For the C-store Industry, Time Is Money and Much, Much More

When your industry is synonymous with speed and efficiency, the consumer expects it. Technology can help.

“Time is money.” A convenience store owner understands that more than anyone. The industry is defined by how fast they get quality food and merchandise in the hands of the consumer—a store’s success depends on it.

Inefficiencies slow a store down. Slow stores have trouble satisfying customers. The problem is, inefficiencies crop up in a lot of different places and can look a lot different from each other. You have to be vigilant, but you have to know what you’re looking for. That takes time and focus you might not have.

It’s a challenge, to be sure, but computer software with sufficient scope—take SSCS Technology, for example—can help you can locate and track inefficiencies in a wide variety of areas, some quite distinct from each other. Here are three examples.

Store Staffing Inefficiencies

When your business is to keep consumers happy, it helps to eliminate the most unpleasant customer experience of all: waiting too long for service thanks to insufficient staffing. At the same time, you want to avoid using too many human resources at slower times.

The Store Staffing Analysis, a solution that is part of SSCS’s Transaction Analysis reporting suite, makes staffing recommendations based on the transaction history of your store and the productivity of your clerks. You can then staff up to ensure the optimal experience for your customers and save money by staffing down during less busy times. It doesn’t take long.

Delivery Inefficiencies

Deliveries require mindfulness that isn’t always possible in the bustle of daily work. You’ve got to make sure that your invoice matches up to the delivered items, that the prices from the vendor are what you expect, and how your profit and loss statement is going to be affected by what you’ve been charged.

It’s time-consuming, potentially rife with errors, and all but impossible to do in a timely manner. To help address this complicated process, SSCS offers a complete Inventory Management module. Whether it’s a Direct Store Delivery or a vendor’s EDI file, SSCS software makes it easy to transfer the vendor’s invoice information into an electronic format that our back office receives, stores, and helps you review with analytical tools so you know how your store is performing. You get the customer’s favorite items back on the shelves faster and free up your employees to give the customer the attention they deserve.

Rebate Inefficiencies

Suppliers have been moving toward expanding the rebates and discounts they offer to convenience retailers, based on the volume of items sold in a particular time frame. Tobacco manufacturers are one such example, providing per item rebates on qualifying sales. Good rebate management provides a vital stream of revenue, but again it requires attention to detail that just may not be possible when you’re running a busy store.

SSCS’s complementary modules, Tobacco Discount Import and Tobacco Rebate Export automate the process so that with a few mouse clicks, you can transmit your week’s tobacco product sales to the manufacturer, and import the revenues due you into your back office system. Not only do you free up time, it’s easy to identify with certainty what’s owed you, a win-win all around.

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Time certainly is money, and when it comes to addressing potential inefficiencies in the daily work of a c-store, this post has only scratched the surface. The same can be said for SSCS products and services. If you’d like more information the added efficiencies (and profits) our software can bring to your operation, please call us at (800) 972-7727.