One platform for the c-store, forecourt and newsagent — supplier ordering, back-room stock, the offline-first till, click-and-collect and the ledger, from 1 store to 500.
FMCG, fresh food, building supplies, animal-health and gifting — on the same platform.
Industry challenges
Where convenience retail leaks the margin.
The same four leaks show up across c-stores, forecourt counters and high-street independents — and convenience store software earns its place only if it closes all four.
POS down means basket walks
Internet flakes; payments stop. Cashiers fall back to paper, queue lengthens, customers abandon basket and leave. Industry-typical 1–3% of daily sales walk out when tills go offline.
Cash drift on dense, fast routes
High-volume cash never tied back to denominations; shift change without a clean handover; variance discovered at month-end. 3–5% daily cash variance without a denomination close.
Stock that doesn’t tie to the till
Sell-through never updates back-room stock; supplier reorder runs on memory; expiry on chiller and fresh runs unmanaged. The reorder is gut feel and the front-of-shelf shows it.
Forecourt is a different beast
Fuel-station retail mixes high-frequency low-margin SKUs, age-gated lines (alcohol, tobacco, lottery) and 24/7 trading. A petrol station needs forecourt EPOS — dedicated POS layouts, shift discipline, fuel-system integration. A generic till doesn’t cut it.
How RouteMagic helps
The shelf empties, the till keeps scanning, and the estate stays in view.
Sell-through ties to the reorder; the lane trades on whether the line holds.
Shelf-gap reorder & supplier ordering
The reorder auto-builds from real depletion per supplier and per SKU across the estate, and standing orders pre-commit the cadence so buyers touch only exceptions.
Autoreorder build
Per-suppliersplit
Estate-widedepletion data
Pricing, promotions & loyalty
Prices, promotions and loyalty rules set centrally push to every lane with per-region overrides, so the same scheme runs across the estate and the forecourt.
Centralprice control
Per-regionoverrides
At-tillloyalty
Goods-in & back-room stock
Deliveries are booked in against the order so discrepancies flag on receipt, with expiry captured for chiller and fresh and counts keeping the back-room figure honest.
Scangoods-in
Liveback-room stock
Trackedchiller expiry
EPOS till trading, offline-tolerant
The till scans in under three seconds with cash, card, age-gating and loyalty on one screen, and keeps trading on cached data when the line drops — no basket walk-out.
<3sper-item scan
Offlinekeeps trading
Per-SKUage-gate
Click & collect and local delivery
Online, collect and delivery orders write to one customer and one stock position, with collect baskets picked from the back-room and local delivery routed to the driver.
1stock position
Pickto collection
Routedlocal delivery
Cash close, settle & account
Each cashier closes by denomination with variance flagged, and sales and payments post to the ledger MTD-ready, held in built-in accounting or synced to your package.
15 minEOD cash close
MTDVAT-ready
5accounts packages
Multi-store dashboards & AI
Live dashboards across the estate drill from the headline to the single transaction, while demand forecasting feeds the reorder and end-of-day reconciliation runs itself.
Livedashboards
Forecastdemand-led reorder
Autoreconciliation
Key outcomes
What convenience operators target after switching.
Industry-typical benchmarks RouteMagic convenience and forecourt operators aim at on the platform.
<3sPer-item scan at the till15 minEnd-of-day cash close−97%Cash variance on lane1 → 500Stores on one tenant
Customer stories
14% stock shrinkage eliminated, two to three hours back a day, stock live across the estate.
Bits ‘N’ Bobs supplies convenience stores across the North West, with reps restocking spinner stands on every call — the same depletion-to-reorder loop that decides whether a c-store shelf is full or empty. Stock was run on trust and paper until RouteMagic put every transaction on one live ledger. Shrinkage of 14% was eliminated, the team got two to three hours back a day, and the office now holds 100% real-time stock visibility across every territory.
The questions a convenience operator actually asks.
Whether the platform fits, how the rollout goes, and what the deal looks like.
What is the difference between POS and EPOS?
A POS (point of sale) is where the sale is taken; an EPOS (electronic point of sale) is the software-driven version that ties the till to stock, pricing, loyalty and reporting in one system. RouteMagic is an EPOS platform — every scan updates back-room stock and the ledger, not just the cash drawer, so the figures behind the shelf stay real.
What is the best POS system for a convenience store?
The best fit for a c-store is a platform built for fast, age-gated, often offline trading rather than a generic till box. Judge it on offline-first resilience, age-gating at the till, denomination cash close and one estate view from 1 store to 500. RouteMagic covers all four on one tenant, and the same engine runs forecourts and newsagents. For a like-for-like till feature set, see our retail POS software.
How much does a convenience store EPOS system cost?
RouteMagic is priced per user per month, billed monthly — hardware-light, with no chain-only features locked behind a higher tier. The single store pays for what it runs and an estate adds per-region overrides and central reporting without a replatform. Book a walkthrough for a quote shaped to your store count and formats.
Does the till keep working when the internet drops?
Yes. The offline-first till caches pricing, promotions and loyalty on each lane, so it keeps scanning the barcode, taking cash and card, and earning loyalty with no signal, then syncs to HQ on reconnect. No queue drop-off and no basket walk-out when the line flakes — the failure mode that costs an ordinary electronic cash register its takings.
Can a single-store operator use this?
Yes — one tenant scales from 1 store to 500. Hardware-light setup, owner-friendly onboarding, no chain-only features hidden behind a paywall. The same engine that runs a 500-store chain runs the corner shop.
How does forecourt fuel-system integration work?
Fuel POS link supported via standard forecourt integration patterns — pump authorisation, fuel-grade pricing, post-pay reconciliation. Confirm specific pump-controller compatibility (Wayne, Gilbarco, Tokheim) during the walkthrough.
How are age-gated SKUs handled?
Age-verification prompts at the till per category (alcohol, tobacco, lottery, vapes, energy) with per-jurisdiction rules configurable; soft and hard blocks supported; supervisor override audited. The till tracks the prompt itself, not just the override.
How long to live in one store?
Independent: 2 weeks — SKU master, basic hardware setup, training. Chain pilot: 4–6 weeks; phased rollout per region thereafter.
Will the POS run during shift change?
Yes — per-cashier shift open / close on the same lane. No shutdown between shifts. Outgoing cashier closes by denomination, incoming opens with a fresh float; the lane never stops trading.
Does it suit newsagents, symbol-group stores and small grocers too?
Yes. The same platform runs the classic newsagent (news, scratchcards, top-ups, age-gated lines) and symbol-group stores trading under a fascia, with central pricing and loyalty pushed to every lane. For larger grocery and supermarket formats, our supermarket retail software is the closer fit.
Where does the ROI come from?
Queue uptime (less basket walk-out), cash-variance reduction (cleaner shift handover), and supplier-reorder accuracy (less expiry and stock-out). On forecourt, the fuel-link integration adds reconciliation savings on top.
See it on your own counter
Ready to run the convenience round on one platform?
Walk-through on your own data
30 minutes
We’ll ask about your stores, formats & cash trade first
