News

C-store chain Thorntons targeting 1M loyalty members by end of Q1

Chain's Paytronix-powered Refreshing Rewards program should hit 1 million registered customers in first seven months.

January 26, 2015

Paytronix Systems Inc., a provider of reward program solutions to restaurants and retailers, today announced that gasoline and convenience-store chain Thorntons Inc. has met and exceeded its goal of registered customers and now expects 1 million customers to register with its Paytronix-powered Refreshing Rewards program by the end of Q1 2015.

Since the program was launched in September, Thorntons Refreshing Rewards program managers have been successfully using targeted promotions to get members to visit more frequently and are leveraging program data for category management, according to Paytronix.

"The combination of Paytronix technology, its deep loyalty domain knowledge and its Data Insights capabilities has helped the Thorntons Refreshing Rewards program get off to a fast start and exceed our expectations," said Tony Harris, president, Thorntons, Inc. "While it's very difficult to get someone who is not using a convenience store to begin using it, Paytronix has given us the ability to capitalize on the huge opportunity to increase the visits for existing customers."

Built with the Paytronix Rules and Wallets engine as its foundation, Thorntons Refreshing Rewards program segments registered customers by how often they visit the c-store or buy gas. Thorntons can then deliver varying levels of rewards based on guest visit, spending and purchase behavior. For gas-only customers, the goal is to compel a visit to the c-store; for frequent c-store users, the program is designed to leverage each customer's transaction history to drive incremental visits.

Since Thorntons rolled out the Refreshing Rewards program to all 180 of its stores, the percentage of transactions using a loyalty card is significant, Paytronix said. But despite the success, Thorntons believes there's an opportunity to increase the loyalty penetration rate, according to Paytronix. 

To date, Thorntons Refreshing Rewards has achieved the following milestones:

• Successful enrollment: At the end of 2014, Thorntons had already exceeded its year-two goal of registered users. With results in excess of original expectations, Thorntons increased its goal of the number of registered customers it will acquire by the end of first quarter 2015 by 30 percent.
• Incremental visits: Refreshing Rewards is generating one extra visit per member per month, which adds substantial dollars to its bottom line, the company said.
• Reset targeted marketing strategy: With the goal of generating an additional visit per member per month, Thorntons is developing specific campaigns geared at targeting members by day part and encouraging extra purchases, such as breakfast foods or milk.
• Category Management: With its customer segmentation and data analytics capabilities, Refreshing Rewards is helping both Thorntons and its CPG vendors shift spend away from mass marketing to targeted promotions. As a result, it can measure the success of each promotion, gain visibility into customer demand for future promotional offers, and ensure product availability across the chain.

"Although groceries have provided CPG vendors with buyer information for a long time, those same vendors are starved for knowledge on what is going on in the c-store channel," Paytronix Head of Data Insights Lee Barnes said in the announcement. "Working closely with its CPG vendors is a big part of Thorntons' 2015 strategy. Now it can share data with its CPGs on which visitors are buying which products, so that the CPGs can make intelligent offers to their joint customers."