The news: Convenience store operators are getting more strategic with loyalty promotions, using shoppers' purchasing data to tailor discounts and rewards that encourage them to visit more often, spend more, and buy products they might otherwise overlook.

ARKO, based in Richmond, Virginia, said during its Q3 earnings call this month that loyalty members visit twice as much as nonmembers and have baskets that are more than 45% larger. It is expanding personalized discounts through its apps and promotions that reward fuel savings for qualifying merchandise purchases.

Eagle Stop of Springfield, Missouri, nearly doubled its loyalty transaction engagement since introducing personalized offers targeting adult nicotine consumers. Customers who redeem the offers spend more than five times as much annually and visit nearly five times as often as those who don't, per Convenience Store News.

Iowa-based Casey’s is using personalized offers to encourage cross-category purchases. Its marketing strategy includes targeting pizza buyers with incentives to encourage repeat buys and entice past customers to come back.

Implications for marketers: Personalized promotions give convenience stores a way to compete for price-conscious consumers while being more selective about where they spend their marketing dollars. By identifying shoppers' purchasing habits, retailers can direct incentives toward specific behaviors, such as trying a new product, adding items to a basket, or returning for another visit.

But the value of personalization may depend on whether it delivers the savings consumers want. Discounts are the most valued type of brand message among US consumers, cited by 72% of consumers, followed by price-drop alerts at 58%, according to an August 2026 survey by Wunderkind and Cordial. By comparison, 32% value loyalty rewards and just 24% cite product recommendations.

The opportunity for marketers is to use insights into shoppers’ potential purchase intent to make savings relevant enough to influence buying decisions without offering broader discounts than necessary.

Loyalty partnerships can help by extending the reach of promotional incentives. BP is expanding personalized offers through its earnify loyalty program, whose active usage has quadrupled since its 2024 launch, per CSP. Its partnership with Amazon provides Prime members with fuel discounts at participating locations, including a current 20-cent-off-per-gallon promotion on Fridays. The arrangement allows BP to tap into Amazon's established membership base to attract customers who might otherwise fill up elsewhere.

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