent of EVs: Incorporating charging stations at fuel stations is leading to advance mobility options
Alternative Fuels: Enabling a shift towards greener fuel consumption

Fuel retail market: then and now…

The core offering of the oil and gas industry is an undifferentiated product, with similar price range, thus making it a convenience-based commodity. Customers expect a differentiated and personalized buying experience, hence fuel retailers need to invest in creating a value proposition which will know the customer, create affinity, and thus embark on a long term relationship. Businesses are implementing a customer insights platform to identify and create interlinkages. This can not only aid in consumer retention but also acquire new customers. The fuel stations in the future, would be set up to drive consumer relationships and aim to enhance fuel retail experience. The evolution of Gas stations is poised at a transition that requires consumer centricity driven by analytics and multi-brand and retailing competencies to enhance their business models. Gaurav Mehta, VP and Global Head – Alliances and Analyst Relations, Capillary Technologies adds, “Market dynamics expect fuel companies to transform themselves to energy institutions and leverage the available opportunity. The desire to know and improve consumer awareness is going to keep the fuel companies busy for the next 5 years.”

Challenges faced by marketers while designing fuel retail loyalty programs
- Disconnected consumer journeys: Fuel retail in the past has focused more on earn and burn loyalty programs without factoring customer journey flows. In order to build a seamless customer journey experience, it is important that brands focus more on enabling convenience than basic fuel needs. For instance, triggering push notifications though mobile loyalty programs for your customer while they are in the queue to fill their tank has higher probability of customer making a non-fuel purchase than a promotional offer which was shared a week before to the same customer.
- Meet strategic objectives: Many fuel brands step away from implementing a dedicated loyalty program. However, knowing that fuel retail is moving to customer-centric model and fuel brands can generate revenue from fuel as well as non-fuel commodities, a well-laid out loyalty program can assure higher ROI and eventually build brand loyalty over a period of time. Capillary’s Loyalty Delivered Sales (LDS) framework has the unique potential to offer up to 20% topline revenue to brands.
- Digitized offerings: Moving away from a card-based loyalty program to a digital loyalty program is the first step towards embracing digital transformation in fuel retail loyalty. It offers customer convenience by giving a varied purchase options in fuel and non-fuel commodities like selling lubricants, giving car-washing facilities, etc.
Enhancing fuel retail experience with loyalty programs

The effect of fuel loyalty programs appeared to have been evaporating as a result of the inevitable consumer shift following in the current pandemic scenario. Lesser movement of vehicles has further decelerated the fuel consumption patterns across the globe. Fuel retailers thus need to take a step back to reshape their customer strategy and attract loyalty, especially in these trying times. Emergence of new business models to induce loyalty is quite evident from following trends.
Fueling and other services: Fuel is no longer the only commodity in the fuel retail market. Non Fuel Retail (NFR) is gaining prominence in fuel retail loyalty programs because it promises a reasonable basket value size. Convenience store purchases like ordering a cup of coffee, a tea-time snack, shopping daily grocery items; leveraging real estate for car washing, parking facilities are fast catching up in this segment.
Increasing NFR contribution through C-store: Fuel retailers can either partner with food and product offering companies or introduce their own private labels of regularly purchased items by the consumer thereby building on their convenience store offerings.
Treating fuel shoppers, one at a time: As the loyal consumer base differs – from a hurried driver to a group of college-goers setting out on a road trip, tiered loyalty programs offer benefits based on diverse demographics, facilitating omnichannel engagement at different touch points for different customer journeys. This also allows fuel brands to stay top of the mind as it builds a positive experience for customers.
Leveraging digital technology: Moving to an app-based loyalty program with digital payment platforms not only assures increase in profitability but also enables customer convenience. These days, gamification features incorporated in loyalty programs assure high customer engagement.
Other promotions – Fuel retailers are now roping in other retailers within the premise such as coffee shops or pizza outlets through cross-pollination of traffic to these outlets by offering coupons, discounts and a reason to visit again for fuel requirement or earn loyalty points if they are part of the partner eco-system.
Building fuel retail loyalty through hyper-personalized experiences

Fuel retailers have a huge potential to not only offer beyond fuel products but also create a remarkable shopping experience at their forecourts. Sushant Rabra, partner with a leading consulting firm shares his thoughts on the same, “For the fuel retailers, consumer experience is an upcoming competitive milestone. Fuel being an undifferentiated product, retailers need to come up with a strategy and opt digitalization techniques to stand out in the crowd by catering to upgraded forecourt experiences and benefits for customers.”

Since fuel is also a geo-based commodity, chances of customers returning to the same fuel brand are sometimes frugal. This is where hyper-localization has the ability to tilt the scales. With a comprehensive fuel retail loyalty program, a customer is more likely to return owing to numerous rewards offered by the brand. As brands engage and participate with their customers constantly, it builds up a credible data source encompassing behavioral patterns over a period of time and foresee customer trends. A data-driven loyalty program is the plugin that fuel retailers would need to enhance their overall customer engagement.

The revolutionary Promo Engine by Capillary for enhancing fuel retail loyalty

At Capillary Technologies, we closely reviewed the purchase behavior of a group of fuel shoppers to understand their core buying patterns over a period of time. As our experts analyzed and distilled the findings, 3 consumer traits were called out in the customer decision buying process: (a) Rewards that enable agility (b) Rewards that allow convenience (c) Rewards that offer instant gratification

Keeping these traits at the forefront, an agile framework for fuel retail loyalty was created that enables fuel shoppers to avail the next best offer on their next transaction by auto-applying coupon codes. This agile framework enable customer convenience by giving them rewards in real-time. The need to introduce this framework stems from the fact that customers have lesser time to shop, a reason why, they would prefer an automated system which can pull the next best offer based on their recent transaction as well as their past purchase behavior.

Fuel retail experience: The road ahead

As buyer requests and patterns change, fuel retailers need to essentially change the way they perceive customer loyalty. With forecourt experiences building up from strength to strength and data-driven personalization enhancing fuel shopping experience, fuel brands must look outside the basic earn and burn model from their exiting loyalty programs. Fuel retail loyalty programs no longer restrict to rewards, but they are a potential source to shape customer behavior and gain brand advocacy. It is increasingly becoming pertinent to drive consumer retention, and drive revenue for organizations over the world. While the 2020 pandemic posed many challenges for the fuel, oil and gas companies; it also laid a path for the industry to seek newer opportunities and create a frictionless world for loyalty programs.