Your best bet for luring would-be gasoline-only customers into the store is a hot cup of coffee, a new study reveals.  The data addresses a chronic industry problem that started when electronic card readers were installed at gas pumps years ago, making it convenient for customers to gas up without entering the store.

The study is from LIFT Retail Marketing Technology Inc., an Atlanta company providing software and hardware designed to boost impulse purchases.  LIFT studied in-store fuel purchases, at 60 c-stores that use its services. The data revealed:

• The top-selling categories with in-store fuel purchases in order were coffee, cigarettes, lottery and food service. Other notables were energy drinks and carbonated soft drinks.

• Coffee and cigarettes were three times more likely to be purchased with in-store fuel than lottery, food service, energy drinks or carbonated soft drinks.

• Fuel-only transactions represented 20% of the in-store purchases. So a sizable number of customers avoid paying at the pump even if they only want fuel.

• Fuel plus one item represents 5% of in-store purchases, followed by fuel plus two items, 2%; fuel plus 3 items, 1%; and fuel plus 4 or more items, 1%.