THE GROWING IMPORTANCE OF PETROL STATIONS AS CHANNELS FOR EXPANDING THE RETAIL SERVICES Petra Šafranić, Kristina Petljak and Dora Naletina University of Zagreb, Faculty of Economics and Business Zagreb, Croatia E-mail: petra1407@gmail.com; kpetljak@efzg.hr; dora.naletina@efzg.hr Abstract The purpose of this paper is to explain the growing importance and significance of petrol stations as channels for expanding retail services. As the popularity of petrol stations as a form of retail has been growing over the years, and due to the changed patterns of consumer behaviour, petrol stations are gaining the importance as channels for expansion of additional retail services, such as fast moving consumer goods shopping and fresh corners. The paper elaborates on the significance of retail at petrol stations, with focus on success factors of petrol stations, the importance of customer satisfaction, education and training of employees, technology advancement. We then illustrate and explain the development of traditional fuel retail at petrol stations with the trend of lowering costs through self- service and self-payment of the fuel, as well as with the differentiation of services. Our study focuses on the overview of the existing research on the importance of petrol stations and petrol retailing, with the conclusion that this niche of the research area is still quite an under-researched topic. Key words: petrol retailing, petrol stations, retail services, fast moving consumer goods, fresh corner.