Think about your neighbourhood convenience store. Its secret sauce is simple: it’s everywhere. By saturating every street corner and office cluster, these stores become a natural part of our daily rhythm, optimising logistics while staying top-of-mind for consumers.

But petrol station convenience stores (C-stores) have always played by a different set of rules. They didn’t pick their spots because of retail foot traffic; they are there because, well, that’s where the fuel tanks are. For decades, we only stepped inside because we had to fill up. It was convenient by necessity, not by choice.

But the winds are shifting. And they’re blowing far beyond the smell of petrol.

The great pivot: From “pump and go” to “stay and consume”

As the global energy transition picks up pace, the traditional “big oil” retail model is facing a structural shake-up.

McKinsey expects the global fossil-fuel retail value pool to shrink from US$88 billion in 2019 to US$79 billion by 2030. Meanwhile, Non-Fuel Retail (NFR) is the new frontier, with Asia expected to be one of the fast growing regions.

What’s driving this is straightforward:

• EV adoption is extending dwell time. The customer journey is shifting from a 3–5 minute “pump-and-go” stop to a 20-minute-plus “plug-in-and-wait” visit.
• Fuel margins are under pressure. Price transparency and intense competition keep spreads thin, leaving little room for profit growth at the pump.

Together, these changes flip the logic of the site. When customers stay longer, the shop stops being a “nice add-on” and becomes central to protecting site-level profitability.

Global benchmarks: The “retail-first” future

In mature markets, the transition is already well underway. Across Europe and North Asia (Japan/South Korea), over 80 per cent of stations are integrated retail hubs, with non-fuel sales contributing roughly 40 per cent of total profits.

The US model is perhaps the most evolved. With over 90 per cent of stations operating C-stores, the “Forecourt + QSR (Quick Service Restaurant) + Coffee” combo is the real breadwinner. The pumps outside are essentially a loss-leader to drive traffic to the high-margin fresh food and coffee inside.

Also Read: Singapore’s green future – Are homes and condominiums ready for EVs?

The China context: Scale meets opportunity

China presents a different picture: very large networks, but non-fuel productivity is still catching up.

By footprint, Sinopec’s Easy Joy is reported at around 28,000 stores, and PetroChina’s uSmile at over 20,000. But scale alone does not guarantee retail strength.

Take Sinopec as an example. The company rolled out its non-fuel strategy in 2006, partnered with McDonald’s on drive-thru concepts that same year, established its Easy Joy convenience chain in 2008, and entered the freshly brewed coffee segment in 2019. In its 2023 annual report, Sinopec disclosed that non-fuel revenue reached tens of billions of RMB, just 2.3 per cent of the marketing and distribution segment’s total revenue, yet contributed roughly 18 per cent of the segment’s profit (more than RMB 4.5 billion (US$625 million)).

This proves that the future isn’t in the tank. It’s on the shelves.

The way forward: Evolving into lifestyle “super-nodes”

The EV revolution is doing more than just changing engines; it is creating a brand-new “Dwell Economy.” When a 3-minute fuel stop turns into a 20-to-40-minute charge, the “ceiling” for what you can sell a customer rises exponentially.

To capture this, the forecourt must evolve. Here are the four shifts that matter most:

From “one store” to “multiple missions”

Forecourts are adding missions quickly: coffee and hot food, car wash and basic automotive services, parcel drop-off and pick-up, and even small community services. Operating models are evolving too, with more shop-in-shop, leasing, and partnerships.

A simple way to frame it: forecourts are learning to monetise time, not just transactions. Every extra minute a customer spends on-site is a fresh opportunity for margin.

A natural fit for instant retail

Petrol stations have built-in advantages for on-demand fulfilment: high visibility, easy roadside access, ample parking, and existing retail space. For any brand building a last-mile network, the forecourt is the ultimate distribution node.

This is why we’re seeing major delivery platforms partner with fuel retailers like Easy Joy. By turning the forecourt into a local fulfilment point, the station becomes a vital part of the city’s logistics layer, serving customers who might not even be on the premises.

Also Read: Is India on the verge of shifting gears to EVs?

Digital is no longer optional

In forecourt retail, digital used to mean faster checkout and more accurate inventory. That is now table stakes. The bigger value is improving decision-making at scale.

To navigate this, Sinopec’s Easy Joy partnered with Dmall, a global provider of AI-driven retail digitalisation solutions, to move beyond basic automation to true data-driven execution.

This isn’t just about “smart shelves”. It’s about building a “People-Vehicle-Life” ecosystem. By unifying data across fuelling, charging, and dining, the station stops waiting for random purchases and starts predicting them.

Think of it as a dynamic intervention: the moment a driver initiates a charge, the system calculates their 30-minute dwell time and pushes a tailored offer, perhaps a fresh meal combo or a car grooming service, at exactly the right moment. This digital infrastructure transforms a passive wait into a high-margin, highly operational consumption window.

Conclusion

Forecourt retail is increasingly a combined play across energy, convenience retail, and last-mile fulfilment.

In the future, the best sites won’t be defined only by how much fuel they sell. They’ll be defined by how well they convert traffic into baskets, how many missions they can serve, and how effectively they use the customer’s time on site.

Fuel will still matter, but it won’t be the whole story.

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