Queuing has been identified as a key frustration of customers in recent years. For instance, 33% of customers leave the store without buying anything if the queues are likely to last longer than 7 minutes*. The importance of knowledgeable staff, the impact they have on customers making an informed purchase and ensuring they have the best experience throughout their buying process was also something DFS wanted to draw on when developing a new solution.

DFS’ objective was to keep customers happy by helping them to avoid queues with a simple solution that would speed up the checkout process, as well as streamline the use of staff while reducing their footprint to lower costs for forecourt owners. The solution: the DFS Self-Checkout Kiosk.

Studies have shown self-checkout kiosks are simply faster than traditional checkout systems. Even in peak periods, research shows consumers can scan, pay and continue with their day much more efficiently. They also lower operational costs by reducing the number of single-lane cashiers, allowing merchants to redeploy employees to complete other valuable tasks. A self-checkout kiosk is ideally suited for consumers with small baskets and strong card payment usage, making it perfect for the fuel retail sector. These kiosks can be placed into a relatively small area and typically take up less space than a single traditional point-of-sale (POS) system with a cashier.

Once the solution had been decided, the challenge was to work out how it would be installed across forecourts throughout Europe and how it would be positioned depending on the market. Each fuel site has different needs, which would need to be determined on a site-by-site basis. Factors such as store architecture and the physical customer journey would both impact the location at which the terminals needed to be installed, as well as in which form. Additional considerations – such as the required extra functionality for certain markets – would also impact the integration of this solution. These features could include a light bar that indicates if a customer needed extra assistance or remote displays helping cashiers monitor what the customer is doing when making payments. However, the key to the success of the DFS Self-Checkout Kiosk was the ability for DFS to integrate market-specific payment methods with the system. In Belgium, for example, this was through Payconiq, a popular mobile payment solution based on QR codes.

However, the most notable challenge for DFS was developing a solution that merged both convenience store purchases with fuel. DFS partnered with Big Brother, a CCTV supplier, to fully integrate the DFS Self-Checkout Solution and make it a reality. This partnership enabled visitors to site to make fuel payments by selecting their car from the live site footage, which reduced the number of mistakes and sped up the payment process.

Another similar evolution piloted by DFS in the summer of 2021 on the French highway was the Mobile POS Kiosk. The French highway network is known for being exceptionally busy during the summer period, and retailers were looking for solutions to speed up the purchasing process and reduce congestion for their many customers, whilst allowing both convenience and fuel purchases to be made in a single transaction. They addressed the issue through the creation of small, completely mobile convenience units, which sold a variety of popular snacks and beverages, but also had the capability to accept card payments for fuel purchases at the same time – all without the customer having to enter the convenience store. The mobility of the solution meant fuel retailers could be responsive to the changing traffic, moving the kiosk to the busiest areas to keep the flow of customer traffic moving at a regular pace.

The Mobile POS Kiosk solution was a strong example of how DFS responded to the needs of the French market, creating a positive consumer experience to stay close to its customers and improve throughput at site. DFS is already building in more functionality to the solution in order to roll it out to a wider market. It is another example of how DFS is improving the consumer experience and increasing site throughput.

Perhaps the most notable consumer experience technology DFS has developed over the past few years is the DFS Anthem UX®. This ground-breaking, award-winning solution features an intuitive user interface that opens a new way for fuel retailers to interact with customers at the dispenser through a flexible content platform that allows for an unmatched customer experience that is simpler, faster, more relevant and entertaining. The Anthem UX® offers the customer a range of options when they fuel their vehicle, such as receipt type, fuel grade, operating language, media and sound levels. It also offers users multi-channel media selection across a broad range of content, such as weather, traffic, sports and other forms of entertainment, through the integration of DFS’ media solution, DX Promote® . Using DX Promote®, fuel retailers are also able to make use of increased branding and advertising capabilities, upselling different fuel grades, promoting in-store offers and offering loyalty rewards. What’s more, customers are able to make purchases for both fuel and convenience items at the dispenser itself, before they even enter the store.

The Anthem UX® has already experienced huge success in the U.S. market for its unrivalled customer experience capabilities. The next challenge the company is facing is how to bring this revolutionary platform to other markets around the globe.

In recent years, governments and the public have become more and more concerned with finding greener alternatives to conventional means of travel. One trend that has really taken off is the development and adoption of electric vehicles (EV). The adoption of EV technology across the world varies heavily from country to country, with a small number of countries in Europe leading the way. In Belgium, for example, EVs for business use are subsidised by the government, providing a huge incentive for people to choose more environmentally friendly transport on a day-to-day basis. In Norway, 73.8% of all new passenger car registrations in November 2021 were fully electric**. There is no doubt the dawn of the EV is here, and it is only a matter of time before the rest of the world catches up with these leading examples.

DFS has already secured strong partnerships with EV companies, including ChargePoint in North America, to improve its alternative fuel offering to its customers and keep up with this momentous trend. The next challenge DFS faces is how it should go about merging the ecosystem of the EV charger and the ecosystem at the fuel retail site to ensure customers have the same level of convenience they expect for vehicles powered by conventional fuels.

So far, DFS has successfully integrated EV chargers into the fuel retailer’s site system using the industry standard OCPP protocol, thereby enabling the use of existing payment and loyalty solutions for EV chargers. This creates a better experience for consumers by providing clear insight into EV pricing. Fuel retailers are able to fully reconcile EV-related activity into their site reconciliation data, therefore benefitting from complete visibility on their overall site performance.