4 Habits of Fuel Customers

As the rate of gas consumption by motor vehicles continues to rise—amounting to over 145 billion gallons in a year—valuable insights become available for owners of gas stations and convenience stores alike.

Habits-of-Fuel-Customers

Learning how often and when fuel customers visit can help gear the services to suit their specific needs.

Here are some of the habits fuel customers exhibit:

The Most Popular Time for Filling-Up: Mid-Day

Studies have shown that most people claim to purchase gas between 10am and 3pm. This is a popular time for fuel-purchasing hints to certain patterns that owners of gas stations and convenience stores can use to their advantage.

Ensuring there is a steady supply of fuel around this time will ensure you don’t experience any hiccups in providing your service. It can also assist gas station owners in determining what times to allocate the most employees.

The Preferred Payment Method: Plastic

An overwhelming majority of fuel customers purchase using their debit or credit cards. With about 78 percent of people citing non-cash methods of payment across both genders, cash has seen a steady decline as a means of payment.

Keeping this in mind, gas station owners must develop efficient and convenient Point of Sale (POS) systems and procedures to allow for quick, easy transactions.

Customers Visit the Convenience Store

With over 154,958 convenience stores nationwide, most gas stations have convenience stores where fuel customers often visit. Studies suggest that almost half of the customers who buy gas go into the convenience store to make purchases.

Common purchases include beverages, snacks, lottery tickets, and cigarettes, while paying for the gas at the register is the leading cause for going into the convenience store.

Determining Factor: Price

There are a lot of factors that go into the decision to purchase fuel. The leading reason for customers choosing to go into a specific store is the price of fuel offered by the specific location.

While the location of the station and the brand do factor into the decision, the determining factor is largely the expected price of the fuel. This insight allows gas station owners to maintain competitive prices since it’s a prime determinant of purchasing decisions.

We hope you enjoyed reading this blog and found it helpful.

If you’re interested in more gas station business articles and guides, feel free to take a look at our resource section.

John W. Kennedy Company is a trusted service station equipment and essentials supplier; we provide pumping unit parts, fuel control systems, and gas pump filters among several others. We’ve been serving the U.S. gas stations and convenience stores since 1930. Visit our online store to learn more about our products and services.

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