Gas stations have gone through the grocery form in the embryonic period, the specialized gas station form in the professionalization period, the service station form in the diversification period,
and the convenience store-style gas store form in the self-service refueling period.
In the future, tomorrow’s gas stations, in line with the changing trend of automobile energy diversification, cleanliness, and sustainability,
will no longer be a traditional form, but an automobile energy retail platform that coexists with a variety of composite energy sources and convenient services. It is a new type of energy store, so this future gas station is called E-Store for short.
The future E-Store has two meanings. First, it is an E-Store that provides a variety of energy solutions, and second, it is an E-Store that provides an information service platform.
The so-called E-Store takes composite energy solutions as its core and provides a diversified retail business portfolio, mainly including the following core service functions.
Automotive energy retail store.
The gas stations of the future will be a variety of hybrid automotive energy retail stores,
providing traditional retail sales of gasoline, diesel, and natural gas for vehicles, as well as electric vehicle charging services (or battery pack replacement services),
and hydrogen fuel retail services, perhaps as well. With breakthroughs in new energy technology,
new automotive energy sources that are not well known today will gradually enter the business scope of gas stations in the future.
Convenience shopping retail store.
In the future, convenient shopping at gas stations will be mainly characterized by the sales of “grab and go” products,
whether they are daily necessities, travel supplies, fast food, or bottled drinks, “grab and go” ” is an important principle in product selection.
In future gas stations, with the popularization and application of self-service equipment, convenience stores will have a trend of developing into “mini Mart + self-service fast food”.
Vehicle cleaning and beauty shop.
Different from the mechanical performance maintenance of car specialty stores, future gas stations will provide internal and external cleaning, beauty,
and daily maintenance for vehicles, providing customers with a beautiful car appearance and a clean and comfortable driving environment.
Car washing services can be either self-service machine washing or high-end manual hand washing.
Automobile spare parts retail store.
In the future, gas stations will provide “replace and go” car spare parts retail services for vehicles. The spare parts are mainly tires, batteries, and low-value consumables (TBA).
The quality of the spare parts is easy to identify and simple to replace. Consumers do not need to have professional knowledge to make a purchase,
nor do service staff need to have professional skills to make replacements.
The so-called e-store makes full use of modern Internet technology to achieve remote operation control and provide customers with real-time interactive information platform services, which mainly include the following functions.
Pay online.
Through the real-time communication system, customers can use various bank cards, oil company gas cards, mobile phones,
and other electronic payment methods to settle without any barriers, and without having to carry large amounts of cash.
This not only reduces the risk of customers carrying cash but also provides customers with consumption overdrafts.
At the same time, it also reduces the pressure of cash management and bank collection at gas stations and also reduces the risk of cash robbery at gas stations.
Account management.
Customers can obtain accumulated points discounts when using petroleum company fuel cards for consumption and can use the petroleum company website to manage personal consumption accounts and redeem points. At the same time, they can also report the loss of electronic payments at any time. For institutional customers, employees’ refueling behavior can be monitored through 24-hour online account services, and refueling consumption authorization can be changed and managed at any time.
Remote control.
In the future, gas stations can effectively achieve remote inventory management and dynamic sales monitoring through real-time online networking. As a store, the gas station only needs to focus on on-site promotions. All inventory monitoring and replenishment can be handled remotely by the superior company or the headquarters. operate.
Internet service.
The gas stations of the future will provide comprehensive network extension services. They can not only provide customers with network link services, such as ATM machines, network self-service terminals (which can provide self-service payment, ticket purchase, transfer, and other network-based service functions), etc. will become a must-have service.
