Are You Missing Out on Lottery Sales Due to Poor C-Store Management?

Improve Your Lottery Sales With C-Store Management

In regards to c-store management, getting into the fuel-selling game isn’t a hugely profitable venture in and of itself – in the past five years, the National Association of Convenience Stores (NACS) has reported a net margin on fuel sales prior to expenses at 6.2%, with post-expenses bringing profitability down to around a nickel per gallon. So as retailers, convenience stores are always looking for ways to expand services and add point of sale marketing programs that increase profitability. By the numbers, adding lottery ticket sales are a great way to add profitability without crippling infrastructure overhead. Let’s dig into the odds.

It’s No Secret Lottery Sales Are a Profitable Addition

However, for lottery sales, which requires much less infrastructure expenditure, the process has a number of financial benefits, not the least of which being that the convenience store will make a 5%-6% profit – about $0.10-$0.12 for every $2 ticket.

Adding the sale of lottery tickets to a convenience store operation means in a way the operation itself plays the lottery on every ticket sold. While the percentage varies by state – with some capping out at $10,000 and others paying out as high as 1% of total payout – states do pay out commissions to stores selling winning tickets.

Lottery Sales Drive Overall Sales

Adding lottery sales to your product mix has other residual beneficial effects across your operation. In addition to the financial gains from lottery ticket sales, research performed by the NACS shows that 95% of lottery ticket buyers will buy at least one additional item while visiting the convenience store. This behavior translates to a spend by lottery customers 65% higher than non-lottery customers.

Software Solutions for Managing Lottery Sales

Adding lottery ticket sales to your convenience store operation might seem like a no-brainer when it comes to profitability, but the associated processes can be very time consuming without the right management tools in place. An effective convenience store management software solution should provide the ability to fold lottery sales management into the same systems used to manage your fuel sales and retail sales, so all of your data and performance metrics are viewable through a single integrated interface. Contact Success Systems to learn more about how to use software to track top-selling lottery games, track ticket receiving and activation, support vendor management, and daily reconciliation activities while increasing your convenience store’s bottom-line profitability at the same time.