Convenient Connections Summer Series: Lapsed Category Campaign

The Paytronix Convenient Connections Summer Series is a five-part blog that explores successful loyalty campaigns that convenience stores can use to drive user engagement, win back customers, successfully segment customer groups, and ultimately drive incremental revenue. Look for the Summer Series throughout the months of August and September.

A critical business strategy for most convenience stores lies in vendor funding. While the majority of this funding is used for signage and widely available member pricing – two strategies that have proven to be very successful – there are other means of leveraging this funding that can be mutually beneficial.  

One such way is through a lapsed category campaign. This type of campaign targets customers who made a specific purchase – of, say, a candy bar – within the last six to 12 months, but not within the last 30 or 60 days. The offers that accompany these campaigns typically need to be high-value, which is why they are perfect to leverage with vendor funds; but when planned strategically, the vendor can also benefit by seeing its products reintroduced to its own lapsed buyers. 

Here is an example: a Paytronix client offered a buy one, get one promotion on Rockstar energy drinks to all customers who had purchased an energy drink in the past year, but not the last 60 days.  

Recalling the first campaign in this series, the two loyalty members, Bob and Amy, each receive the reward. When Bob bought an energy drink to stay awake on a long drive, he had opted for a Monster; but when Amy bought one during her mid-afternoon slump, she had chosen Rockstar.  

When Bob and Amy receive the offer through their loyalty app, they both decide to redeem it. PX Convenience Store has successfully added to both customers’ baskets by selling an extra energy drink, and Rockstar benefits by being introduced to Bob, who had previously preferred Monster.  

When real-life Paytronix clients run lapsed category campaigns, they typically see the number of customers with loyalty accounts purchasing the item increase by anywhere from 50 to 100%. Most see the same lift on a per-item basis, meaning the number of items sold overall – in this case, energy drinks – increase by 50 to 100% too.  

Once again, the real value of the campaign shines through after the offer has expired. The average lapsed category campaign with at least a 50% discount results in a lift of 20-40% across accounts and total item sales.