Fuel Price Management Insight From New Nielsen Survey

Fuel Price Management Insight From New Nielsen Survey

• Sep 07, 2010
• John Keller
• 0

CSP Daily News reported today the findings of a new Nielsen online survey. The survey results directly speak to fuel price management strategies at c-stores:

1. 45% of households are “diligently seeking” lower fuel prices
2. 63% of households combat high fuel prices by combining errands and trips
3. 85% of households buy their fuel from c-stores /gas stations
4. 79% of customers who buy fuel from c-stores / gas stations do so because of lower fuel prices
5. 67% of customers who buy fuel from c-stores / gas stations do so because of the convenient location
6. 14% of customers who buy fuel from c-stores /gas stations do so because of shopper loyalty programs

These results may not reveal revolutionary new insights into the customer behavior of buying fuel, but they do reinforce key aspects of well-known fuel pricing strategies:

1. Location matters – shoppers will fuel up at your location as part of a broader errand run, especially if it truly is at a convenient location
2. People’s fuel buying habits have not switched out of recession mode – they’re still shopping around for the best fuel price

As retail businesses come and go, so do consumer traffic patterns. Fuel price optimization strategies must adjust to react to these traffic patterns. Sometimes Fuel Managers can even use lower fuel prices to proactively alter these traffic patterns. Successful Fuel Managers rely more than ever on fuel pricing software such as PriceAdvantage to reveal the relative success of their fuel price adjustments.

Comments are closed.