A Digital Product Approach to Modern Engagement
Petro-Canada, a Suncor business, was being asked to deliver personalization, real-time engagement, and modern digital experiences, but its underlying loyalty platform simply wasn't built for it. Rather than keep upgrading around the edges, the team made a product strategy decision to modernize the foundation first.
Presented at CRMC 2026 by Kris Hayward, Principal Product Manager, Consumer Digital at Suncor, and Heather Daw, Vice President and Head of Client Success at Exchange Solutions, this session walks through how Petro-Canada removed friction from fuel loyalty and shifted from static campaigns to responsive, continuous customer journeys at national scale.
Why Fuel Loyalty Is Different
The Loyalty Paradox
Fuel is high frequency, low switching cost, and extremely price sensitive. Frequent visits do not automatically equal strong loyalty when customers are optimizing for convenience and price.
- • High purchase frequency
- • Low switching cost between brands
- • Extreme price sensitivity
The Real Problem: Friction
The barrier to loyalty was not the reward, it was the effort. Delayed recognition, disconnected channels, and the work required to engage were quietly eroding the customer relationship.
- • Delayed recognition
- • Disconnected channels
- • Effort required to engage
The Results
By reducing friction, enabling real-time engagement, and orchestrating continuous journeys, the modernized program delivered measurable lift:
26%
lift in basket size
56%
lift in transaction frequency
67%
higher spend
5.4X
greater lifetime value
Three Product Truths for Modern Loyalty
The Petro-Canada modernization surfaced principles that apply to any complex, high-frequency loyalty program:
Modernize the Foundation First
Modernization before optimization. You cannot personalize on a platform that was never built for it.
- • Replace batch processing with real-time
- • Retire hard-coded rules
- • Reduce operational complexity
Design for Effort Reduction
Design for less effort, not more features. Fewer steps and faster engagement beat feature density.
- • Fewer steps to value
- • Faster engagement
- • More relevant experiences
Build Ecosystems, Not Monoliths
A modular ecosystem of best-in-class partners preserves the flexibility to keep innovating.
- • Experience and engagement layers
- • Journey orchestration
- • A composable loyalty platform
About This Presentation
What You'll Learn
- Why fuel loyalty demands a different playbook
- How to make the case for modernizing before optimizing
- What real-time loyalty means: recognize, decide, deliver
- How an ecosystem approach scaled across a national network
Perfect For
- Loyalty and product leaders in fuel and convenience
- Digital and CRM teams modernizing legacy platforms
- Executives evaluating build-versus-buy for loyalty
- High-frequency, price-sensitive retail operators
Presented By
Kris Hayward
Principal Product Manager, Consumer Digital, Suncor
Heather Daw
Vice President and Head of Client Success, Exchange Solutions
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