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What was your biggest impression of running a petrol station this year?
1. Market regulation is becoming more and more formal
2. Oil profit margins are getting smaller and smaller
3. The number of fuel vehicles is getting smaller and smaller
4. Customer growth is getting harder
Looking at the refined oil market, the common feeling of most people is: bleak.
Various adverse factors rushed to the gas station, and the gas station was a little helpless, not knowing how to resolve the immediate existential crisis.
The only constant in the market is change. Under the trend of the times, gas stations can only adapt and use in the face of objective changes in the market, and all signs indicate that gas stations have entered a new stage of competition: stock competition.
01
There are several signs that gas stations are stepping into the stock market
NO.1
According to the "Blue Book on the Development of China's Petroleum Circulation Industry (2022-2023)" (hereinafter referred to as the "Blue Book") issued by the China Petroleum Circulation Association, in 2022, the total number of gas stations in the country will be about 107,600, a year-on-year decrease of more than 110, a decrease of about 0.11%, and the total number of gas stations in the country has declined for the first time, which means that the competition for the stock of the gas station industry has further intensified.
NO.2
The "Blue Book" also shows that in 2022, the production and sales of new energy vehicles will increase by 96.9% and 93.4% year-on-year, respectively, the penetration rate of new energy vehicles will reach 25.64%, and the switch of oil and electricity energy is in rapid progress.
NO.3
In addition to electricity, a variety of alternative energy sources such as gas and hydrogen have emerged, and the development and construction of integrated energy service stations for oil, gas, electricity and hydrogen services has become the trend of the times.
NO.4
In March this year, a wave of automobile "price reduction" swept the country, or the number of fuel vehicles peaked in advance, and gas stations are about to usher in a key turning point in development.
In the past, gas stations relied on huge profit margins, supported by huge customer incremental plates, and supported by strong commodity attributes, completely realizing "lying profit".
Now it is different, the profit advantages of gas stations that rely on external market support are gone, and the situation has become embattled.
You can't ask for outside, you can only ask for inside, and the shift of the focus of gas station management from outside to inside is happening.
02
A "anomalous" data of the gas station
In the process of exploring the way of operation inward, gas stations must change the traditional business thinking and business model, based on data, through the use of digital intelligence systems such as big data analysis, and constantly explore the existing management problems of enterprises.
At present, there is a prominent problem in gas stations: the membership operation of gas stations in the stock era.
After a gas station A launched the intelligent management system of smart oil customers, the operation situation was analyzed and summarized, and through the big data analysis function, the business data of various dimensions such as member consumption ratio, member contribution rate, member recharge rate, card holding rate, payment method, customer unit price, non-oil sales data was analyzed, and found that there was a data, which was very "abnormal".
8% of active members contribute nearly 50% of sales to gas stations
From this data, very few customers support the extremely high sales of gas stations. This shows that the value of active members is greater than that of ordinary members, and far greater than that of non-members. Correspondingly, the loss of an active member is also very different from the loss of a non-member.
The focus of gas station operation is no longer to blindly attract customers, but to promote members, and how to keep active members active and retained.
The shift from pursuing quantity to demanding quality is the biggest difference between the stock market and the incremental market. At this stage, the key to increasing gas station sales is also here.
03
How to revitalize members?
As the number of customers in the business district of the gas station reaches a dynamic balance, in the process of operation, it inevitably encounters a bottleneck period, and sales cannot break through. The gas station, which has invested a lot of money to attract customers, looks at the still dismal sales, completely scratches their heads, and does not know what the problem is.
The strategy of incremental markets no longer works in existing markets.
From the data of gas station A, the value and contribution rate of active members to the gas station are very high, and under the relatively fixed total number of customers, promoting members is the key to breakthrough.
This law is actually common in the retail industry, increasing customer retention with a membership model, and digging deep into existing members according to different enterprise and commodity characteristics to promote member activity.
Drawing on the experience of the retail industry, combined with the characteristics of the gas station industry, we can promote members from several aspects.
Part.1 The membership system is effectively built
The most common models of the membership system are stored value type and growth type, both of which have their own characteristics.
- Stored value membership
Stored value members are common in the marketing activities of gas stations, and the traditional forms of how much to recharge and how much to recharge, how much to recharge and how much to give, etc., lock in a certain number of times of customer consumption, and the frequency of consumption cannot be guaranteed.
For example, customers recharge at gas station A to become a member, enjoy the benefit of 20 yuan free over 1,000 yuan, but find that gas station B activity price is cheaper, so they do not often go to gas station A, half a year has passed, the amount of stored value has just been consumed.
It can be seen that traditional stored value marketing can not promote the activation of members, if the form is changed, 20 yuan stored value into 100 yuan combination coupons, set a certain threshold and validity period, such as 4 15 yuan full 150 yuan available, 2 20 yuan full 220 yuan available, 3 months validity period. When the customer uses the last remaining 20 yuan coupon, the stored value amount is not enough, at this time, another stored value activity can be launched to achieve continuous promotion.
Under the traditional stored value method, customers need to consume half a year's stored value amount, in another form of stored value marketing, customers will most likely consume within 3 months, and can also pave the way for the next stored value activity.
Using stored value marketing to lock customers, and then cleverly setting the coupon amount, expiration date or other forms of benefits, is more conducive to the increase of members' activity and stickiness.
- Growth Membership
Growth members set tiered growth rights based on the actual customer group of the gas station, such as consumption level, consumption frequency, consumption preference, customer unit price and other actual conditions.
Membership benefits can include different content, such as oil discounts, gas coupon packages, birthday benefits, car wash coupons, convenience store coupons, cross-industry card coupons, points, and other rich forms.
When putting these benefits into the membership system, gas stations should follow the principle of member exclusivity, distinguish members from non-members, and give members a "sense of superiority" to their status. At the same time, it is necessary to ensure that the higher the membership level, the more rights and benefits, and divide members according to the consumption contribution rate, so that the "sense of superiority" of members has a more detailed sense of hierarchy.
The higher the level of the member, the higher the stickiness to the gas station, and the higher the consumption contribution, so the cost of more investment in the gas station must be very cost-effective.
The purpose of the growth membership system is to make non-members want to become members, and make members want to become higher-level members.
Part.2 Attempts at the paid membership model
The paid membership model appeared later than the previous two membership models, and it is also based on the original basis, further in-depth operation and binding of member customers.
- Will anyone pay for paid memberships?
In terms of the evolution trend of e-commerce platform membership system, after JD.com took the lead in launching "PLUS membership", Alibaba launched 88VIP membership cards, NetEase Kaola, Xiaohongshu and other platforms also launched black card members, and the paid membership model has become a new means of e-commerce competition, because it has huge advantages for retaining active members and high-value members.
There are also many experimenters in offline retail, and the family launched a premium card with a consumption threshold of 100 yuan per year, and tested the "paid member convenience store" for the first time in China, and found that the monthly frequency of premium card cardholders is more than twice that of ordinary members, and they always maintain a high degree of activity.
It can be seen that paid members can lock members deeper and keep members more active. Gas stations can also learn from the paid membership model to further improve the membership system of gas stations.
- Smart Oiler PLUS membership function
Smart Oiler launched the PLUS membership function to help the promotion of paid members at gas stations, support the launch of monthly passes, season passes, and annual passes, and also set up tiered membership rights and interests to impress member customers to purchase with rich benefits, increase retention and enhance activity.
Since the launch of the PLUS membership function, Smart Oiler has helped partner gas stations lock in a large number of active customers.
Part.3 Construction of integral closed-loop system
Points are an important "weapon" to promote the activation of members, but many gas stations evaluate points as dispensable, why?
- Are points really dispensable?
The reason why gas stations feel that points can be dispensed with is because points seem to have little effect on promoting the activity of gas station members, and customers do not come to refuel several times because they send points.
And the gas station that thinks that the points can have, because the points will not cause any cost loss to the gas station, there is, it is not a burden.
Points are a low-cost tool to promote activation, but gas stations do not establish a complete integral closed loop.
- What is an integral closed loop?
Points are obtained and consumed and used, only acquisition is useless, members want this kind of points is meaningless, not consumption is inevitable.
We always say that points are spent when money, gas station is to spend points for member customers channels and platforms, cultivate the habit of member customers spending points, just like we spend money will work harder to make money, spending points will reverse promote customers to get points, how to get points? Spend at a gas station. This forms a closed loop of points to promote members.
Therefore, gas stations must give the way and channels of points consumption to member customers, such as directly exchanging points for oil coupons, car wash coupons, non-oil coupons, or redeeming physical goods in convenience stores, coffee, breakfast, or redeeming benefits (traffic, fitness experience cards) for cross-industry cooperation, etc., so that member customers have more choices.
The point model is a very low cost of member activation, and the points are very versatile, and there are rich ways and channels for promoting activation. Gas stations can build a points ecology, such as opening up with online shopping malls, using the rich products of online shopping malls to operate members and tap value in depth.
How to build a gas station points ecology? We will continue to share with you in subsequent articles.