Beverages Key Traffic Driver To Convenience Stores, Study Finds

The continued growth of products and services offered by convenience stores provides many enticements for shoppers to walk through their doors.

However, a recent study by Westrock Coffee found one reason — beverages — are the biggest traffic driver for convenience stores. According to the study, "Driving C-Store Traffic," more than 80% of consumers shopping at convenience stores are making quick beverage purchases, outperforming snacks (73%) and fuel (68%) as the largest traffic driver.

Those shopping at convenience stores do so out of habit, with 51% of consumers already knowing what beverage they will purchase before heading into the store.

According to the report, dispensed coffee and ready-to-drink (RTD) options serve as daily essentials for many shoppers. Soft drinks (87%) remain the most popular choice with consumers, with 75% of shoppers purchasing hot coffee when visiting their favorite convenience store.

“Coffee, tea and other beverages play a crucial role in driving traffic to convenience stores and prompting purchase of food and other goods, so it’s important to stay ahead of trends in this category,” said Melissa Mackay, senior vice president of Marketing and Insight at Westrock Coffee. “Analyzing trends and understanding purchase motivations helps us continue to deliver our customers exactly what consumers want, even before they step inside the store.”

Specific to coffee, convenience store chains provide their customers with several options, including dispensed coffee and ready-to-drink products. This provides retailers add-on sale opportunities with various food products.

With dispensed coffee, 55% like to purchase breakfast sandwiches, 53% pre-packaged foods and 51% pastries. Shoppers buying ready-to-drink coffee will also purchase pre-packaged foods (55%), chips (53%) and breakfast sandwiches (51%).

Other key findings of the report include:

• 72% of convenience store shoppers purchase their coffee early in the morning.
• 63% of consumers said customizable flavors would make them more likely to select a dispensed coffee.
• 41% said proximity was the main reason a convenience store was chosen over a QSR or coffee chain.
• Circana data shows shoppers ages 18-24 have the highest check sizes at convenience stores, averaging $4.78 per person.