The benefits of offering a forecourt cashpoint have been laid bare by a survey of thousands of users of petrol station ATMs, with the data indicating three quarters of visitors stop at a site purely because it offers the facility.
The research, by cashpoint firm NCR Atleos, saw 16,500 visitors using ATMs at Shell forecourts polled, with 47% saying the stop at a site more often if it has a cashpoint.
Some 67% told the pollsters an ATM makes them more likely to return to a petrol station, with 48% saying they use the site’s facility regularly, and 27% adding that they would spend cash withdrawn from a machine at the forecourt shop; an identical proposition said taking cash out lead them to spend more, too.
The UK has lost around 20,000 ATMs over the last decade, but Shell recently gave a vote of confidence to the machines, renewing its contract with NCR Atleos for the 408 cashpoints it hosts across its portfolio of 561 company-owned forecourts.
Janine Albrecht-Webb, Shell’s UK general manager for mobility & convenience, says that forecourts “are becoming much more than places to refuel”, and that having one on-site “removes friction” for customers. She adds: “As traditional cash access points become less common, there is a real opportunity for forecourts to play a bigger role in keeping cash convenient and accessible.”
Neil Martin, managing director at NCR Atleos UK, Ireland, Benelux, Baltics and Nordics, describes cashpoints as “the connective tissue between consumers, retailers and local services”.
