Petroleum Merchant Services have evolved over the past 10 years. Pay at the pump merchant services technology is the only way to go. Gas stations that offer the convenience of paying at the pump see an increase in gas sales of in excess of 40% compared to gas stations that do not offer this convenience. It is a necessity in today’s petroleum business to consumer as well as business to business industry.
The question is, how does a gas station keep up in-store sales while at the same time increasing gas and diesel sales at the pump with pay at the pump technology? Here are two solid ideas to increase your sales and profits:
1) Sell merchandise at cost in the gas station store to get people in the door and then advertise this at the pump in an at pump display and on the gas station door and windows. An example of this is sell a $0.50 hot dog and $0.50 king size candy bar. This will get consumers inside your store. When they are there they can then purchase higher profit items like fountain drinks, chips, snacks, tobacco, lottery, or alcohol.
2) Then in your convenience store accept payment through the First Data FD100, Hypercom T7P, or the Omni VX570. This merchant service equipment can save your petroleum station a lot of money in processing costs and the best merchant equipment providers will provide this to you for free – especially if you are in need of petroleum merchant services.
3) Another way to beef up sales is to put a Subway or Jimmy John’s franchise inside your convenience store. Sheets has learned how to grow sales dramatically with the MTO sandwich shop inside the store location. You could do this as well. If you are at a gas station that already has a lot of foot traffic you may want to strongly consider this as adding a Subway or Jimmy John’s will create an additional very strong profit center for your company.
