Foodservice Loyalty: How Convenience Retailers Can Become a Bigger Threat to QSRs

Julia Hines
January 29, 2025

Foodservice is quickly becoming one of the biggest growth drivers for convenience retailers. Once seen as an afterthought, it now accounts for a significant portion of in-store sales—20% in 2023, with projections for continued growth. On average, foodservice sales contribute over $60,000 a month per store, and they’ve even surpassed cigarettes as the largest in-store category (NACS Daily). What’s more, foodservice growth in c-stores is actually outpacing that of traditional quick-service restaurants (QSRs), signaling that convenience retailers are increasingly becoming a real threat to QSR dominance (Technomic). 

As foodservice continues to boom, convenience retailers must focus on building customer loyalty in ways that resonate with their communities. There’s plenty to learn from the loyalty programs perfected by restaurants, and by creating strong foodservice loyalty programs, c-stores can keep customers coming back for more. 

Restaurants have been using loyalty programs for years, and they’ve mastered the art of customer retention. What can c-stores learn from their success? Quite a bit, actually. Here are a few key takeaways: 

Personalized Rewards 

In the restaurant industry, personalized rewards are a huge hit. Customers love offers tailored to their individual tastes and habits. For instance, a customer who often orders breakfast burritos might get a special offer for a free coffee with their next breakfast meal. 

  • Actionable Tip for C-Stores: Take your personalized rewards to the next level with challenges and punch cards. By tailoring these challenges to your customers’ foodservice habits, you can drive repeat visits and increase spend. Use data from their purchase history to create customized goals, such as offering a free item after a certain number of breakfast sandwiches or a discount after trying new menu items. By setting these personalized thresholds, you encourage customers to go beyond their usual purchases, ultimately boosting engagement and long-term loyalty. 

 

Tiered Membership Levels 

Restaurant loyalty programs often feature tiered membership levels, where the more a customer spends, the better the rewards they receive. These programs incentivize higher spending by offering exclusive benefits at each level. 

  • Actionable Tip for C-Stores: Create a tiered loyalty program for foodservice customers. As customers spend more, they move up to higher levels and unlock bigger rewards—like special discounts, exclusive menu items, or priority service during peak hours.  

 

Seamless Digital Integration 

With the rise of mobile apps and online ordering, a seamless digital experience has become a must. Customers expect to be able to easily track their rewards, place orders, and receive personalized offers—all from their phones. 

  • Actionable Tip for C-Stores: Build or improve your app so it’s not just a tool to find the nearest location and receive fuel discounts but a full-service loyalty platform. Customers should be able to receive 1:1 offers, order food, and pay with just a few taps. 

One of the best ways to drive loyalty is by focusing on what makes your store unique. When you lean into your brand’s strengths—whether it’s a signature burrito, a popular pizza, or your signature chicken sandwich—you create a deeper connection with your customers. 

Take Yesway & Allsup’s, for example. They’ve built a strong reputation for their burritos, so it makes sense that they go all-in for National Burrito Day, launching huge campaigns that highlight their top-selling item. Similarly, Casey’s is known for its pizza, and their promotions center around that core offering, reinforcing their identity as the go-to pizza place in the convenience store space. 

Foodservice loyalty programs need to be more than just transactional—they should feel personal and aligned with the local community. Whether it’s offering rewards for local favorites or running promotions that connect to community events, aligning your program with what matters to your customers will help strengthen the bond. 

  • Actionable Tip for C-Stores: Get to know your community. Offer rewards on popular local items, or create limited-time offers around local events. This makes your program feel more like a reflection of the customers you serve. Additionally, store-level offers can ensure members are receiving only relevant promotions based on their local store’s offerings and community preferences.

 

By taking a page from restaurant loyalty programs and tailoring your approach to your customers’ preferences, you can build a loyalty program that keeps them coming back for more. 

At PAR Retail, we’re uniquely positioned to help you achieve that. With our deep expertise in convenience retail loyalty combined with PAR’s cutting-edge restaurant technology, we bring unparalleled resources and innovation to the convenience and fuel retail space. PAR’s solutions are trusted by over 700 restaurant customers and power more than 70,000 active restaurant locations globally. This scale, along with decades of experience in both industries, allows us to help retailers drive growth and explore the fast-growing foodservice category. 

Interested in learning more about PAR Retail’s purpose-built technology can take your program to the next level? Get in touch. 

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