Digital Natives Gen Z & Millennials Drive Complexity Free Foodservice

Digital natives Gen Z and Millennial consumers expect frictionless checkout as a standard not as something special.  Complexity free food retail today must include an ‘auto’ –‘digital’ payment option according to Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions®. 

Regular readers of this blog know we have been touting the success of Starbucks digital payment system and the rapid customer adoption since 2015.  So, we ask what have you been doing to speed service and integrate digital payments?

As restaurant year over year customer counts continue to fall “c-store chains including Cruizers in North Carolina, Ricker's and Family Express in Indiana, and Parker's and Enmarket in Georgia, as well as convenience giant 7-Eleven Inc. are testing some type of frictionless checkout in their stores. That said they are also adding new fresh prepared meals and meal components to drive incremental business according to Johnson.

Kimberly Otocki, convenience store marketing specialist for Paytronix Systems, noted that mobile is a huge component of a consumers' day-to-day lives. On average, Americans spend 2.8 hours a day on their mobile devices, which accounts for 51 percent of their total digital media time.

 "They are spending a lot of time on their mobile devices and we see it day to day because we know when we walk down the street or our customers come into our stores, they most likely have their mobile phones out and are using them," she said.

 Mobile has become so big that the average person checks their phone 157 times a day. In addition, 90 percent of consumers use their phones inside stores while shopping.

Smartphones have changed the way we interact, the way we experience life and, because mobile devices enable consumers to get what they want in an instant, convenience views have shifted as well, Otocki said, calling it "the now factor." The numbers speak to that. For example:

·         86 percent of shoppers avoid going into stores with long lines;

·         74 percent of shoppers will shop at a competitor rather than a store with a long checkout line; and

·         41 percent of shoppers will change their minds about a purchase if there is a long checkout line. 

 "That's a lot of customers who will gladly avoid going to your store if they know they are going to be greeted with a long line or if they go in and see a long line, they will purposely avoid it," she said. "We want to make sure our line speeds are down to make sure they continue shopping with us."

This ongoing shift in consumer expectations and their definition of convenience is driving frictionless engagement.  Are you looking a customer ahead?

Looking for success clues of your own? Foodservice Solutions® specializes in outsourced food marketing and business development ideations. We can help you identify, quantify and qualify additional food retail segment opportunities, technology, or a new menu product segment.  Foodservice Solutions® of Tacoma WA is the global leader in the Grocerant niche visit Facebook.com/Steven Johnson, Linkedin.com/in/grocerant/ or twitter.com/grocerant