How C-Stores Can Thrive Without Relying on Fuel Sales
- January 29, 2026
By looking closely at the 2025 convenience retail industry insights, one thing becomes clear. Fuel alone is no longer enough to consistently grow traffic or basket size. While gas still brings cars onto the lot, the stores seeing real momentum are those finding stronger reasons for customers to walk inside and come back more often.
Foodservice, everyday essentials, and personalized engagement now play a larger role in how shoppers choose where to stop. In that environment, tools like a well-designed loyalty program are becoming less of a nice-to-have and more of a practical way for c-stores to stay relevant as the industry moves into 2026.
What the data shows is not a sudden collapse of fuel demand, but a steady shift in where growth is actually coming from. Industry benchmarks from 2025 consistently point to stronger performance at locations that focus on repeat visits rather than one-time stops.
That means giving customers a reason to choose the same store again tomorrow, not just reacting to price competition at the pump. Loyalty programs quietly support this shift by helping retailers understand shopping behavior, reward frequency, and influence what customers buy inside the store, where margins are earned.
Let’s see how c-stores can reduce their dependency on fuel and add more dollars to their revenue through in-store sales.
Why Diversification is No Longer Optional
In 2024 and 2025, fuel volatility made overall channel performance unpredictable: when pump volumes soften, top-line sales and trips follow. In Q2 2025, for example, U.S. c-store channel sales were pressured by fuel weakness, and industry reports show fuel-driven declines that forced operators to re-evaluate what actually brings customers inside the store. Diversifying the trip drivers, foodservice, everyday essentials, digital experiences and loyalty, reduces exposure to upstream fuel volatility and shifts the focus to where margins live.
Shoppers are becoming less “loyal” to a single station. Research in 2025 found that the average fuel shopper is visiting multiple stations and multiple retailers monthly, which means the old assumption (“fuel controls trips”) no longer guarantees in-store visits. That churn creates opportunities for stores that can turn one-off fuel buyers into regular in-store guests.
Four strategic levers to grow non-fuel revenue in 2026
Below are practical, and effective strategies c-store leaders can implement quickly and scale over time.
1. Make foodservice a repeatable destination
Foodservice is the most obvious path to higher-margin, higher-frequency transactions. The right approach goes beyond a few microwavable items. Focus on curated, fresh, and purpose-built offers. Think about breakfast bundles, midday meals, and late-night comfort options. Add simple cross-sell bundles that turn each visit into a real purchase, not just a convenience add-on. Reports in 2025, show operators who invested in made-to-order and better food presentation captured meaningful share of wallet.
Action steps:
- Start with 3-5 high-margin, staff-friendly meal combos (breakfast pair, lunch bowl + drink, snack pack).
- Test speed-of-service and hold times; prioritize items that can be prepared in 2-4 minutes.
- Use in-store signage and POS prompts to push meal add-ons (chips + drink + coupon).
2. Reframe Merchandising-Staples, Private Label, and Micro-Categories
Shoppers will choose a c-store when they can get an everyday need solved quickly and affordably. Private-label or store-branded staples (grab-and-go sandwiches, premium single-serve coffee, signature cold brew) raise average margins and drive repeat purchases.
Retailers leaning into differentiated assortments, not just more SKUs, are winning back trips that used to be impulse or gas-only. Evidence from across 2025 shows private-label and curated assortments can drive loyalty and higher spend.
Action steps:
- Identify 6-8 SKUs for private-label development: coffee, sandwich, bottled beverage, snack, and two everyday pantry items.
- Reconfigure shelf space to create “solutions zones” (Breakfast, Lunch, Essentials, Treats).
- Track SKU-level margins and replace underperformers every 60–90 days.
3. Loyalty, Personalization, and Instant Value
Loyalty programs have shifted from nice-to-haves to primary retention levers. The most effective programs in 2025 delivered instant, meaningful wins (a free coffee after 3 visits, on-the-spot discounts) rather than distant points that accrue slowly. Instant rewards combined with targeted personalization lifts both visit frequency and inside-the-store conversion.
How to get started:
- Offer an easy-to-enroll digital loyalty program (email, phone, or app).
- Incentivize the second visit within 7 days (this accelerates habit formation).
- Use simple segmentation (morning commuters, lunch buyers, night shift) to send targeted offers measured by lift.
Tools like Cartzie and the Loyalty Program Impact Calculator make these steps measurable: Cartzie can automate offers and test promo variants, while an impact calculator helps estimate ROI from changes in visit frequency and basket size, so you launch the right incentives without guessing.
4. Improve the Checkout Experience & Payments Friction
Friction at checkout is a loyalty-killer. Streamlined payments, mobile pay & scan, and fast lanes for loyalty members increase throughput and satisfaction. Modern payment strategies, instant digital rewards applied at POS, frictionless wallets, and mobile order-ahead nudge customers to choose convenience over a marginally cheaper forecourt. PYMNTS and other industry trackers in 2025 emphasized instant rewards and speed as winners.
Quick wins:
- Enable mobile payment + automatic reward redemption.
- Offer “scan & go” for smaller baskets.
- Train staff to minimize time-to-transaction during peak windows.
Operations and Store Design
Operational discipline lets you scale the above strategies without blowing up costs.
- Labor choreography: Cross-train staff members to handle both foodservice and register duties during peak hours, and schedule based on historical trip patterns detected by your loyalty data.
- Kitchen footprint optimization: Not every store needs a full kitchen. Use modular units (heated merchandisers, air-fryers, toast ovens) to broaden your offerings with limited labor.
- Technology to monitor shrink and shelf-out: Real-time inventory and planogram checks reduce stockouts on high-margin items and improve customer experience.
Small, focused store remodels that create a distinct “meal zone” and a clean grab-and-go display pay back quickly because they reframe the store from a gas adjunct to a food & daily needs destination.
Leveraging Marketing and Partnerships to Accelerate the Shift
- Localize promotions: Use loyalty and POS data to promote the items your neighborhood actually buys. One-size-fits-all campaigns rarely move the needle.
- Cross-promote with fuel loyalty: If you maintain fuel, link pump discounts to in-store purchases (e.g., “buy a breakfast combo today, get 5¢ off per gallon tomorrow”).
- Partner with delivery services & fleets: Third-party delivery, dark-kitchen partnerships, or B2B meal programs for nearby businesses can add incremental volume without expanding storefront hours or footprint.
5 Quick Low-Risk Experiments to Run This Quarter
1. 7-day return incentive: Give a coupon for a free coffee if the customer returns within seven days. Measure lift in 30 days.
2. Meal bundle upsell: Offer a drink for $1.50 when purchased with any breakfast sandwich. Then, track the attach rate.
3. Instant-win loyalty days: Randomly grant small instant rewards (free chips, $.50 off) to loyalty scans and measure frequency change.
4. Private-label trial: Replace one national SKU with a private label in a high-velocity slot for 60 days.
5. Speed lane pilot: Run a single “loyalty members only” expedited register during morning rush for four weeks.
Looking Ahead to 2026
The c-stores that thrive in 2026 will not be the ones chasing every trend or reacting to every headline. They will be the ones making deliberate choices based on how customers actually behave. Fuel may still bring drivers onto the lot, but long-term growth will come from giving those drivers a reason to return, again and again, regardless of what they put in their tank.
This is not a reinvention of the convenience store. It is a return to fundamentals, applied with better data, clearer strategy, and a sharper understanding of what today’s customers value.
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