C‑Store TEC 2025: How Convenience Retail Is Building Its Connected Future

Event Overview

Created by Next Chapter and CSP/Informa, C‑Store TEC is “created by retailers for retailers” to foster an inclusive community where leaders share real, actionable playbooks, not hype. As one speaker framed it, the event is “a welcoming community… built for leaders, retail leaders, by retail leaders,” with space for “meaningful conversations” and practical collaboration over three days.

This year’s conversations revolved around:

• Evolving customer expectations through rewards and omnichannel.
• Modernizing legacy systems to prepare platforms for the age of AI.
• Rethinking the IT team as a strategic business partner.
• Empowering teams at scale including frontline and home office.
• Aligning strategy, culture, and execution across business partners.

The vision is bold: help convenience retail lead broader retail in technology adoption, moving from being “a couple steps behind” to out in front. The mission: accelerate progress by bringing the industry together in an intimate format with focused, real-world sessions.

Evolving Customer Expectations: Rewards, Omnichannel, and Experience

The customer journey “has fully gone digital.” Today’s shopper is influenced by TikTok, Instagram, and ChatGPT well before they step in‑store. Leaders shared proof points:

• “80% of C‑Store shoppers now use a mobile device when they’re shopping.”
• “60% of the top 200 chains now have a digitally engaged loyalty program.”
• “Delivery and pickup now represent 10–15% of total sales for the chains that are digitally enabled.”
• “Six in 10 shoppers expect order ahead options.”

The bar for experience is set by the mega-giants like Amazon and Walmart, with customers asking: “If that’s not the same experience I have when I go to a convenience store, I’m wondering why. They can do it, can’t you?”

What matters now: “65% of consumers say experience matters more than location.” Brands that respond with real‑time, personalized, channel‑agnostic journeys will win the next trip.

Modernizing Legacy Systems for the Age of AI

Panelists were quite blunt: modernization isn’t optional, and it’s not overnight. Sitting and letting your tech debt build will end up forcing your brand to be acquired or go out of business. If you don’t modernize your data access into a single location, you’re going to fall behin in the digital age due to the speed of change.

• “There are certain legacy systems that you have to invest dollars in… If your ERP system hasn’t been updated in a long time… you’re going to have your hands tied.”
• “We dedicate 10–20% of sprint capacity specifically to technical debt and architecture improvements.”
• The pitch matters to internal partners: “Do the right storytelling… If we modernize, you don’t just continue doing X—you set yourself up for what’s possible.”

Our partner Circle K shared their approach on stage:

• Edge computing to extend hardware life and add resiliency in store for customer and employee experience.
• “Less is more” sequencing with lab → beta → pilot gates and a “fail fast” mindset.
• A “two‑in‑the‑box” ownership model pairing business leaders with tech partners, backed by a tech charter of “Modernize, Automate, Hyperscale.”

Rethinking IT as a Strategic Business Partner

Art Sebastian spoke how the “Department of No” stigma gives way to strategy when IT has a seat at the table early:

• “Getting IT to the table… as you’re looking at the roadmap… is key.”
• “Product management serves as a bridge between business stakeholders and engineering… not just an execution function, but a thought partner.”

But getting a seat at the table for IT starts with building credibility through reliability: “It’s hard to have a seat at the table when you don’t have your own house in order.” Reduce downtime, then earn the right to shape growth.

A standout example of IT driving value:

• “We built an AI gateway to A/B test our personalization models against commercial offerings from Amazon and Google.”
• “We built a data lake connecting POS, ERP, HRIS, loyalty, QSR… FP&A can now make faster decisions with better information.”

Empowering Teams at Scale: Frontline and Home Office

Digitization must lighten the load in stores and unlock better execution:

• “We limit the number of tasks per day so they can be completed” and surface data‑driven “sales missions” when anomalies appear, enabling managers to focus more on the guest.
• Practical AI is here now: one operator used camera analytics “with 40 lines of Python code” to monitor food freshness for “about $4/year,” and devs are using AI to generate test cases and parse thousands of transactions in hours instead of 1,000 person‑hours.

Talent strategy follows the same ethos:

• Give engineers space to work on innovative projects to retain and grow capability.
• Build diverse, complementary teams rather than chasing only “rock stars”.
• Promote from within, invest in learning, and use clear metrics to align outcomes.

Aligning Strategy, Culture, and Execution Across Partners

The culture shift shows up in planning cadences and how decisions are made:

• Quarterly planning that sequences work across shared “organs of the body” rather than piling on parallel surgery.
• Joint marketing‑IT roadmaps that arrive with one recommendation, not competing plans.
• A measurement culture: loyalty incrementality, SLAs and uptime, and end‑to‑end cost of ownership guide trade‑offs.

On vendor partnerships, leaders were frank:

• Beware “it’s easy” claims; keep business partners involved post‑sale to validate reality.
• Prioritize partners with domain depth and cross‑industry scale, and who answer the phone “when the [problems] hit the fan”.

The Road Ahead

Expect more real‑time, in‑store personalization, agentic AI to augment decisions, and IoT driving availability, safety, and cost efficiency. Or as one prediction put it: “More robotic driven AI applications” and “the largest amount of competition we’ve probably ever seen… the race to win the customer.”

C‑Store TEC’s challenge to the industry is clear: build the connected stack, align your culture to move fast with integrity, and measure everything. Because the shift is real—and the leaders are already proving it, one practical win at a time.

Ready to Simplify and Scale Store Operations?

The trends are clear: to thrive in this new retail era, store operations must be as agile and intelligent.

With Quorso, your store teams won’t just keep up – they’ll lead the way.

 Book a demo with Quorso today and start turning data into daily, measurable results.