After years spent managing disparate systems, retailers will soon transition to connected technologies that help them run more efficiently, writes Gilbarco Veeder-Root’s Austin Lieb, in C-Store Dive.For the full article click on the link at the bottom of the page.
The focus of c-store tech is moving from disruption, like attempts at frictionless checkout, to a focus on resilience and connectivity. Austin Lieb is chief product and technology officer at Gilbarco Veeder-Root, a worldwide technology company focused on retail and commercial fueling operations.
If you walked the floor of any major convenience retail trade show five years ago, the buzz was all about disruption. We were promised that drones, fully autonomous stores and a complete electric vehicle takeover were just around the corner.
Now, as we kick off 2026, the conversation has shifted. We aren’t talking about disruption anymore; we are talking about resilience.
2025 served as a grueling stress test for the c-store industry. We navigated a confusing middle inning of the energy transition, faced a labour market that remained stubbornly tight and battled for the attention of a consumer who is more price-sensitive and digitally savvy than ever. But the biggest friction point I saw last year wasn’t inflation or regulation. It was complexity.
For the better part of a decade, retailers have been taping together disparate technologies to solve individual problems. They bought from one vendor for point-of-sale, another for fuel dispensers, a third for EV charging, a fourth for carwash operations and a fifth for loyalty.
By 2025, that approach hit a wall. The operational overhead of managing these disconnected solutions began to cost more than the problems they were solving.
As we begin 2026, the era of the device is ending. We are entering the era of the connected mobility ecosystem.
To read the full article click here Complexity is the enemy: Why 2026 is about integration, not disruption, in c-store tech | C-Store Dive
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