Dive Brief:
- BP is launching a digital service to help independent convenience retailers operate their stores more efficiently, Tarang Sethia, the company’s chief product officer and general manager, digital products, mobility and convenience, Americas, said during a recent episode of MIT’s Business Lab podcast.
- The platform, Croscourt, is a cloud-based system that uses AI to monitor store operations and infrastructure to help retailers personalize their offerings, fix routine issues and reduce costs, Sethia said. It’s offered as software-as-a-service, meaning retailers subscribe to it rather than buying it outright.
- This is a significant step for BP, which, in addition to already being one of the top fuel suppliers and c-store owners in the industry, will now also wear the hat of retail technology vendor.
Dive Insight:
It’s unclear if BP is offering Croscourt to any mom-and-pop convenience retailer or only the ones it supplies fuel to. A company spokesperson did not respond by press time when asked for this information.
What is clear is the impact Croscourt is already having with independent retailers who are using the platform, notably a 20% reduction in operating costs, Sethia said during the interview. The platform allows independent retailers to spend more time serving customers, he added.
With Croscourt, BP is also aggregating various elements of a retailer’s business into one platform, including its mobile app, POS and back-office systems, pricing and customer support, Sethia said.
“We take ownership of making sure that these systems are up,” Sethia said. “We make sure that the systems are personalizing offers for the customers. So the store owner can just focus on delighting their guests.”
Sethia said BP purposefully omitted its name from Croscourt’s branding to keep the focus on the independent retailers using its platform. These retailers, many of which have between 1 and 50 stores, are struggling to stay afloat in today’s inflationary environment, as they lack the pricing power and economies of scale that their larger competitors have.
“We want them to stay local,” Sethia said. “We want them to stay the mom-and-pop store operator that their customers trust, but we are providing them the tools to run their stores more efficiently and to delight their guests.”
