How do you maintain brand consistency and ordering accuracy when you have 300 stores across the East Coast? For one privately owned line of convenience stores, making it more challenging is that signage changes every two months. Hundreds of signs are being printed from New Jersey to North Carolina on a regular basis.
For convenience stores like this one, rolling change in signage is part of the business. Different seasonal products, deals, and introductions mean a constant churn to keep things fresh. Whether it’s “Scan This QR Code to See Our Menu” or a sign to promote the chain’s new jalapeno cheese sauce, each store needs the flexibility to order what it needs, as its needs arise, but there need to be oversight, as well.
Eliminating Errors on the Front End
This is where branded storefronts are a “must have.” The franchise headquarters locks down branding elements, sets rules for which stores can order which products, and ensures that only the appropriate products can be ordered by each store. Store owners in New Jersey aren’t going to see a sign that says “Marlboro” and has an offer only valid in Pennsylvania, for example.
All orders, whether for inside use (such as for the coffee station, deli, or snacks); or for outdoor use (such as for the car wash and pump displays), are routed to us here at Full Sail Media for printing. This way, every sign or banner is printed exactly the same way, to brand standards, no matter who orders it or how much time has passed between orders.
Oversight is Built In
What about approvals? Can stores simply order what they want no matter what? No, oversight is built into the workflow. Only approved personnel can place orders, and once logged in, each store’s area of the storefront displays only the appropriate products for that store. As a final check, once a store manager places an order, the regional manager gets a notification so the order can be approved or not.
Such workflows cut error rates significantly. Not just by eliminating compliance errors, but other errors, as well. No more accidentally ordering 27” banners for 36” windows or purchasing a sign for a seven-head soda dispenser when the store’s dispensers have nine.
Today, through rules-based ordering, this chain’s basic ordering errors have been all but eliminated. Plus, the template-based system provides approved, print-ready files. This speeds jobs through our system so customers get their materials much more quickly. Sure, setting up one of these storefronts takes some time initially. But the end result is truly a “win” all the way around.
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