One Stop ratcheted up its promotional strategy over the Christmas trading period and will do so in 2019 to both reflect and shape the convenience marketplace, it has said.
Its harder-hitting promotional strategy saw franchisees benefit from the group’s first online game – the Great Advent Giveaway, which gave customers the opportunity to win a prize a day from 1 December to Christmas Day.
Franchisees also ran a different Christmas Countdown promotion every week from mid-November to 26 December, offering deals on Christmas essentials such as three boxes of popular chocolates and chocolate selection boxes, such as Guylian Caramel, Black Magic and Cadbury Freddo Selection Box, for £5.
Blair Southwood, who runs One Stop’s franchise in Louth, Lincolnshire, said the strength of the promotions had created strong enough demand to make it worthwhile opening on Christmas Day.
“We are able to build loyalty with our customers through our strong promotions,” he said, adding the store had sold all its Christmas stock.
Read more: One Stop credits like-for-like growth to own-label relaunch
One Stop claims it is different from symbol groups by ensuring all franchise stores have the same till and ordering system, which it says makes it easier to run strong promotions and multibuy meal deals.
It said giving franchisees the advantage of a common systems set-up was mirrored by the business’s approach to in-store point of sale.
Franchisees all had purpose-built stands for promotions and specific layouts for them, it added. All the point of sale automatically fitted into the stores’ shelves, simplifying swapping promotions.
John Miller, head of One Stop Franchise, said the days were gone when convenience operators could charge premium prices “just for being convenient”.
Shoppers expected to see “really strong, market-leading promotions”, he said. One Stop had negotiated this and had ensured its franchise network could easily make the most of them, he added.
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