Casey's ventures into new data revenue stream

Casey's is embarking on a new revenue generator this year by selling its customer data to brands.

Driving the news: The Ankeny-based convenience store chain is launching "Casey's Access" — a program allowing brands to pay for access to Casey's data to better target ads to consumers.

How it works: A brand like Pepsi can pay to partner with Casey's Access. From there, they can use the company’s data to create marketing content and see if certain deals prompted customers to purchase something in-store or online.

• Meanwhile, Casey's customers will receive more discounts and custom offers from brands depending on their purchase history, Art Sebastian, VP of digital experience, tells Axios.

The big picture: Over the last six years, Casey's has focused on expanding its digital presence and collecting its own customer data through its app and loyalty program.

• Because of the popularity of the loyalty program, Sebastian said Casey's is one of the first convenience store companies to launch something like this.

What they're saying: "You'd be silly not to go after this, but brands also have to temper their desires for advertising revenue and find that right balance between too much and too little," Frank Beard, retail analyst and host of the "In-Convenience Podcast," tells Axios.

Of note: Sebastian says that in the consumer research they've done, customers were fine with brands having access to their Casey's information as long as the deals and ads are relevant to them.

• "If you only order a sausage pizza every week, we should probably not serve you an ad or an offer with a taco pizza," Sebastian says.

What's next: Revenue from the program could be a "sizable figure" at some point, but Sebastian is not sure when that will happen.

• Casey's Access opens for brands in July.