by John Keller | Dec 15, 2016 | Customer News, Fuel Price Management Solutions, Fuel Pricing Software, Fuel Pricing Strategy, Fuel Pricing Technology, Fuel Software
The PriceAdvantage team would like to welcome Mountain Express as our newest customer and partner. Mountain Express operates in a commission model, as a wholesale distributor. The company will utilize PriceAdvantage to streamline and automate site-specific fuel pricing strategies for 70 commission sites throughout the United States.
Mountain Express selected PriceAdvantage based on the software’s ability to consolidate critical market data, such as OPIS data feeds and wholesale replacement costs, to help optimize fuel prices then push those prices to the store point-of-sale system, price signs, and pumps and then finally verify that those price changes were made. Removal of store staff from the pricing process makes Mountain Express attractive to retailers who are interested in the commission model and will help fuel the chain’s future growth.
“Our business model is very attractive to retailers interested in converting to commission sites. By automating fuel pricing from our headquarters to each store site, we alleviate store personnel from the time-consuming task of conducting competitor surveys and posting daily prices,” shared Ali Husain, Mountain Express COO. “Additionally, PriceAdvantage allows us to utilize our own algorithm and pricing strategies to establish competitive prices that will attract customers, give them choices, entice them to loyalty programs and deliver a first class consumer experience – as well as help us maximize fuel volumes and profitability.”
by John Keller | Sep 20, 2016 | Fuel Price Management, Fuel Pricing Software, Fuel Pricing Strategy, Industry News
The Colonial Pipeline leak last week continues to impact supplies in the Southeastern United States, especially in Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee, North Carolina and South Carolina. According to AAA, Georgia fuel prices rose $.05 per gallon overnight, but consumers report increases of $.20 per gallon. Alabama Governor Robert Bentley said Monday that gas prices in parts of Alabama rose 20 cents over the weekend, but the governor says he didn’t consider that price gouging. North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper on Monday urged North Carolina consumers to report gas prices that seem unreasonably high; over 400 consumers have filed complaints.
Some chains are without fuel in specific areas. A QuikTrip spokesman reported 21 of the 37 stores in the Charlotte, North Carolina area were out of unleaded gas Monday afternoon. In metro Atlanta, more than 60 of the 131 QuikTrip stores were also out of unleaded gas Monday afternoon. QuikTrip is keeping a list on its website of stores in both markets that have gas available.
On that page, QuikTrip writes “Due to supply issues caused by a major pipeline break in the Southeast, several stores are currently out of Regular and Premium Unleaded gasoline. The stores listed below DO have gasoline. Please note we are doing our best to keep this up to date, however this is a very dynamic situation. We apologize if the list below is inaccurate.”
What does this mean from a fuel price management perspective? Four things:
- More than ever it’s critical to keep a close watch on how the competition is priced, since market pricing can change multiple times a day.
- Executing new prices to the street, sometimes multiple times a day in order to keep up with market conditions, is vital.
- Maintaining a complete fuel pricing audit trail for every location, especially comparing prices to the competition, is important if the government ever makes an accusation of price gouging.
- When comparing this time period to previous and future years, it’s important to mark these days as a time when there was a supply crunch. These extraordinary circumstances must be taken into consideration when comparing volumes and margins, since they’re likely to be anything but normal. It is these kinds of special events that can wreak havoc on economic models.
PriceAdvantage makes it easy to track market price moves, and to execute new prices to the street in a hurry. PriceAdvantage reports make quick order of providing audit trails if the government comes knocking. And in the PriceAdvantage analysis views, it’s easy to see notes that you can enter to designate these days as being out of the ordinary.
These are the days when a PriceAdvantage system pays for itself many times over.
by John Keller | Jun 15, 2016 | Fuel Price Management, Fuel Price Optimization, Fuel Pricing Strategy, Industry News
According to the latest report from the US Energy Information Administration, US weekly gasoline demand continues its steady growth from 2015. For the week ending June 10, 2016, supplied finished motor gasoline hit 9,762 thousand barrels per day. That number ties the all time high set August 17, 2007. The third all time high was a month ago on May 13, 2016 when gasoline demand reached 9755 thousand barrels per day. These recorded volumes go back to February 1991.
Year to date, these numbers are 4% above 2015.
What does this mean from a fuel price management perspective? Business may be a little easier to come by right now, as long as you watch margins carefully. During this time of revenue gains on the fuel side, now is the time to make investments in retail fuel management software like PriceAdvantage so that when profits turn more lean, you’ll be better prepared to maximize overall store profitability.
by John Keller | Jun 9, 2016 | Fuel Price Management, Fuel Price Management Solutions, Fuel Price Optimization, Fuel Pricing Strategy, Fuel Pricing Technology, Fuel Software, Retail Fuel Margins
Convenience Store Decisions published the results of a study from Market Force that identifies the key factors that drive customers to select their favorite fuel retailers. Over 10,000 consumers were surveyed. Approximately 73% were women and 27% were men.
The results were split into two categories: Convenience Stores and Big Box (including grocery stores). When asked where did they last visit for their most recent trip to refuel, 71% visited a c-store, and 28% visited a big-box retailer.
The key determining factors for selecting a fuel retailer were
- Price
- Payment Options
- Fuel Quality
- Ease of Entering and Exiting
“The brands are tightly clustered in nearly every category, which shows just how fiercely competitive this industry is,” said Cheryl Flink, chief strategy officer for Market Force Information. “With drivers having so many options to choose from, gas stations and convenience stores must excel in areas beyond price, such as offering multiple payment options or specialty foods to attract loyal, repeat customers.”
What does this mean from a fuel price management perspective? When determining fuel pricing strategies, the strategy of gaining volumes simply by offering low prices may not be the best way to optimize overall store profits. Take into account the competitive strengths and weaknesses of each location in terms of the consumer determining factors listed above, and see if the market will bear higher margins based on what the store has to offer. Use fuel pricing software like PriceAdvantage to experiment with different strategies. Execute the fuel pricing strategies so you can be sure every store is always priced where you want it to be all the time. And monitor store results with fuel volume and margin analysis, the correlation between forecourt and in-store transactions, and competitor behavior such as which competitor is first to lead and which typically follows.
PriceAdvantage allows you to deliver retail fuel excellence, and develop loyal customers who are delighted to recommend your stores to others.
by John Keller | May 7, 2016 | Customer News, Fuel Price Management, Fuel Price Optimization, Fuel Pricing Software, Fuel Pricing Strategy, Fuel Pricing Technology, Fuel Software
In the May 6, 2016 financial report, PriceAdvantage customer CST Brands reported that Gross Profit on fuel sales improved to $75 million from $63 million in the same quarter 2015.
Kim Lubel, Chairman and CEO of CST Brands said: “We showed continued strength in fuel gross profits in the U.S., as a result of a favorable fuel margin environment and our continued fuel pricing optimization initiatives.”
We at PriceAdvantage are proud to be a key part of how CST Brands executes on those fuel pricing optimization initiatives. CST Brands has been using PriceAdvantage for pricing all U.S. stores since 2012.
by John Keller | Feb 29, 2016 | Customer News, Fuel Price Management, Fuel Pricing Software, Fuel Pricing Strategy, Fuel Pricing Technology, Fuel Software, PriceAdvantage
The PriceAdvantage team would like to welcome BellStores as our newest customer and partner. BellStores operates 55 convenience stores throughout Ohio.
BellStores selected PriceAdvantage so that BellStores fuel analysts can directly drive fuel price changes based on intimate knowledge of the market and BellStores corporate strategies. By establishing pre-defined store-specific strategies, BellStores can streamline and automate price changes to their VeriFone POS systems, pumps, and electronic gas price signs – allowing the fuel retailer to execute faster, more informed price changes.
Like most PriceAdvantage customers, BellStores selected the SaaS offering in the cloud for the low upfront cost, ease of implementation, and the maintenance and infrastructure cost benefits.
Doug Combs, Vice President at BellStores said “To remain competitive, we needed to replace the time-consuming manual processes of collecting competitive data and communicating new prices. PriceAdvantage will help us streamline and automate competitive surveys and posting new prices. And the fact that I can do this from my phone or tablet is really exciting.”
Welcome BellStores – we look forward to our ongoing partnership!
