Technological change happens fast, and for convenience retailers, prioritizing which innovations to seize—and which to bypass—is yet another challenge in the race to stay ahead of the competition, especially as the pandemic forced quick shifts in operations and services to meet customer demands.

What was important before the pandemic, for instance, implementing technology to support loyalty rewards programs, in many cases has been overtaken by newer customer-facing initiatives like omnichannel shopping and enabling contactless payments to speed in-person checkout.

NACS Research surveyed convenience retail technology leaders this past spring to gather feedback on these challenges and the current landscape of convenience retail technology. The results and recommendations are shared in a white paper, “Building Convenience Retail Success Through Technology,” available at www.convenience.org/research.

The findings help retailers set priorities for implementing specific technologies based on convenience retailer business impact ratings. Benchmarking helps identify whether your company is ahead or behind other retailers in adopting certain technologies, understanding what to consider before implementing technology and initiating the request for proposals for new technology providers.

You can also download the Convenience Retail Technology Implementation Mapping & RFP Guide — a benchmark on the current landscape of tech adoption and what retailers should consider when scoping for their next tech provider and building a technology RFP. The technology adoption analysis is presented as a radar graphic that covers the implementation progress, business impact and implementation difficulty for 41 technologies across six key categories.