How to Run a Gas Station & Convenience Store Loyalty Program
Jan 22, 2025
Gas stations and convenience stores face a unique challenge: customers often choose based on location and price alone. The station on their commute route, the one with the cheapest fuel that day—these practical factors drive most decisions.
But here's the opportunity: when customers do have a choice, a loyalty program can tip the balance in your favour. It transforms a purely transactional relationship into something more—a reason to drive an extra block, to fill up with you instead of the competitor across the street, to pop in for snacks and drinks even when they're not getting fuel.
A well-designed loyalty program turns routine stops into rewarding experiences. Customers feel valued, you get repeat business and valuable data, and what was once a commodity purchase becomes a relationship.
This guide covers everything you need to know about building and running a loyalty program for your gas station or convenience store—from understanding your customers to designing rewards, launching effectively, and improving over time.
Why Loyalty Programs Work for Gas Stations and C-Stores
Before diving into implementation, let's understand why loyalty programs are particularly effective for this industry.
The Economics of Retention
Acquiring new customers is expensive. For gas stations, it often means competing on price—a race to the bottom that erodes margins. Retention is different: keeping existing customers costs a fraction of acquiring new ones, and loyal customers spend more over time.
A customer who visits your station twice a week for fuel, plus occasional convenience store purchases, represents significant annual revenue. If a loyalty program keeps them coming to you instead of splitting visits among competitors, the value is substantial.
Word-of-Mouth Multiplier
When customers genuinely enjoy your loyalty program—when the rewards feel valuable and the experience is smooth—they talk about it. They mention it to coworkers, friends, family. This organic promotion brings new customers who arrive already positively inclined toward your business.
Making Routine Visits Enjoyable
Filling up the car or grabbing a quick snack isn't inherently exciting. But earning progress toward a reward? That adds a small moment of satisfaction to an otherwise mundane errand. People enjoy seeing their stamps accumulate, watching their points grow, knowing they're getting closer to something free.
This psychological element shouldn't be underestimated. A loyalty program transforms "I need fuel" into "I need fuel, and I'm three stamps away from a free coffee."
Data That Drives Better Decisions
Digital loyalty programs provide insights that were previously invisible. You learn which customers visit most frequently, what times they come, what they buy alongside fuel, and how they respond to promotions. This data helps you stock better, staff smarter, and market more effectively.
Designing Your Loyalty Program
A successful program starts with thoughtful design. Here's how to build something your customers will actually use.
Understand Your Customers First
Before choosing rewards or structures, understand who you're designing for.
Talk to your regulars. The customers who already visit frequently are your best source of insight. What would make them visit even more often? What rewards would they find genuinely valuable?
Analyze purchase patterns. What do customers typically buy? Fuel only? Fuel plus coffee? Convenience items without fuel? Understanding these patterns helps you design rewards that match actual behaviour.
Consider your location. A station on a commuter route serves different needs than one in a residential neighbourhood. Commuters want speed; neighbourhood customers might linger longer.
Choose Your Reward Structure
Several models work well for gas stations and convenience stores:
Points per purchase: Award points based on spend—1 point per dollar, for example. Simple, transparent, and easy for customers to understand. Works well when purchase amounts vary significantly.
Stamp cards: Award stamps for visits or qualifying purchases. "Buy 8 coffees, get 1 free" or "10 fuel visits, earn a free car wash." Extremely simple and familiar to customers.
Tiered rewards: Create membership levels with increasing benefits. Basic members get standard rewards; Gold members get enhanced discounts; Platinum members get premium perks. Works well for high-volume stations wanting to recognize their best customers.
Hybrid approaches: Combine elements—stamps for specific products (coffee, car wash) plus points for overall spend. More complex to manage but captures more behaviour.
Our recommendation for most independent stations: Start with a stamp-based or simple points system. These are easiest to explain, easiest to manage, and create the clearest path to rewards. You can always add complexity later.
Perkstar supports all these models with eight different card types—stamps, points, memberships, multipasses, and more—so you can start simple and evolve as you learn what works.
Design Compelling Rewards
The rewards you offer determine whether customers care about your program. Generic rewards generate generic engagement; compelling rewards create genuine motivation.
Fuel discounts: The most obvious reward for a gas station. Cents off per gallon/litre based on points earned. Directly valuable because customers need fuel anyway.
Free products: Complimentary coffee, snacks, drinks, or car wash. These drive convenience store sales and introduce customers to products they might not have tried otherwise.
Exclusive perks: Early access to promotions, members-only pricing, or skip-the-line privileges during busy times. These create VIP feelings that strengthen loyalty.
Partner rewards: Collaborate with nearby businesses—a local restaurant, car service centre, or entertainment venue—to offer rewards beyond your own inventory. This expands perceived value without additional cost.
Personalized offers: Use loyalty data to tailor rewards to individual preferences. A customer who always buys coffee gets coffee-focused rewards; one who regularly uses the car wash gets car care offers.
Set Achievable Thresholds
Rewards need to feel attainable. If customers feel they'll never reach the goal, they won't bother participating.
For stamp cards: 8-12 stamps is typically the sweet spot. Achievable within a few weeks for regular customers, far enough to create habit formation.
For points systems: Structure so regular customers can earn a meaningful reward within a month or two. If redemption requires six months of heavy spending, motivation drops.
Consider interim rewards: For longer stamp cards, offer a small reward at the halfway point. "5 stamps = free small coffee; 10 stamps = free large coffee and snack." This maintains momentum.
Going Digital: Why Paper Punch Cards Fall Short
Traditional paper punch cards have served gas stations for decades, but they come with significant limitations:
Customers lose them, forget them, leave them in other vehicles
No data on who your customers are or how often they visit
No way to communicate with customers between visits
Fraud potential (customers punching their own cards)
Environmental waste from discarded cards
Digital loyalty programs solve all these problems while adding capabilities paper could never offer.
What Digital Delivers
Always-accessible cards: When loyalty lives on customers' phones, it's never forgotten or lost. Wallet integration (Apple Wallet, Google Wallet) means the card sits alongside payment cards—visible every time they use their phone.
Direct communication: Push notifications let you message customers instantly. Promote during slow periods, announce fuel price drops, remind customers they're close to rewards, or re-engage those who haven't visited recently.
Customer insights: Every transaction builds a profile. Visit frequency, spending patterns, response to promotions—this data helps you serve customers better and market more effectively.
Automated rewards: Birthday rewards, milestone celebrations, and lapsed-customer re-engagement can trigger automatically. No manual tracking required.
Speed at checkout: Digital stamp allocation takes seconds via QR scan. Your line keeps moving; customers don't get frustrated.
Perkstar was built around these principles. Loyalty cards save directly to Apple Wallet and Google Wallet—no separate app for customers to download. Push notifications are unlimited and included in pricing. Setup takes hours, not weeks.
Launching Your Program
A great program poorly launched will underperform. Here's how to give your loyalty program the best chance of success.
Prepare Your Team
Your staff are the program's frontline ambassadors. Before launch:
Train everyone on how the program works, how to help customers sign up, and how to allocate stamps or points
Explain why it matters to the business—staff who understand the value will promote more enthusiastically
Give them simple language: "Have you joined our loyalty program? Your 10th fuel visit earns a free car wash" is more effective than a complicated explanation
Celebrate sign-ups: Consider small incentives for staff who enroll the most new members
Create Visible Signage
Customers should encounter your loyalty program multiple times during a visit:
Fuel pumps: Signage at the pump where customers wait during fueling
Entrance doors: Catch customers entering the convenience store
Point of sale: Counter displays and register signage
Receipts: Include sign-up information on printed receipts
Display QR codes prominently so customers can sign up instantly on their phones.
Launch with Impact
Consider a launch promotion to create initial momentum:
Welcome bonus: A free stamp or points bonus for signing up
Limited-time multiplier: Double stamps/points during launch week
Sign-up reward: Small free item (coffee, snack) for new members
Staff contest: Reward the team member who signs up the most customers
Promote Beyond the Station
Extend your launch beyond physical location:
Social media: Announce the program across your channels with clear sign-up instructions
Email list: If you have customer emails, send launch announcement
Local community: Partner with nearby businesses for cross-promotion
Signage on vehicles: If you have company vehicles, add loyalty program messaging
Keeping Customers Engaged
Launching is just the beginning. Ongoing engagement determines long-term success.
Communicate Regularly (But Valuably)
Push notifications are powerful—but only if each message provides genuine value:
Good notifications:
"You're 2 stamps away from a free car wash!"
"Double points on all purchases today only"
"Fuel prices dropped—fill up and earn points"
"Happy birthday! Enjoy a free coffee on us"
Bad notifications:
Generic "we miss you" without any offer
Too-frequent messages that feel like spam
Irrelevant promotions that show you don't know the customer
Perkstar includes unlimited push notifications, so you can communicate without per-message costs—but use that power wisely.
Add Surprise and Delight
Beyond expected rewards, occasional surprises strengthen emotional connection:
Random bonus stamps for loyal customers
Unexpected free items ("Thanks for being a regular—coffee's on us today")
Flash promotions that appear without warning
Milestone celebrations ("Congratulations on your 100th visit!")
These surprises create stories customers tell others.
Re-engage Lapsed Customers
Customers who haven't visited recently are at risk of drifting away permanently. Automated re-engagement campaigns can bring them back:
"We haven't seen you in a while—here's a bonus to welcome you back"
"Your points are waiting! Visit this week and earn double"
Set these to trigger automatically when visit frequency drops.
Gather and Use Feedback
Your loyalty members are your best source of insight:
Send occasional surveys (incentivized with bonus stamps/points)
Monitor which rewards get redeemed (and which don't)
Track which promotions drive visits (and which fall flat)
Adjust your program based on what you learn
Perkstar's Google Review rewards feature can also help you gather public feedback while improving your local search visibility.
Measuring Success
How do you know if your loyalty program is working? Track these key metrics:
Sign-up rate: What percentage of customers join your program? Higher is better, but quality matters too—members who never return aren't valuable.
Active member rate: Of those who signed up, how many are actively earning stamps or points? A high sign-up rate with low activity suggests the program isn't compelling enough.
Visit frequency: Do members visit more often than non-members? This gap represents your program's direct impact.
Average transaction value: Do members spend more per visit? Loyalty programs often encourage larger purchases.
Redemption rate: What percentage of earned rewards get redeemed? Too low suggests rewards aren't valuable enough; too high might mean thresholds are too easy.
Program ROI: Compare program costs (platform fees, reward costs) against incremental revenue from member behaviour. Your program should pay for itself many times over.
Getting Started
Ready to launch a loyalty program for your gas station or convenience store? Here's your action plan:
1. Define your reward structure: Start simple—a stamp card or basic points system. You can add complexity later.
2. Choose your rewards: Select 2-3 rewards that genuinely motivate your customers. Fuel discounts and free products are reliable choices.
3. Set up your platform: Perkstar's 14-day free trial lets you build and test your program without commitment. Setup takes about 30 minutes.
4. Train your team: Ensure everyone knows how to sign up customers and allocate stamps. This takes 15-20 minutes.
5. Create signage: Display QR codes at pumps, entrance, and register. Make joining obvious.
6. Launch and promote: Announce with enthusiasm, offer a sign-up incentive, and mention the program to every customer.
7. Engage and improve: Use push notifications, track metrics, gather feedback, and refine over time.
A well-run loyalty program transforms your gas station or convenience store from a commodity stop into a destination customers choose. The investment is modest; the return can be substantial.
