by Grant Garrison | Aug 26, 2013 | Fuel Price Management, Fuel Pricing Software, PriceAdvantage
Everybody’s out there looking for pennies: Fuel customers are using mobile apps and will make challenging left turns for the promise of saving just a few pennies on a fill-up. Amid this, fuel retailers look for ways to wring a few pennies of profit from the sale. It’s a game won or lost on small increments, and folks on both sides of the counter know that those pennies add up.
In the past few years, discovering the “sweet spot” that brings customers off the street and grows fuel sale volume and profit has become easier. OPIS- and PDI-integrated tools let everybody from single-store operators to chains with hundreds of locations quickly access real-time competitive data. With a click, they can know which stores or regions are underperforming. They can easily see where they’re making the most or least money and where their pricing is getting beat by competitors down the street or miles away.
Real-time insight into volume, margin, and gallon performance gives leaders the ammunition they need to formulate an agile pricing strategy—on a laptop, tablet, or smartphone. But that’s only half the battle. That price now has to go to every POS, pump, and sign in every store. And the longer it takes the more money you lose.
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by Grant Garrison | Jul 12, 2013 | Fuel Price Management, Fuel Price Management Solutions, Fuel Price Optimization, Fuel Pricing Software
The key to an effective fuel price management system is total integration between all channels which gives managers the ability to set optimal prices for each region with maximum ease. To enable this premium level of command and control, retail fuels companies need to follow several strategies for productive price management. As a quick reference guide, the fuel price management experts at PriceAdvantage have compiled a list of 4 strategies for fuel price command and control.
1. Mobile Integration
Relying on outdated technology to keep track of price changes is an unsustainable practice. It’s worth making an investment in new technology considering the degree of additional control and flexibility it provides. Mobile technology, such as Smartphones or tablets, allows fuel managers to enact immediate price changes from anywhere. Mobile integration ensures that fuel managers will receive automatic alerts when surveys are overdue, price changes are late, or whenever any channel interruptions occur. By integrating their fuel pricing software with mobile technology, fuel managers can save time and stay informed of competitor price moves.
2. Tracking with Technology
Using fuel pricing software to manage and optimize fuel pricing is straightforward when managers apply professional software. Technology can provide complex, actionable outputs from records on competitor pricing history, c-store price history, historical fuel costs, and fuel volume history and targets. It’s not enough to make sure software is accessible from anywhere. The right fuel pricing tool will also provide automated tracking for the entire delivery cycle. A fuel price management system should track each and every process from collection of surveys to price changes, showing users where opportunity losses are occurring, and increasing speed-to-the-street.
3. Forecasting trends
Forecasting trends in the fuel pricing market shouldn’t be based on hunches, but on precise economic models developed by industry experts. An efficient model should apply top-notch analytics based on historical fuel prices, and make an educated evaluation of arising patterns from this past competitive landscape. Forecast modeling places control in the hands of those who understand the data best.
4. Pricing Optimization
An integration of the three strategies listed above will lead to total fuel pricing optimization. Continual automated monitoring, notifications of service interruptions, technology integration, well-crafted pricing models and daily confirmation alerts are vital for an efficient fuel price management system. However, these tools become less effective if they do not allow the analyst to obtain results based on a selected period of time. Analysis and optimization economic models must provide results based on varying historical references in order to accommodate market changes caused by seasonal demographics, and varying competitor influences. Always apply the latest technological solutions, with total report customization control, to gain the greatest advantage over the competition.
These are four indispensable strategies available to managers for maximizing fuel pricing command and control. By incorporating this type of approach into your fuel operations and continually seeking new upgrades to internal processes, you can be certain that your fuel price management system is keeping you ahead of the competition.
by Grant Garrison | May 16, 2013 | Fuel Price Management Solutions, Fuel Software, Industry News
Managers who want to know the secret to fuel pricing at its best should be aware that the answer has always been right in front of them. Advancements in corporate technology and software, now more affordable than ever before, have made fuel price tracking and implementation a much simpler process. Most market leaders have already begun implementing fuel price management and media marketing solutions. In order to achieve a new level of efficiency, managers must stay ahead of their competitors through advanced fuel pricing technology.
Be it fuel pumps, mobile apps, GasBuddy integration or electronic price signs, fuel pricing technology is what’s driving the industry into the future. In just a few years the game has changed completely. Development and manufacture of electronic pricing solutions has taken off, expanding the products available to retail fuel locations. The potential boost for the c-tore industry is huge, as these tools greatly increase speed-to-the-street and allow fuel managers to make changes through mobile technology from any location. If they happen to hear of a coming shift in demand while out on the road, they can immediately make the change thanks to advances in technology.
The ability to monitor fuel price tracking and centralization of pricing changes has proven invaluable for retail fuel companies. According to Scott Hartman, CEO of Rutter’s Farm stores, new fuel pricing technology has enabled them to make “critical retail fuel pricing decisions while greatly enhancing customers’ access to our fuel prices. Rutter’s can now initiate real-time price synchronization from headquarters to the street and the web in a matter of minutes.” Obtaining fuel pricing in mere moments is now a reality where it had once been a dream.
Pricing software tools give a much better picture of regional fuel prices history than relying on outdated tracking methods. The technology is now designed to increase the effectiveness of the entire fuel pricing process. An efficient fuel pricing solution is the real key! PriceAdvantage software provides this through automation of all processes from collection of competitive surveys, to sophisticated analysis for best price determination, and rapid speed-to-the-street price change execution. This comprehensive digital solution enables synchronized fuel pricing from any location through a branded mobile application, providing two-way communication between owners and their customers using web technologies.
If you’re still holding back on a technology upgrade, for fear of the initial cost, consider this. Retail fuel stations which apply superior pricing technology continually stay ahead of competitors and the industry. By publishing prices to Gasbuddy through PriceAdvantage, c-store owners gain greater specialization while increasing synchronization. The changes are immediate, cost-effective, and a boon to repeat business.
For more examples of how technology improves fuel pricing, review our blog post on Practical “Closed Loop” Fuel Price Management.
by Grant Garrison | May 2, 2013 | Fuel Price Management, Fuel Price Optimization, Fuel Pricing Software, Fuel Pricing Strategy, Fuel Pricing Technology
Speed is one of the key components of pricing optimization, as reacting to market changes faster than competitors will always keep retail fuels managers ahead of the game. Tracking the pricing strategy of all local competition enables chains to meet consumer demand with greater accuracy and efficiency. The days of sending a rep to drive around and check the prices at other stations are long gone. Now, the best possible method of ensuring pricing optimization is with application of a fuel pricing software solution.
Software offers many benefits which are unavailable with traditional fuel price analysis. Trying to track price changes via a self-developed system leads to headaches and aggravation for everyone involved. No department can be expected to become the go-to source for fuel pricing information. Tracking and recording all the changing data with in-house tools will gradually increase in complexity until it builds to total chaos. Instead of that, software pricing integration tools provide a one-stop hub where managers can access the data they need and apply it to their pricing strategy.
In order to effectively track competitor price changes, companies should obtain access to data provided by a resource such as the OPIS Radius Report. This real-time information service can gather retail fuels prices for all competitor stations within a region. Be it a 2-mile, 5-mile, or 10-mile radius, managers can use these tools to track fuel prices history in their operating environment and respond to price changes without ever leaving headquarters. It’s easier and more intelligent than it’s ever been to monitor the competition, understand their pricing strategy, and beat them to the market.
Price tracking technology has completely changed the way in which we size up the competition in the retail fuels market. Pricing reports can now be integrated with software such as PriceAdvantage to pull content directly from the report and present the data in an easily understandable interface. Making intelligent pricing decisions is no longer a complex, labor intensive task, but an effortless one. Managers can now maximize their pricing optimization by gathering the data online, porting it into comprehensive software solutions, and then instantly push any price changes to the street.
This capability to instantly visualize competitor behavior gives even non tech-savvy managers an edge in their market. It gives them the tools to react to trends and market shifts before the competition even knows what they’re doing. By the time other regional chains utilizing outdated software can react to these new conditions, the company with the right tools can be leapfrogging them to the next trend.
Don’t settle for substandard systems or business processes. Technology has made it easier than ever before to define strategy and outmaneuver competitors. Stop chasing prices and make the competition start chasing you!
