by John Keller | Aug 30, 2013 | Customer News, Fuel Price Management Solutions, Industry News
For eight years, CSNews has been recognizing the most innovative convenience store chains in the industry with the annual CSNews design awards. This year these CSNews awards include four PriceAdvantage customers: CST Brands, Cruizers, High’s, and Parker’s.
The CST Brands store in Harris County Texas won Best Interior Design. CST Brands (formerly known as Valero) uses PriceAdvantage as their retail fuel software for all their company-owned stores across the United States. The CST Brands fuel price management solution includes fuel price optimization, an integration with GasBuddy OpenStore, and roundtrip price change confirmation to the VeriFone POS and Skyline electronic price signs.
Cruizers won Honorable Mention for a remodel in Raleigh North Carolina. The Cruizers implementation of PriceAdvantage is in the cloud and includes roundtrip price change confirmation to the Gilbarco Passport POS.
High’s won Best Mid-Budget Remodel for their project completed in Edgewater Maryland. High’s uses PriceAdvantage as their retail fuel software across all their stores with complete price change confirmation to the VeriFone and NCR Radiant POS systems.
Parker’s won Best Fountain Presentation for their store in Garden City Georgia. The Parker’s implementation of PriceAdvantage fuel software is also in the cloud, and includes roundtrip price change confirmation to the VeriFone POS and Skyline electronic price signs. The Parker’s solution also includes an integration to GasBuddy OpenStore.
All four of these PriceAdvantage award winners have their fuel price software solution integrated with PDI.
The PriceAdvantage team is proud to have such industry innovators as partners, and we’d like to offer our congratulations to all of them.
by John Keller | Aug 28, 2013 | Fuel Price Management Solutions, Fuel Pricing Software, Industry News
According to AAA, there will be a 4.3% increase in Americans driving 50 miles or more from home this Labor Day holiday. That means between Thursday and Monday we can expect to see more travelers than any year since the recession. The number of Americans driving 50 miles or more is expected to reach 29.2 million, up from 28 million last year.
From a fuel price management perspective, when comparing this year’s numbers to last year’s, it’s important to monitor fuel volumes compared to the same days of week last year, not same date, in order to make sure you are getting your share of the increased pie this weekend. Strategies may including sitting with slightly higher margins in order to make the most of the weekend, in the face of increased traffic. Or they may include going for volume to make up for lost opportunities earlier in the year.
The key takeaway is to be prepared with best-in-class fuel pricing software to make quick pricing adjustments as needed, in order to maximize the great opportunity this weekend provides. Oh, and on a personal note, it’s best to have access to this fuel pricing software insight from a mobile device so you can have some fun this weekend, too.
by John Keller | Aug 2, 2013 | Fuel Price Management Solutions, Fuel Price Optimization, Retail Fuel Margins
OPIS reported this week that average retail fuel margins across the US added to the gains of last week and increased by $0.038 to $0.214 per gallon. That makes for an $0.114 increase from just two weeks ago when retail fuel margins were at an abysmal $0.100 per gallon.
Though the increase in margins this week did not bring retail fuel averages to the levels of July 5 when margins were at the highest level of the year at $0.302 per gallon, the increase did raise year to date margins to $0.178 and the Q2 average to $0.193. The six week margin average stands at a strong $0.206 per gallon.
Considering the prediction for increased retail fuel prices by many industry analysts, margins this week didn’t suffer by any such retail fuel price rise. Hopefully retail fuel prices can remain steady throughout the summer and make for a profitable season.
by John Keller | Jul 23, 2013 | Customer News, Fuel Price Management Solutions, Fuel Pricing Software
The PriceAdvantage team would like to welcome Vintners Distributors as the latest member of our partner family. Vintners Distributors selected the patented PriceAdvantage fuel price management solution to replace their third party fuels price management and optimization solution that is going away.
The Vintners Distributors fuel software solution will integrate PriceAdvantage with PDI running on the back office, and Gilbarco Passport and VeriFone Sapphire POS systems at the stores, to provide true closed loop fuel price management with confirmation. This implementation will again be a hosted fuel software solution in the cloud.
Vintners Distributors is based in Fremont, California and operates c-stores across the state of California.
by John Keller | Jul 23, 2013 | Customer News, Fuel Price Management Solutions
The PriceAdvantage team would like to offer our congratulations to Rutter’s for opening their newest location. The newest store is the largest in the Rutter’s chain, and brings the Rutter’s total store count to 58.
Rutter’s has been a long time PriceAdvantage customer, using the patented fuel pricing technology from Skyline to manage retail fuel price changes from Rutter’s headquarters to the NCR (Radiant) POS, pump, and Skyline electronic price sign. Rutter’s was an early adapter of the PriceAdvantage integration to GasBuddy OpenStore in 2011.
Scott Hartman, CEO and President of Rutter’s was inducted into the PCATS Hall of Fame in March of this year in recognition of his industry thought leadership. We look forward to our ongoing partnership with Rutter’s, and the mutual success and growth it continues to bring.
by John Keller | Jul 19, 2013 | Fuel Price Management Solutions, Fuel Price Optimization, Fuel Pricing Software, Fuel Pricing Strategy
The ability to make one-click price changes at all retail fuels locations is critical when optimizing fuel prices because it reduces the potential for human keying errors, streamlines the overall fuel pricing process, and ensures maximum fuel profitability. Retail fuel managers frequently face the frustration of not being able to react quickly enough to changing market conditions. Interference, be it from technology or the environment, can hold back price changes, and prevent the optimized prices from reaching the street. By the time the prices do change, it may be too late, as the competition has already leapfrogged to a new price based on newer market fluctuations.
A centralized process for managing fuel price changes to all locations removes the store manager from the loop and increases speed-to-the-street. Tracking and analyzing fuel prices can now be done by a fuel analyst at headquarters giving store managers more face time to interact with customers. By leveraging technology and improving traditional company processes, these overburdened store managers can be freed up to oversee tasks within the store, more effectively handle store operations, and provide better customer service.
The ability to automate fuel price changes at the POS, fuel pumps, and electronic price displays is one key differentiator between the patented PriceAdvantage SMART fuel pricing software solution and other solutions in the industry. The ability to immediately execute price changes within a region, location, or market means you have the right strategy prices in place at the right time to offset your competition. Traditional fuel pricing models relay fuel price changes gradually from one channel to another, allowing for interruptions, miscommunication, human error, and delay after delay. Removing store managers from the critical path eliminates these delays by creating a direct channel from pricing to implementation.
The patented PriceAdvantage SMART fuel price management solution provides analysis of the competitive landscape and a complete picture of the optimal prices in each market. Then fuel managers can use PriceAdvantage to automate the entire fuel price change execution process, including price change confirmation at the POS, sign and pumps, to maximize overall fuel profitability. PriceAdvantage provides a complete picture of the playing field, allowing fuel managers to attain true fuels price optimization day in and day out.