SD-WAN Can Increase Sales 41% and Four Other Stats C-Store Owners Must Know

You may have heard that switching to SD-WAN can help your retail petroleum business but do you really know the ways how it can do so? In a new report about how convenience store owners are redefining your experience from arrival, to time well spent with enterprise digital signage solutions at the pump, to racking up rewards points in a mobile app loyalty program, an SD-WAN solution is to be the common thread. 

Here are five stats every C-Store owner needs to know.

1. "SD-WAN can enable up to 41% higher sales." With the infrastructure of SD-WAN in place, convenience retailers are empowered to meet the competition head-on with a network solution prepared to perform quickly and smoothly, 24/7. A solution like HughesON Managed SD-WAN enables more technologies into action because it can provide features like: prioritized traffic in order to recognize payments, a secure and direct path to the Internet, dual circuits, and more. It's just not an increase in availability and bandwidth, though. In the era of the app-driven enterprise, application assurance in an SD-WAN solution means a much higher performing enterprise overall. 


2. “43% of high-income millennials are more likely to visit a gas station if its app offers them convenience, loyalty and savings." At a time when increasingly more products and services are switching to being offered online and via a mobile device, the demand for these services in industries that have not yet switched over increases daily. A company offering mobile pay and self-checkout is more likely to dominate these important areas that can influence a potential customer to keep their business with you or take it elsewhere. Again, application assurance and SD-WAN mean more than bandwidth.


3. “70% of consumers are interested in C-store delivery.” The key benefit of C-Stores is convenience. Opening up service offerings and adding in options like delivery, drive-thru, or curbside pickup is only going to make customers want to keep coming back. Adding this many new options at once may sound overwhelming, but one single decision—like switching to Managed SD-WAN, which can scale up and down with your needs—can clear the path to a stronger business by providing a robust and secure network to assist you in every new endeavor.


4. “Retailers enjoy a 107% average sales increase when they track and use customer preferences across channels, compared to retailers that do not.” In order to take your store to the next level, a managed SD-WAN network with greater bandwidth capabilities is necessary to perform the more advanced tasks like keeping track of customer preferences, guaranteeing high quality mobile user experience, and implementing overall cross-channel personalization.


5. “Only 49.7% of C-stores currently tie in a loyalty program.” Simply having a mobile application isn’t enough anymore. You can beat out the more than half of convenience stores who have yet to take advantage of the all the benefits that SD-WAN can give by adding on a loyalty app, and incentivize your customers to return to your business and not the competition. After all, they’ll be getting rewarded for joining a loyalty program and doing business with you. With SD-WAN, you can deliver a consistent experience and ensure loyalty apps don't interfere with more critical applications like POS and real-time voice and video.