The trend: Convenience stores are playing catch-up as they jump into retail media, exploiting their local reach to offer advertisers new ways to connect with shoppers.
- Love’s Travel Shops announced its retail media platform in October, serving ads on its fuel pumps and in-store digital screens across 660-plus locations.
- Wiegel’s, operator of 90 stores in Tennessee, unveiled the Milk Crate Retail Media Network, offering ad inventory across its app, website, video, and social media.
- Iowa-based convenience store chain Casey’s is expanding its retail media network through a partnership with GSTV, adding video content to fuel dispensers at its 2,900 stores in 19 states.
The opportunity: C-stores have trailed other retail segments in developing RMNs but are a fertile channel for creating fresh revenue streams.
- They are high-frequency venues where shoppers visit regularly, giving advertisers opportunities for repeat impressions.
- They use in-store screens to influence impulse purchases and often offer promos at checkouts, coolers, and fuel pumps. These ads reach their targets: A majority (69%) of c-store shoppers are likely to read pump promotions, while 44% view in-store signage, per an August 2025 Acosta Group survey of 1,000 c-store customers.
- Because they can link exposure on a specific screen to sales at the same location, c-store can show which ads result in in-store sales, a measurement advantage that is hard to replicate in many other media channels.
- Convenience stores are geographically diverse and dense, making them ideal testing grounds for new products.
Results show that retail media in convenience stores has a clear payoff.
- EG America, the Massachusetts operator of 1,500 US stores, launched its retail media network this year using digital screens and loyalty data. It said consumer packaged goods partners have seen “meaningful sales lift” and increased market share.
- 7-Eleven noted that products advertised in stores with its Gulp Radio venture get an average sales lift of 5% to 9% during campaigns, with one Slurpee promotion raising unit sales by 11% during activation, per C-Store Dive.
What this means for brands: As our recent in-store retail media report notes, the brick-and-mortar landscape is highly fragmented—unlike ecommerce, where just a few players dominate. That provides an opening for convenience stores to become valued retail media partners. Their dense footprints, frequent visits, and strong ability to influence impulse buys can give brands targeted and measurable insights.
C-store RMNs that can tie ad exposure to sales, use loyalty data, and offer multiple ways to surface ads (such as pump screens or cooler doors) are best positioned to deliver reliable performance to advertisers.
Go further: Read our report on In-Store Retail Media 2025.
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