Dive Brief:
- Kum & Go has partnered with retail technology company Upside at more than 200 of its c-stores in the West and Midwest, according to an emailed announcement.
- Upside’s software identifies nearby customers who haven’t visited a specific c-store or gas station, and offers personalized cash-back promotions via its mobile app to entice them to visit that location.
- Having already partnered with a handful of major c-store brands, Upside — which has seen a 157% increase in new merchants on its platform this year — expects its “c-store partnerships to grow in 2023,” CEO Alex Kinnier wrote in an email.
Dive Insight:
Working with Upside will let Kum & Go serve those new customers “in a way that’s measurably beneficial” to its business, Brad Petersen, director of retail fuels for the Des Moines, Iowa-based retailer, said in the announcement. It will also help Kum & Go grow its bottom line, Kinnier said.
Bringing Upside’s platform to 200 locations means Kum & Go, which operates about 400 stores in total across 11 U.S. states, is launching the platform in about half its network — a sizable investment for the retailer.
Kum & Go did not specify in which states or markets it will be introducing Upside.
Other c-store brands that already work with Upside include BP, RaceTrac, Casey’s General Stores, Circle K, Love’s, Speedway and more.
Upside’s platform uses people’s purchase history and anonymized processor data and compares that with local stores in its database to find new customers or those who only shop at those stores occasionally. Upside then generates cash-back promotions in its mobile app for those people through its machine-learning offer generation engine.
The platform “encourages new consumers to visit participating locations and existing consumers to visit more often,” said Kevin Hart, senior vice president of fuel for Upside.
Besides c-stores and gas stations, Upside also works with grocery stores and restaurants. It has 50,000 businesses in its network.
