With product prices swelling and inflation flirting with 40-year highs, convenience shoppers are tailoring their spending habits to maximize resources and value—and retailers are taking note.

For retailers, smart promotions are an essential component of creating appeal among customers grappling with rising prices.

A pillar of an effective promotion is one that prompts the shopper to take notice. In the 2022 NACS Convenience Voices mobile survey, 32.5% of shoppers reported noticing promotions, up 2.5 percentage points vs. 2021—a five-year high.

Yet, noticing promotions alone is not enough for retailers to realize the benefits at the register. Shoppers must find them relevant before they decide to purchase or engage.

According to NACS data, 18 out of every 100 convenience shoppers noticed and conscientiously engaged in promotions, another peak over the past five years. At the shelf or on cooler doors was the most effective place to notice a promotion, with 21% of shoppers indicating that this is where they spotted an item they purchased on promotion, an increase of 1.9 percentage points year over year.

Digital promotions continue to be high priority for retailers, and customers noticed more mobile retail offers as a result. Mobile promotions were the top acted-on promotion for the second consecutive year at 18.7%. They also have the highest growth year over year at 3.6 percentage points.

Ultimately, rising prices do not just affect shoppers, they also create barriers to in-store conversion from the fuel pump. Promotions located on exterior store windows were the No. 2 noticed promotion at 9.4% for the second year behind mobile promotions.

Regardless of strategic focus, retailers that leverage both traditional and digital real estate have seen the most success with driving promotions in the face of inflation.

NACS Convenience Voices is packed with valuable, proprietary insights you can only get from NACS. Leveraging the ubiquity of mobile technology enables more precise targeting, expanded geographic reporting, powerful multimedia feedback and more. Visit www.convenience.org/voices to learn how to participate.