Intouch Insight Ltd. (TSXV: INX) (OTCQX: INXSF) (“Intouch” or the “Company”), a leader in customer experiment management solutions, today announced the release of its 2026 C-store Trends Report, identifying the six trends redefining how convenience stores compete for customer visits, loyalty, and operational consistency.
The report, The New Convenience Battleground: C-store Trends Shaping 2026, shows that the traditional “gas-and-go” model is giving way to a broader set of customer missions.
“Convenience stores are no longer competing on proximity alone,” said Cameron Watt, President and CEO at Intouch Insight. “Customers are looking to c-stores for meals, beverages, health-focused options, EV charging, and everyday services. That creates a major opportunity for operators, but only if they can deliver consistently across every location.”
The six trends shaping the convenience store industry in 2026 are:
- Foodservice Continues to Raise the Bar
- Growing Beverage Programs
- A Shift Towards Health and Trust
- The Emergence of Experience-Led Formats
- The EV Transformation of the Forecourt
- Consolidation and Consistency
C-stores Move Beyond the Traditional Stop
Convenience stores are becoming more competitive with restaurants, quick-service brands, specialty beverage concepts, and other retail formats. Nearly 60% of c-stores visited in a recent Intouch Insight audit were serving made-to-order food, while 58% of consumers said they are likely to choose a brand over a closer competitor because of exclusive food items.
Beverages are also becoming a destination category. Intouch Insight survey data found that 75% of consumers had visited a convenience store at least once in the past 30 days primarily to buy a beverage without purchasing fuel or snacks.
As c-stores expand their role in consumers’ routines, some locations are also beginning to function more like “third places,” offering customers reasons to stay longer, return more often, and view the store as more than a transactional stop. Customers are already looking to c-stores for more varied missions, including coffee or fountain beverages, restrooms, prepared foods or fresh meals, and loyalty program offers or app deals.
Execution Becomes the Competitive Battleground
As c-stores expand their roles, execution becomes more complex. The report points to rising customer expectations around food freshness, beverage customization, health-focused options, cleanliness, EV charging, and consistency across locations.
Intouch Insight survey data found that 30% of consumers have increased their preference for high-protein options or smaller, portion-controlled food packaging at convenience stores over the last 12 months. Only 6% of c-store locations in a recent Intouch Insight audit had EV charging stations, indicating that many operators are still in the early stages of adapting the forecourt for longer, more experience-driven visits.
Execution standards must also evolve alongside the store format. As c-stores serve more customer missions, a single universal scorecard may miss the details that matter most. A highway location, food-forward flagship, EV charging site, and tech-enabled urban format may each require different measures of success, from food availability and beverage station cleanliness to restroom conditions, seating, charging reliability, and loyalty experience.
“Execution is not only becoming more difficult but also more important as the c-store model increases in complexity,” said Watt. “As locations move beyond the traditional and begin functioning more like third places, operators need to define what great execution looks like for each format and customer mission. That is how you ensure that strategy execution also creates a stronger, more consistent customer experience across locations.”
