CASEY’S GENERAL STORES PREPARES TO PILOT SEVERAL DIGITAL INITIATIVES

ANKENY, Iowa — Casey’s General Stores Inc. is getting closer to going live with a new mobile app and loyalty program. Both initiatives are components of the convenience store retailer’s digital transformation — a key factor in its value creation plan.

Casey’s unveiled its value creation plan in March in response to concerns voiced by a group of its shareholders. Other components of the value creation plan include a new fleet card program, price optimization, and controlling operating expenses and capital allocation, as Convenience Store News previously reported. For an update on the other components, click here.

Casey’s digital transformation initiative reached several milestones in the just-completed second quarter of the company’s 2019 fiscal year.

For example, Casey’s hired a vice president of digital customer experience and director of digital marketing. In addition, the retailer went live with its Salesforce Marketing Cloud, enabling Casey’s to increase its addressable customer base by more than 400 percent to 2.2 million, Casey’s President and CEO Terry Handley reported during the retailer’s Q2 earnings call on Dec. 11.

“We have already begun an automated marketing campaign to customers and, during the next two quarters, we will also pilot and roll out a new digital ordering platform,” Handley explained.

“In the first quarter of our next fiscal year [2020], we plan to debut our new mobile app, which is planned to coincide with the pilot and subsequent rollout of the Casey’s loyalty program,” the chief executive added.

Once the retailer integrates this digital engagement program — including a new e-commerce platform — across its network, Casey’s “will create a seamless customer experience online and in-store that enhances our digital capability and facilitates personalized marketing and rewards,” said Handley.

“This will involve an enhanced website, a redesigned mobile app, a loyalty program, in-store technology, and enhanced enterprise infrastructure,” he added. “This digital platform will allow us to gain a better understanding of our consumers and better serve them by providing value and targeting effective promotions that will drive additional customer visits.”

Ankeny-based Casey’s General Stores operates more than 2,000 convenience stores in 16 states across the Midwest and South regions of the United States.