News and Views
Petrol forecourt as a convenience retail destination at WOG and Socar.
WOG and Socar petrol forecourts
By merging contemporary retail interior design with essential grocery shopping and impulse purchases, both oil companies and grocery retailers benefit from increased footfall and profitability.
When the management team of Western Oil Group (WOG), based in Kyiv, Ukraine, appointed us to handle their design and branding services, their goal was to enhance the customer appeal, foot traffic, and profitability of their retail stores at WOG petrol stations. Our brief was to create a customer-centric in-store experience, which involved developing the brand environment, interior design, layout planning, and communication suites for three store formats in central Kyiv.
One key development was the introduction of a pay-at-the-pump service by WOG. This system allows customers to refuel without needing to go inside to pay, reducing queue times at the till and streamlining the in-store shopping experience for those purchasing groceries, snacks, drinks, alcohol, and more.
Following WOG’s briefing, we conducted a competitor review by visiting various city-centre convenience stores. A notable visit was to Socar petrol stations in Baku, Azerbaijan, the leading fuel brand in the region. We were impressed by their modern retail interior, which featured a mix of grocery offerings and freshly prepared meals by in-store chefs.
Armed with insights from our benchmarking phase, we began developing design concepts that spanned a range of retail solutions, from conservative approaches to more progressive ideas. Throughout the project, we crafted the brand environment, detailed layout plans for three prototype stores, and created merchandising display concepts. These designs were refined for implementation as part of WOG’s official "brand manual" in Ukraine.
Our work for WOG included both interior and exterior store design, along with branding, signage, point-of-sale communication materials, lighting systems, and merchandising solutions—all aimed at boosting footfall and profitability.
At Campbell Rigg, we closely follow innovations in grocery retail and consistently seek out fresh brand and interior design concepts. Our team frequently travels across Europe to benchmark best-in-class retailers.
In the past two decades, there has been a shift in the retail landscape of petrol stations. Many traditional oil companies have chosen to focus on their core operations, often franchising their forecourts to independent retailers and handing over the shop component to well-known grocery brands. Simultaneously, supermarket retailers have captured a significant market share by offering discounted fuel to their customers.
Our internal renewal process enables us to continually benchmark and explore the best branding and design practices across industries worldwide.
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